Sanjna Chapsey
Reading Response
GEOG 1301W: Our Globalizing World (002)
Professor Bledsoe
November 27, 23
Logistics
Everything that we have and use in our day-to-day life, we were able to buy because of the
logistics involved behind the scenes. The term ‘logistics,’ simply means the organization and
movement of goods and services. Logistics are involved in all levels of planning and execution.
According to the US chain of Supply Management it consists of ‘inbound and outbound
transportation, management, fleet management, warehousing, materials handling, order
fulfilment, network design, inventory management, supply/demand planning, management of
third-party services providers, sourcing and procurement, production and scheduling, packaging
and assembly, and customer service.’ As seen, there are a lot of processes involved, and the
more the processes involved, the more complex the logistics.
This concept of ‘logistics’ is evident in the article ‘Food and Globalization’ through the
‘horizontalization’ of human societies. In this sense, the term ‘horizontalization’ means that the
food we eat originates from non-local sources, that is the ingredients were produced elsewhere.
Globalization has a lot of logistics behind it, and the globalization of food involves several
processes like producing the raw ingredients, shipping the ingredients, cooking the food all of
which are a part of the logistics involved. ‘What we eat is the fruit of constant and uninterrupted
interaction of flow of a thousand origins (Kiple 2007).’ This line highlights the complex amount
of logistics behind every small process involved in producing a final output.
Logistics can also be seen in the article ‘A Geography of Logistics: Market Authority and the
Security of Supply Chains’. A variety of security agencies in the United States have been
working on new proposals for border space. These proposals themselves involve a lot of
logistics, to come up with the most effective plan as there are several factors that must be
considered. They need to ensure that there is ‘good border management’, meaning that it should
prevent ‘bad things and bad people from entering’. The diagram on page 7 of the article also
shows the logistics involved in trade and how the borders serve to act as a space in between
national territories. The way that goods are shipped where they are stored or manufactured is
showed, hence showing the logistics behind borders. It also highlights how logistics focuses a
lot on space as a series of operations in the production process, and how these logistics always
aim for time-space compression.
A third example of the concept of logistics is seen in the film ‘Another world is possible’. The
film shows a Palestinian pleading for help from the public to help Palestine overcome its
oppression. There are a lot of logistics that would have to be involved before any action could
take place. There have been representatives that go to the World Social Forum that agree with
others, but no action is taken, since the logistics would be very complex. The planning stage
would be the most challenging. This is because changing things would first require an in-depth
interpretation of the day-to-day operations of others. This analysis would help in coming up with
an ideal plan. There are also alternative measures that could be used which would have to be
analysed. ‘It's a carnival of ideas. It’s a carnival of proposals, It’s a carnival action.’ This line
from the film shows that every possible step towards change includes several stages which have
their own logistics involved.
