Creative globalization

Creative Globalization


This work is dedicated to the memory of Monique Dobbelaere.
It was written at her bedside and was finished shortly before her
passing. She devoted herself to the study of the arts and their
history, and she always played a central role in the research
programs on which the present contributions are based.


Smart Innovation Set
coordinated by
Dimitri Uzunidis

Volume 16

Creative Globalization

Stéphane Callens


First published 2018 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as
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© ISTE Ltd 2018
The rights of Stéphane Callens to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by him in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018937007
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78630-227-4


Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ix

Chapter 1. Globalization and Innovation: An Intellectual
Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1

1.1. Globalization: theoretical approaches . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.1. The “Supply” approach: Kenichi Ohmae . . . . . . .
1.1.2. The “Political Action” approach: Zygmunt Bauman .
1.1.3. The “system” approach: Ulrich Beck . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.4. Theoretical approaches before 1986 . . . . . . . . . .
1.2. Industrial risks in the world: catastrophes . . . . . . . . .
1.3. Work accidents around the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Chapter 2. Scaling Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31

2.1. As societies choose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2. The sociotechnical system of the electric vehicle . . . . . . . . .
2.2.1. Light vehicle design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.2. Decisive factors in the electric vehicle’s acceptability . . . .
2.3. Inglehart’s postmaterialist values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.1. Cultural values and the electric vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.2. Discussions and implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4. Deployment of the electric vehicle and power relations . . . . .
2.4.1. The role of territorial collectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.2. Ulrich Beck’s “cosmopolitan communities of climate risk”
2.4.3. Individuality with multiple affiliations (Beck) . . . . . . . .
2.4.4. Electromobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Creative Globalization

2.4.5. Rural and urban areas in the history of electric
distribution networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.6. Sustainable territorial strategies: limitations of
strategies based on space rationalization . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.7. “Technological conservatism” versus the
“emancipatory catastrophe” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.8. Where and how do climate risk communities emerge? .
2.4.9. Efficiency of local policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.10. The spread of the hydrogen vehicle . . . . . . . . . . .
2.5. The primary electric vehicle markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.5.1. Pioneering markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.5.2. Emerging markets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.5.3. Renewal markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Chapter 3. Born Global . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

73

3.1. Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2. The two worlds of born global organizations . . . . . . . .
3.2.1. Born global firms in regions with a majority of local
entrepreneurship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.2. Born global firms in open regions . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.3. A convergence of organizational form . . . . . . . . .

3.3. The born global organization: a new paradigm . . . . . . .
3.3.1. Redesign of the theoretical bases: intellectual rights,
learning, intercultural distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.2. An entrepreneurial paradigm of simplicity . . . . . . .
3.4. Collaborative economics and born global organizations .
3.4.1. Creative destruction? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4.2. Collaborative economics and the dynamics
of civic spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5. An economy of remoteness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5.1. Birth of the unicorn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5.2. The benefits of remoteness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Chapter 4. Penpushers and Hotheads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

101

4.1. The curse of the company leader . . . . .
4.2. The behavioral finance of attractiveness .
4.2.1. Models with “heuristics and biases” .
4.2.2. Models with preference formation . .
4.2.3. Coordination models . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.4. Argument and limits . . . . . . . . . .

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101
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108


Contents

4.3. The behavioral finances of venture capital .
4.3.1. Models with heuristics and biases . . . .
4.3.2. Preference formation models. . . . . . .
4.3.3. Coordination outside the market. . . . .
4.3.4. The contribution of behavioral
approaches to the analysis of venture capital .

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119

Chapter 5. Innovation and Freedom of Circulation . . . . . . . .

121

5.1. From the dilemma to the trilemma of Myrdal . . . . . .
5.1.1. Innovation systems in globalization: a comparison
of 1997/2017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.1.2. Common markets: two, three and four freedoms . .
5.1.3. Innovation, spatial or social segregation in
common markets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2. Multilateral management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2.1. Migration, wage and commerce: a review
of the literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2.2. Citizenship around the world . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2.3. Institutional outlines of multilateral management .
5.2.4. Citizenship and innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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148

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

153

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

171

Data sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

189

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

193

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Introduction
The Birth of Art

