Introduction to Globalization

Introduction to the Course

• The course introduces students to the contemporary world through the lens of globalization.
• It uses social sciences to examine the economic, social, political, and technological transformations, that create interconnectedness.
• It provides an overview of global governance, development, and sustainability discussions.
• The course aims to foster global citizenship and ethical responsibility.

Learning Outcomes

• Differentiate the varying conceptions of globalization.
• Identify the underlying philosophies of the varying definitions of globalization.
• Agree on a working definition of globalization for the course.

Methodology, Resources, and Assessment

• Methodology involves class discussion.
• Resources include textbooks and online articles.
• Assessment includes Recitation, Poster Making, and a group News Critique activity

Defining Globalization

• There are many different and sometimes contradicting views on the definition of globalization.
• For this course, globalization is defined as the processes that connect more people in more ways across greater distances.
• It also signifies the expansion of economic and social ties between countries via corporate institutions and a capitalist philosophy.
• Globalization is complex, multifaceted, with definitions varying based on perspective.
• The definition of globalization will keep changing as human society develops.
• There are broad and inclusive, as well as, narrow and exclusive views of globalization.

Broad and Inclusive Definitions

• Ohmae (1992): Globalization means the onset of the borderless world.
• Kiely and Marfleet (1998): Globalization describes the coming together in some way, of societies, cultures, politics, and economies.
• Harvey (1998): Globalization is the compression of time and space.
• Broad and inclusive definitions allude to diminishing traditional boundaries, yet is vague.

Narrow and Exclusive Definitions

• Cox (2000): Globalization's characteristics internationalize production, create a new international division of labor, and generate migratory movements. He states this also causes states to become agencies of the globalizing world.
• Bridgemary Community Sports College (2006): Globalization occurs when an industry or corporation operates on a global scale, with manufacturing bases in several countries, such as Nike and McDonalds.
• Langhorne (2001): Globalization as the technological advancement enabling human beings to conduct their affairs across the world without reference to nationality, government authority, time of day, or physical environment.
• Narrow and exclusive definitions are more specific, but are limiting in application.

Metaphors of Globalization

• Metaphors help to better understand globalization.
• Primary metaphors include solid, liquid, and flows.

Solid

• Solidity involves barriers that prevent free movement, whether natural or man-made.
• People, things, information, and places harden over time, therefore have limited mobility.
• Examples of natural solid barriers are landforms and bodies of water.
• Examples of man-made solid barriers are the Mexico-US border and China's imaginary nine-dash line in claim to the South China Sea.

Liquid

• Liquidity is the increasing movement of people, things, information, and places.
• Three characteristics of liquidity are speed of changes, difficulty to stop, and is permeable.
• Global finance and stock market prices changing rapidly are characteristics.
• K-pop and internet sensations are examples of difficult to stop liquidity.
• Tourism is an example of how the forces of liquid made political boundaries more permeable to the flow of people and things.

Flows

• Flows include the movement of people, knowledge, data, money, culture, arts, and other things due to the increasing "porosity" of boundaries.
• Poor, illegal migrants seeking better opportunities, and the virtual flow of legal and illegal information are characteristics.
• The patronization of different foreign cuisines and immigrants establishing ethnic enclaves in host countries are additional examples.

Origins and History of Globalization

• There are five perspectives on the origins of globalization:
  • Hardwired
  • Cycles
  • Epoch
  • Events
  • Broader, more recent changes

Hardwired Perspective

• Chanda (2007) attributes it to the basic human need to make lives better.
• Historians trace globalization to early inhabitants of Africa migrating during the late Ice Age.

Cycles Perspective

• Globalization is a long-term cyclical process.
• Other global ages appeared and disappeared, global ages will do the same.