The purpose of this work is to discuss the importance of the
transformations in innovation systems brought about by globalization.
We understand this term as the existence of new macroeconomic
solidarities. These have been problematized since the mid-1980s, with
Kenichi Ohmae’s assessment of a tripolar world [OHM 85].
However, global macroeconomic solidarities have existed for a
very long time. Thus, multiple responses have been offered to the
question of when globalization began. The academic debates in
economic history put forth a date of origin, either that of the complete

coverage of the globe by maritime routes [FLY 04] or that of the start
of economic integration throughout the 19th Century [BÉN 08]. Other
specialists are interested in the relationships between anatomically
modern humans and their environment, and they introduce a caesura
that is major in their eyes: that of the birth of the arts [FLO 17b]. The
presence of anatomically modern humans in Western Europe is
attested by a fossil in a cave in Kent, which dates back to between 44
and 41 kyr (44,000–41,000 years before the present day). The first
globalization is that of a terrestrial expanse that spreads anatomically
modern humans across every imaginable environment, from Australia
to the Arctic Circle. Then came maritime expansion, the Industrial
Revolution and contemporary globalization: however, since the first
terrestrial expansion, the question of innovation has been asked,


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Creative Globalization

because global occupation is only possible because of the discovery of
new methods of life that are appropriate for very different
environments.
The birth of the arts was thus given its rhythm by successive
globalizations and fragmentations. In the 19th Century, the
Mediterranean civilization of antiquity was like the cradle of the arts,
already associating defragmentation or globalization and birth of the
muses. The popular list of the arts generally distinguishes classical
arts (architecture, sculpture, graphic arts, music, literature and poetry)
and modern arts (those since the invention of photography), thereby
setting arts whose invention dates back to the Paleolithic period

against those introduced very recently in terms of the history of
humanity. Due to this double birth, some approaches will focus on the
contemporary aspects and cloud the consideration of origins, as was
the case of Theodor Adorno’s theory of esthetics [ADO 70]; others, on
the other hand, will first question the oldest period, like Georges
Bataille shortly after the discovery of the Lascaux cave [BAT 55].
Why art? For contemporary specialists in prehistory, the responses run
in two different directions, either referring to cultural evolutionism, a
progressive awakening on the occasion of environmental
modifications or a history of beliefs and rites in the tradition of Mircea
Eliade [ELI 64], which leads to the formulation of a hypothesis
associating the translation toward the upper Paleolithic and a
spiritualization of the environment [ELI 74].
Cultural evolutionism could provide a reassuring message: the
shocks from modifications to the environment lead to innovations.
There could be an automatic mechanism associating climatic volatility
and innovation. The periods that form critical times for the formation
of the arts are those with the maximum climatic instability; it is
therefore necessary to explore this first hypothesis.
I.1. Climatic instability and innovation
The birth of the classical arts (music, dance, fine arts and
decorative arts) can be presented in two phases with an intermediary
“leap”. This “leap” took place in the Late Pleistocene (120 to 11.7 kyr),


Introduction

xi

around 45–35 kyr. The Late Pleistocene period was marked by strong

climatic instability, more significant volatility than in the warmer
period that followed it, the Holocene (starting at 11.7 kyr).
Schematically following a long “ocher age” was the period of
territorial expansion for anatomically modern humans, where a
procession of the arts is attested. The populations of different human
groups are low, with a probable regrowth of the anatomically modern
human populations around 50 ka, whereas Eurasia had seen the
growth of the Neanderthals in the previous period. One of the longest
known sequences of anatomically modern humans occupying a site
can be found in the extreme south of the African continent. The
Blombos Cave and the Klipdrift Shelter were used between 108 and
59 kyr [ROB 16]. The ocher age started long before any climatic
disturbance in Blombos. The so-called “Still Bay” is that of the
“stamps”, blocks of engraved ocher most likely used for body
paintings and sophisticated tools made of up bones. The apogee of the
series of cultures on the site can be found between the primary climate
change and after the response of adapting subsistence policies. The
following period, 66–59 kyr, known as “Howiesons Poort”, marked a
clear step backwards. Technologies remained stable while the
environment was constantly instable [ROB 16]. These two periods
include the probable demographic minimum of the modern human
species after a mega-catastrophe dating back 72 kyr.

Figure I.1. The ocher age and climatic instability,
distance in km from sea sites (source: [ROB 16])


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Creative Globalization

The period of the “Howiensons Poort” culture is characterized by
the presence of ostrich eggs engraved through another very long
series, that of the Diepkloof shelter site [TEX 12]. Between 65 kyr and
55 kyr, these eggs were engraved with the same design, made up of
hatchwork at a right angle with two most likely circular strokes. The
ostrich eggs would contain around 1 L and were used as gourds. This
use already seemed to be that of these engraved eggs, some pieces of
which formed a mouthpiece.
Creative activities can be divided into “portable” and “immobile”.
Art from the upper Paleolithic was particularly known for being wall
and cave art, thus “immobile”. The ocher age stands primarily by
“portable” creative activities: jewelry including necklaces, body
paints, tools and ostrich eggs were decorated with geometric figures.
Anati proposed a 13-item nomenclature for prehistoric and tribal art
[ANA 03]; the ocher age is limited to two of these items (artistic
decorations and jewelry), all of which were used in the period of the
birth of the arts.

Middle Paleolithic:
ocher age

B4: Artistic
decoration of
objects
B5: Objects used
to decorate the
body

Upper

Paleolithic

A1: Cave carvings
A2: Cave paintings
A3: High and low reliefs
A4: Statues
A5: Architectural structures definable as
works of art
A6: Geoglyphs and pebble drawings
B1: Monumental furniture
B2: Statuettes
B3: Slabs and tablets
B6: Musical instruments
B7: Furniture and other

Figure I.2. Birth of the types of prehistoric art according
to Anati’s nomenclature


Introduction

xiii

The early days of Middle Paleolithic art also differed according to
the importance of the necessary training. Graphic expression remained
very limited in all production found in Blombos, contrary to that from
the Aurignacians in Eurasia or the “Apollo 11” cave site in Africa.
Musical instruments, like the eight flutes from the Aurignacian sites of
Swabian Jura imply training for both their creation and use
[FLO 17b]. The start of great immobile art has been dated back

39.9 kyr in Indonesia and 37 kyr in Europe (Castanet shelter); the
dates obtained in Africa and Australia are approximately 29 kyr.
A study by Helen Anderson [AND 12] indicated a training experience,
drawings stemming from a relationship to an element of the
environment, thus this would have to be figurative art. This does not
explain why these carvings appear, however.
The level of technology reached around 100 kyr in Blombos
included carefully made spikes for hunting and the preparation of
colored mixtures with pigments [ROB 16]. This level of technology
would then decline only to be fully recovered at the end of the glacial
period, e.g. with the Lascaux hunters from the last glacial maximum.
The small size of the human groups could be an explanation for this
decline phenomenon: explorers in the Pacific Islands found
themselves face to face with very small populations that had
conserved beliefs and cultural objects indicating past experience with
dug-out canoes, while this had disappeared due to a rupture in the
remission of the know-how necessary for naval construction. Work in
genetics indicates the probable presence of a “bottleneck”, a
disappearance of a large part of the anatomically modern human
population due to a mega-catastrophe. The total population of
anatomically modern humans had dropped to around 15,000 people,
reducing genetic diversity. The date proposed for this minimum level
of human demographics is around 72 kyr, with the coldest oscillation
for the southern hemisphere and the explosion of the supervolcano
Toba located on the Equator coming together. The period of engraved
eggs from the Diepkloof shelter corresponds to a warm climatic
rebound in the southern hemisphere around 60 kyr.
Another simultaneous occurrence between the explosion of a
supervolcano and an extreme cold took place around 39 kyr in the

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Creative Globalization

northern hemisphere. On a site located on the Don River in modernday Ukraine, Kostienski, cultures were maintained and later
development was more significant. Thus, three kinds of relationships
between the large-scale climatic and geological risk and human
cultures can be demonstrated in these scenarios. A scenario of
resilience for the event of 39 kyr, a scenario of disappearance for that
of 72 kyr and a simple procyclic climatic relationship for the engraved
eggs around 60 kyr: it became warmer, decorated ostrich eggs that
served as gourds were found in large numbers with a simple
decoration identically produced, as if “industrially”.
In the northern hemisphere, Neanderthals occupied modern-day
Europe and participated in the ocher age, as did anatomically modern
humans originating in Africa. Before the event from 72 kyr, the
Neanderthal population spread to the Middle East and Central Asia.
The two human groups first established contact in the Levant. The
period from 72 kyr to 57 kyr indicates the development of a proper
Neanderthal culture with the appearance of individual tombs and
funeral offerings. The great climatic instability of the period led to the
disappearance of Neanderthal groups whose trace was lost after the
event from 39 ka. Gene sequencing indicates hybridization between
Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans starting with
asymmetric interfecundity [CON 16]. Intermixing took place during
the spread of genetically modern men across Eurasia.
One characteristic of the Paleolithic innovation regime was felt by
historian of religion Mircea Eliade, who, in particular, detailed a
mythology of the egg [ELI 64, pp. 347–349]. Eliade concluded