Epoch Perspective

• There are six great epochs of globalization (Ritzer, 2015 and Therborns, 2000).
• Also called "waves" each with its own origin.
• View which is different from the cycles view, does not treat epochs as returning.
• The six great epochs of globalization:
  • Globalization of religion (4th to 7th centuries)
  • European colonial conquests (late 15th century)
  • Intra-European wars (late 18th to early 19th centuries)
  • Heyday of European imperialism (mid-19th century to 1918)
  • Post-World War II
  • Post-Cold War Period

Events Perspective

• Specific events considered as the origin of globalization.
• Roman conquests centuries before Christ.
• Rampage of the armies of Genghis Khan into Eastern Europe in the 13th century.
• Voyages of discovery, including Christopher Columbus' discovery of America in 1492.
• Vasco de Gama in Cape of Good Hope in 1498.
• Ferdinand Magellan's completed circumnavigation of the globe in 1522.
• First transatlantic telephone cable in 1956
• First transatlantic television broadcasts in 1962
• Founding of the modern internet in 1988
• Terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001.

Broader, More Recent Changes Perspective

• Broad and recent changes considered the origin of globalization happened in the last half of the 20th century
• The emergence of the United States as the global power (post-World War II)
• The emergence of multinational corporations (MNCs)
• The demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War

Globalization as "Globaloney"

• Some critics claim existing evidence of globalization is incorrect and overstated.

Globalization Critics

• Rejectionists oppose the usefulness of globalization as an imprecise analytical concept.
• Skeptics highlight the limited nature of globalizing processes.
• Argue that the world is not as integrated as proponents say.
• Modifiers challenge the novelty of the process , recognizing reasonable globalizing tendencies.

Theories of Globalization

• Globalization is multifaceted, therefore, interpretable from many perspectives.
• Discourses about globalization are viewed through 3 major theories:
  • World Systems Theory
  • Polity Theory
  • World Culture Theory

World-Systems Theory

• The core countries are the industrialized capitalist countries on which periphery and semi-periphery countries depend.
• Core countries control and benefit from the global market.
• These countries are wealthy nations with a wide variety of resources in a favorable location.
• They have strong state institutions, powerful military, and powerful global political alliances.

World Polity Theory

• The polity theory views the world as a social system with a cultural framework called world polity.
• The cultural framework encompasses and influences the actors, such as nations, international organization, and individuals.
• The world polity is defined by distinct culture, a set of fundamental principles and models, mainly ontological and cognitive in character.
• This defines the nature and purposes of social actors and action.

World Culture Theory

• World culture is indeed new and important.
• Societies must make sense of themselves in relation to a larger system of societies.

Impact of Globalization

• There are two opposing views on the impact of globalization:
  • Homogeneity
  • Heterogeneity

Homogeneity

• Globalization increases "sameness."
• When culture, arts, economic factors, political orientation, knowledge flow across boundaries, they create common practices.
• Homogeneity outcomes from different aspects such as cultural imperialism, media imperialism, McDonaldization, and grobalization.
  • Cultural Imperialism. Cultural: Christianity, Americanization, or the importation of products, images, technologies, practices, and behaviors closely-related to Americans
  • Economic- spread of neoliberalism, capitalism, and market economy
  • Political. McWorld, which means only one political orientation
• Media Imperialism. Idea, information, and culture dissemination has been broader and faster due to technology. Medium of transfer and exchange are TV, books, and movies, plus the internet
• McDonaldization is the global adoption of efficient, predictable, controllable processes typical of fast food chain restaurants. Ex: McDonalds.
• Grobalization is the process where nations or corporations impose themselves or their policies, principles, and behaviors from other geographic areas for control, power or profit.

Heterogeneity

• The creation of various cultural practices, new economies, and political groups.
• Associated with cultural hybridization as opposed to cultural imperialism.
• Glocalization relates to global forces interacting with local factors, and where glocal is produced.

Dynamics of Local and Global Cultures

• Digital technology has expedited local and global culture flows.
• Three perspectives on global cultural flows:
  • Cultural differentialism
  • Cultural hybridization
  • Cultural convergence

Cultural Differentialism

• Cultures are fundamentally different and superficially affected by global flows.
• Cultures may clash if they interact.

Cultural Hybridization

• Globalization is a creative process resulting in hybrid entities neither global nor local.

Cultural Convergence

• As cultures continue to interact, the more they reflect each other.
• Over time, values, behaviors, and ideologies evolve and become similar.