“spiritual creativity”, whereas he indicated the quasi-absence of
progress on the technological level, this being nearly equal at the start
and finish of this glacial period. The explanation put forth is that of
ruptures in the transmission of technological expertise caused by the
very low populations of human groups during this entire period. The
genetic data lead to the belief in a great loss of variety due to the
“bottleneck” from 72 ka, and the hybridization of a single species
results from the different human groups during the great dispersion of
anatomically modern humans. A fortiori, a very reduced total human
population can only lead to a decrease in cultural variety. This


Introduction

xv

spiritual creativity was also present in human groups that have
disappeared, like the Neanderthals [CLO 11]. After the event from
72 ka, individual tombs appeared in Europe, though this was only
populated by the Neanderthals [CON 16].

Figure I.3. The birth of the arts in light of Descola’s anthropology

Philippe Descola offered a schema of these ontologies according to
four primary types [DES 06]. This theoretical framework is based on
the existence or inexistence of a single interiority, or a single
physicality between Man and the environment. Certain forms of
totemism are associated with body painting: for the Burned Crocodile
clan, the entire body must be painted with colored scales. The blocks
would be an appropriate technology for this make-up problem. An

absence of differentiation of interiorities and physicalities posed the
practical problem of reproducing the outer appearances of animals on
one’s own skin. The material found in the Blombos Cave seemed well
adapted to this type of ontology: there are different figures on the
blocks, and thus all the tools for this ontological totemism as defined
by Descola. Descola’s typology is proposed using ethnographic data,
i.e. such a theory of being could likely have survived, or reappear,
after the tragic episode of the “bottleneck” of 72 kyr. The explosion of
body painting is that of ancestral spirits, and a rigorous code governs
the use of marker blocks [DEL 07a]. The ethnographic data specifies
that ontological totemism is a golden age of markers, with extremely
rigorous intellectual property.
The two transition episodes from Descola’s schema can be
brought together through the events of 72 kyr and 39 kyr. First, this
would be the start of understanding the complexity of an environment –


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Creative Globalization

the physicalities become different, animated by a creation process.
Then, differences would be introduced among the spirits residing
within the interiorities, and this would correspond to the episode of the
birth of the arts. If this birth were reproduced at the first of these
shocks, i.e. 72 kyr, we would have been in a scenario where
anatomically modern humans having experienced the worst disaster of
their demographic history would have turned toward awareness of the
environment. We would have had a naturalist genesis of the arts. This
is not the case. The episode of the engraved eggs dates back to

approximately 65–55 kyr during a period of global warming occurring
after expanded comprehension of the environment and before the
differences made between the spirits inhabiting equivalent carnal
envelopes. For example, in the Aurignacian cave at Chauvet Pont
d’Arc, there is a representation of a battle between two rhinoceros, one
with hooves, the other without, possibly a familiar spirit. This figure
summarizes the accomplishment of two phases: first, the specificities
of the physical appearances are captured in a very realistic and precise
representation of the rhinoceros, and second, a lesson is made insistent
concerning the different types of spirits that inhabit the fauna.
“An epiphany of creation, a summary of cosmogony”: thus was
characterized Mircea Eliade’s mythology of the egg [ELI 64, p. 349].
A hydria decoration with a circular geometric motif associates a
universal vital stimulant, water, with multiple forms of life. The
primordial act of creation is repeated in a very simple way through the
use of the gourd. Some genealogical markers from the totemism
period make space for differentiated beings revitalized by a single
vital force.
Ensuring the recreation of the act of creation will receive a
different translation during the first realizations of wall and cave art.
First of all, the creation myths used become varied: one of the very
first representations (Maros Cave, in modern-day Indonesia) is that of
a babirusa above a line of ground – most likely related to a regional
tradition (Asia, North America) of a myth where a diving animal
resurfaces from the primordial waters carrying the bit of earth that will
give birth to the terrestrial world, while the sites in the Great North of
Siberia refer to a couple of primordial twin gods, and the painted


Introduction

xvii

caves from the Cantabria region of France evoke Creation through an
emergence site. This great variety of major myths associated with the
birth of the arts in very distant geographic locations allows us to
discard the hypothesis of spreading and preserving an initial, very
structured foundation of myths. The foundation has been greatly
added to in this episode of spreading, e.g. this myth of the Diver,
which most likely originated in China. All of the large kinds of
creation myths are represented through all of these first artistic
manifestations. The babirusa from the Maros Cave (south of the
Indonesian island Sulawesi) could date back to 35.4 kyr, while a
negative hand could be even older (39.9 kyr) [AUB 14]. This same kind
of negative hand can be found in Aurignacian art in Europe, given that
these representations disappear during the last glacial maximum.
Second, if the convergence toward a unique amalgamated myth
does not take place, it converges instead toward a certain type of
intercession with environmental powers with a shamanistic character.
For Siberian sites, the practices of hunter–gatherer societies stick to
this type of religious organization. As for the Diver myth, the use of
animal familiars, which lies at the heart of this mythological drama, is
associated with a shamanistic practice. This is also documented in
Africa and Australia, in connection with the development of the arts.
The decorated caves in Europe are also most likely connected to
shamanistic conceptions [CLO 11]. Wall and cave art are known for
the ice age in every part of the world that can be accessed without
sophisticated navigational means. “All the indications point toward a
shamanistic religion, the basic concepts of which are the permeability
of the world(s) and fluidity” [CLO, p. 266].

Why art? And what relationship with the strong climatic instability
of its genesis period? Very summative responses to these questions
must be discarded: it is pointless to rely on an automatic innovation
bonus that would come as compensation for climatic instability. With
relatively small human groups, this instability sometimes leads to
extreme reductions in populations and know-how. In the chain that
moves from creativity to innovation, human groups from the Middle
Paleolithic are proof of spiritual creativity resulting in the creation of
a resilient cultural foundation. A “good cultural formula” is the


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Creative Globalization

condition for the ubiquitous spreading marking the transition to the
Upper Paleolithic. This context of great creativity and technological
stagnation brings about the birth of the arts.
Great climatic volatility does not directly create human cultures.
Most of the time, these “go through” climatic crises with a wide range
of minor adaptations, but sometimes they make leaps. Based on a
theoretical framework put forth by Philippe Descola, two important
modifications took place in the Paleolithic for anatomically modern
humans:
– the transition from a system of identifying the elements of the
environment through a very meaningful and very reductive totemic
grid to one where objects are much more finely characterized. For
example, the “egg culture” after the return of a warm climate in 60 kyr
is one where a universal creation process exists;
– the shamanistic hypothesis would constitute the second leap, that

of transitioning toward the Upper Paleolithic. Different types of spirits
inhabit beings. The creation myths multiply and diversify. The
pedagogy of wall art deals with the powers of nature, the beliefs in the
processes that create beings, and the subtleties existing between the
different types of beings that are present with the same physical
appearance.
I.2. “Leisure class” interpretations
The “leisure class” interpretation was initiated by a work by
Veblen [VEB 99]. It was renewed by Bataille after the discovery of
the Lascaux Cave [BAT 55]. Veblen’s analyses and then Bataille’s
were formulated using the knowledge of their times on the evolution
of Man. A new formulation has been proposed today by urbanist
Richard Florida [FLO 11]. The propositions advanced in these
approaches by the leisure class are those of the pertinence of
sociology of the social leisure class opposing industrial and idle
classes and that of an approach in terms of social structure evolution.
The leisure class, despite its unproductive character, would contribute
innovation or determine economic stagnation.


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xix

I.2.1. Veblen and conspicuous consumption
Veblen’s initial approach introduced art and creativity through a
private demand for conspicuous consumption by an idle part of
society. The technocratic current from Veblen’s work promotes the
mechanization and managing role of production engineers. Ruskin
saw both material abundance and artistic poverty in industrialization.

Veblen’s puritan critique focuses on a concern to appear and
squander; it can accompany a development of functionalism in the
arts, a movement that historically appeared in Chicago after the
release of his work on The Theory of the Leisure Class [VEB 99]. One
of the examples Veblen gives of the “leisure class” is pre-Meiji era
Japanese society. This is therefore a discourse encouraging industrial
modernization based on the critique of the private request for
prestigious and luxury goods. The anthropological argumentation is
focused on the episode of crystallizing social integrities after the
major innovations of the wheel, steel and writing. He summarizes
three steps: first, a peaceful agrarian society, then barbarians living
from pillage and plunder and finally a stratified society where an elite
remains the heir to peaceful and bellicose temperaments from
previous eras. Concerned with appearances, this elite will promote
esthetic canons adopted by the entire society due to the signs of social
preeminence.
Later texts from Veblen explain his social evolutionary theory,
encouraging new habits through new institutions. Mercantilism,
physiocracy and technocracy share the fact that they only conceive of
a creative social status for a productive class: merchants, farmers and
industrial organizers, respectively. Before Mary Pickford, the first true
Hollywood star, the remuneration and social organization for the first
silent cinema actors was based on that of the Taylorian scientific
management industries. The creative, like everyone, was highlighted
in new habits: a large industry.
Veblen’s conceptions imply an unlimited exogenous source of
abundance: the theoretical explanation is focused on social processes
for spreading the arts, existing innovations and productive processes
for mass production, without asking how these arts and innovations

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came about. There is a benevolent hidden demiurge who provides
endless prosperity and progress behind the scenes.
I.2.2. Bataille’s birth of art
Georges Bataille proposed a new declination of the leisure class in
his work on “Lascaux, or the Birth of Art” [BAT 55]. His work on The
Accursed Share introduced wasteful generosity for a world flooded
with an overabundance of energy. The succession of the tool, then
of art is seen through the arrival of the “creator of art at the source
of humanity today” [BAT 79, p. 355] in groups of Neanderthals.
This intermediary group, Neanderthals, disappeared, leaving only
completed humanity.
The creative changed classes between Veblen and Bataille: for
Veblen, a mass-marketed profane art is produced by working-class
artists, as with the beginnings of Hollywood. For Bataille, the creative
are in the leisure class: a full, festive humanity replaces an initial stage
of humanity attached to tools.
Bataille recognizes spirituality in anatomically modern humans,
but not in Neanderthals, in accordance with the archaeological
knowledge of the time, that of the Breuil-Benoît Abbey. This
hierarchization no longer exists today due to archaeological evidence
of the Neanderthals’ cult and cultural concerns [CON 16, CLO 11].
Bataille’s work initiates an exploratory process, however. The popular
position of prehistorians from the times, that of “hunting magic”, is no
longer tenable after Lascaux: “The reality that these paintings describe
singularly exceeds the material search for food through the technical

means of magic” [BAT 79, p. 373]. The hypothesis of a transition
toward a sacrificial religion at the time of the leap between the
cultures of the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic can no
longer be defended: “Paleolithic humans did not reach the point of
using sacrifices” [BAT 79, p. 373]. The hypothesis of shamanic
religion, non-sacrificial hunting religion, provided a synthetic positive
formulation to Bataille’s different conclusions.


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xxi

The text on Lascaux makes references to Huizinga’s work on
Homo ludens [HUI 51]. “What art is, first and foremost, and what it
remains, above all else, is a game” [BAT 55]. The game is not
included in Bataille’s work, as a set of rules for the game, a social
codification of strategies. The game is “what links the meaning of
Man to that of art, what delivers us, if only for a short while each time,
from the depressing need, and somehow brings us into that marvelous
explosion of richness for which each of us feels he or she was born”
[BAT 55].
However, “nothing proves that the game has reduced humanity”
[BAT 55] before, that is to say, Bataille is sensitive to the weakness of
his schema making a playful humanity succeed laborious creatures.
The current data deny this succession from a leisure society to one of
pure labor; 100,000 years ago, the humans from the Blombos Cave
had a stunning view of a magnificent bay, abundant self-service food,
and they were primarily concerned with their jewelry. Approximately
45,000 years before the present day, these same anatomically modern

humans basked in the polar night in company of giant megafauna,
most often impossible to hunt. Leisure class approaches only offer a
schema where part of leisure arises from an initial total constraint of
labor, whereas an initial leisure situation seems better adapted to the
empirically proven evidence from archaeological exploration.
I.2.3. Florida’s creative megalopolis
Urbanist Richard Florida proposes a new variant of the leisure
class schema. Florida [FLO 02, p. 67] revisits Veblen’s idea of a
change stemming from a process of cultural transformation motivated
by engineers or creators. He briefly outlines a “creative class”,
bringing together all careers that do not involve agriculture, industry
and service. From this statistical dichotomy, Florida draws a
correlation between this creative class and the economic growth of
cities. First, he deduces from this the urban authorities’ policy
of attracting talents, then of policies providing social accommodation
in its most recent contributions. Florida explains the diversity of
its recommendations through a will to respond to different urban
crises. The theoretical framework of the “creative class” is not


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overly restrictive, and it subsists, accompanying urban policies
attempting to head toward the margin of complex processes. In the
1970s, the problems faced by cities arose from the deterioration and
abandonment of central spaces, due to a redefinition of economic uses.
Florida speaks of the “donut” city, a city whose hypercenter has lost
all positive functionality. The reference situation for Florida after the

2008 housing crisis became that of stagnating medium-sized cities,
with problems of housing price and lease instability in downtown
areas, and tensions between the urban authorities and private
developers and space planners. The evolution of contexts can be
summarized through a dynamic of gentrification: in an initial phase, a
tolerance of the urban authorities to bohemian and gay areas allowed
for a progressive reappropriation of urban centers by the wealthy.
However, the dynamics of gentrification can go too far, even if a
middle class is once again chased out of the cities by price increases
caused by very rich people. Excessive gentrification leads to the
disappearance of the sought-after creative atmosphere and the
restriction of possibilities for creative talents to live in downtown areas.
In Florida’s eyes, innovation policies present an overly
technological orientation. He thus emphasizes the maintenance of a
creative urban atmosphere, based on Talent and Tolerance, as well as
Technology. The city is meant to be the fusion site of the different
components that could lead from creativity to innovation. Florida
proposes an attractivity policy implemented by urban authorities,
supported by public authorities and focused on talents from an offer of
urban cultural amenities. These cultural and social policies address
people and not organizations (companies, universities, educational
centers), as innovation policies and their different formulas for
technological parks generally do.
Florida proposed a sociological interpretation of contemporary
globalization, which he explains through the emergence of a creative
class. He defended a theory in which social stratification is more
important than the distant effects of globalization. These are the
proximity relationships between talents of different specialties that
could explain the economic dynamism of large cities. The proposed
policies aim to concentrate resources in large urban sites. In the most

Introduction

xxiii

recent contributions, he adds that targeted social policies are necessary
to avoid appropriation by localized positive externalities [FLO 17a].
In relation to globalization theories like that of Kenichi Ohmae
[OHM 85], where it is businesses that diversify their spatial strategies
in the world and where States are asked for a simplification effort,
Florida introduces new public actors, namely the large urban
metropolises of rich and emerging nations. These are entities that
differ little in terms of an attractivity policy from those suggested by
Ohmae, himself an advocate of simplifying the world’s administrative
map through modest subregional entities. Although the United
Nations’ statistical system includes 32 large regions around the world,
Florida establishes a map of the world using satellite images, limited
to 40 megalopolises of economic significance around the world. An
old sociological tradition, that of Comtian positivism from the 19th
Century, made no distinction between socialization and urbanization.
Inhabitants of the country become civilized by going to live in cities,
in the positivist sociological tradition: for Florida, humans develop
their natural creative potential in a context of great urban density by
having more numerous interactions, stimulating creative results and
finally innovation.
However, in the conclusions of the city monographs that he
created, Florida must concede that the consequences and effects of
training remain limited based on this theoretical schema of an urban
creative melting pot. The very rich are not specifically attracted by

cultural amenities, and they are concentrated in megalopolises
gathering decision centers. The most creative countries are also the
most egalitarian. The forms of salary remuneration contribute to this
situation of equality, whereas non-salary earnings lie at the heart of
contemporary urban crises [FLO 17a]. The attractivity policies
recommended by Florida appear to be focused on location criteria in
empirical studies on the preferences of the creative in terms of
localization. The creation and cultural professionals choose a location
based on the proximity of their family and friends, their places of
education, employment opportunities, then natural amenities and only
then leisure facilities. Studies on European cities show that the
creativity lies at the origin of the city in question, always in majority
proportions. Only a small complement comes from other regions. The


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Creative Globalization

city appears above all else as a decisional center, an environment of
public space and risk management. The places of creation, invention
and innovation do not specifically seem to be linked spontaneously to
an urban centrality, and the intervention of public policies is necessary
to have a will for territorial fixation in decisional centers.
In his successive formulations, the urban policies of Richard
Florida’s “creative city” provide information on strategies implemented
by metropolis managers in Europe and North America. Their variant
can be both elitist, through the attractivity of the best talent, or more
democratic. These policies remain limited to the middle classes and
urban superiors. This always involves policies focused on the heart of

the city, targeting the resident populations in central locations. Richard
Florida’s most recent works [FLO 17a] introduce a concern regarding
disproportionate spatial inequalities. When the analysis framework is
erased by the leisure class, the analyses become more pertinent. Thus,
Veblen and Bataille’s approaches have only retained conspicuous
consumption and the birth of the arts.
The hypothesis of an initial, brilliant party at the source of the first
works and a full innovation capacity does not seem to be confirmed as
well by the archaeological approaches as by the studies on creative
melting pots. New constraints arising from hydroclimatic instability or
the historic conditions of distant travel provide more of a situation of
very heavy constraints. The Manilla Galleon, which some historians
consider to be a symbol of the start of globalization, often returned
with no living souls, everyone having died of starvation or illness
while crossing the Pacific non-stop. Another example is of a ghost ship
returning from the China Sea, with treasures hidden under dead bodies;
this entrance to globalization now swaying to the gloomy side.
I.3. The Manila Galleon
The Manila Galleon in Acapulco established the first regular
transpacific maritime trade route. This maritime connection existed
from approximately 1571 to 1815. It crystallized discussions in
economic history on the existence (or lack thereof) of several stages of
globalization. Many analyses only accept one stage, an initial “big


Introduction

xxv

bang” of globalization, but the dates set forth vary greatly. Economists

are only concerned by the contemporary phenomena of globalization,
which only become the object of study around the mid-1980s.
Historians are not in the same mindset, instead referring to a much
earlier “big bang”, like Christopher Columbus’ 1492 voyage.
Economic historians propose an intermediate date and insist on the
quantitative leap in long-distance exchanges of the 19th Century
[ROU 04]. Flynn and Giráldez [FLY 04] propose the aforementioned
start date of the Manila-Acapulco maritime connection in 1571 as
being the first year of globalization.
The lack of consensus on the single date weakens the vision of a
“big bang” and “one shot” of globalization. The levels of worldwide
integration have always been weak, with entire continents being
forgotten for a very long time. The presence of anatomically modern
humans has been attested to for 24 kyr in modern-day Canada.
Renaissance navigators began to close a long period of oblivion in this
part of the globe. However, they belonged to maritime civilizations
that were only regional, as definitely attested to in the logbook from
the Manila Galleon. It would likely be better to speak of successive
episodes of globalization and of fragmentation, as suggested by the
study of cultural and linguistic diversity. This was very limited at the
time of the demographic “bottleneck”, reaching its zenith at the end of
the Paleolithic before the arrival of the productive economy. The
industrial globalization of the 19th Century is ambiguous, with a
reappearance of the fragmentation that clearly grew in the period of
the two world wars [BÉN 08].
Daniel Cohen [COH 12] preferred to speak of three globalizations,
that of maritime civilizations, which lasted until 1800, that of
industrial globalization in the 19th Century and contemporary
globalization. The Manila Galleon marked the start of a regular
maritime connection, ensured by a giant of the seas for the era of

maritime civilizations. The respective size of these giants of the sea
grew throughout the three globalizations (see Figure I.4).


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Creative Globalization

Figure I.4. A Manila Galleon (2,000 tons), the Titanic (46,300 tons)
and Allure of the Seas (220,000 UMS)

Let us summarize the arguments in favor of Flynn and Giráldez
[FLY 04], which connect the period of the first circumnavigations
with globalization, and those that remain doubtful faced with this
historic “continuity” of the Manila Galleon until today [ROU 04].
Flynn and Giráldez’s definition of globalization is based on the
existence of a permanent link between all the densely populated parts
of the globe, with significant exchanges in terms of both volume and
value. When English sea captain Francis Drake returned part of the
plunder from a Manila Galleon that he had captured in London, this
contribution alone exceeded the British crown’s entire earnings from
the year 1580. The city of Manila was founded in 1571, with naval
construction activity. Spanish law limited galleon size to 300 tons,
then starting in 1593, a maximum of two galleons together for
transpacific trade. Even before the 1593 regulation, ships weighing
more than 700 tons were being built in Manila [PAL 12]. The arrival
of an inspector sent by the Spanish crown brought about a general
strike in 1636 in Manila itself. Submarine archaeology estimates that a
galleon that sank in the Marianna Islands in 1638 weighed 2,000 tons.