Introduction to Globalization

Introduction to Globalization

• Globalization is a complex concept with no single, simple definition.
• It involves the integration of people, places, goods, services, and information.

Learning Objectives:

• Differentiate competing conceptions, its nature, theories and approaches.
• Identify the underlying philosophies of varying definitions.
• Agree on a working definition for the course.
• Provide initial observations, analysis and discussion on one aspect.
• Create a personalized overview on the salient points of issues involved.

Broad and Narrow Definitions:

• Broad definitions include a variety of issues, e.g., the onset of a borderless world.
• Narrow definitions are thorough but restrictive, focusing on specific aspects like the internationalizing of production.

Other definitions of globalization:

• Globalization is described as a global movement towards integration of the economy, finance, commerce, and communications opening up local and nationalistic perspectives to a broader view of an interconnected world with free transfers of capital, goods, and services across national borders, according to Lobo, Ambida, Maliban and Mesinas in 2019.
• Robertson (1992) defines globalization as "world compression and global awareness intensification."
• George Ritzer characterizes globalization as a "transplanetary process" with increasing "liquidity."
• Ritzer notes a process characterized by the flows of people, objects, places, information, and structures while creating barriers to those flows.
• Martin Khor describes globalization as "colonization."
• Manfred Steger defines globalization is the "expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across world-time and across worldspace."

What Globalization Can Mean:

• It can mean a formation of a global village for faster real-time communication.
• It involves economic integration, with potential losses of economic national sovereignty.

Nature of Globalization:

• It involves Liberalization, Free Trade, Globalization of economic activity, Liberalization of import/export system, Privatization, increased collaborations, and Economic Reforms.
• The nature of globalization is not fixed but broad.
• Tomas gave these advantages and disadvantages of globalization in 2015.

Metaphors of Globalization:

• Solidity represents obstacles to movement like landforms and bodies of water.
• Liquidity is the ease of movement of people, things, and information, such as in the stock market.
• Flows represent the movement of people, things, and information due to penetrability, such as foreign foods.

Signs of Globalization:

• There is faster international trade and a surge in international capital flow.
• Trans border data flow is increased through the internet and communication satellites.
• International cultural exchange, such as the export of Hollywood movies, is observed.
• Terrorism has also globalized; Terrorists have attacked places over the world.
• National sovereignty loss can occur through international agreements and forming organizations.
• There is an increase in international travel, tourism and immigration, including illegal types.
• Global telecommunications infrastructure has expanded, and global financial systems have improved.
• More multinational corporations control an increased share of the world economy.
• Rising standards like copyright laws are applied globally.

Advantages of Globalization:

• Peaceful relations
• Employment
• Education
• Product quality
• Cheaper prices
• Communication
• Transportation
• GDP Increase
• Free Trade
• Travel and Tourism
• External Borrowing.

Disadvantages of Globalization:

• Health issues
• Environmental degradation
• Cut-throat competition
• Loss of culture
• Disparity
• Conflicts
• Uneven wealth distribution

Types of Globalization:

• Financial globalization is the interconnection of world's financial systems.
• Economic globalization permits easy movement of goods, production, capital, and resources.
• Technological globalization is the connection between nations through technology.
• Political globalization involves countries adopting similar policies and styles of government.
• Cultural globalization is the merging of world cultures.
• Ecological globalization involves seeing Earth as a single ecosystem.
• Sociological globalization is the believe that everyone is a global citizen held to some standards and rights.

Globalization Theories:

• Liberalism sees globalization as driven by the market, connectivity and human desires.
• Political Realism is interested in state power and national interest.
• Marxism focuses on forms of production and the distribution of wealth, and the social deliverance by going beyond capitalism.
• Constructivism is how people have constructed social world with language, symbols, images, and interpretation.
• Postmodernism stresses structural power in the creation of identities and standards.
• Feminism places attention on masculinity and femininity.
• Transformationalism reflects increased interconnectedness.
• Eclecticism combines social theories of globalization.

Aldama (2018) Theories:

• Homogeneity is the increasing sameness in the world.
• Cultural Imperialism influence other cultures.
• Heterogeneity is the creation of various cultural practices, economies, and political groups.
• Media Imperialism undermined alternative global media.
• Americanization: Import by non-americans of products closely associated with Americans.
• Grobalization: Is the process where nations or corporations impose themselves to gain profits.
• McDonaldization is the spread of rational systems and principles of fast foods.
• Glocalization is global forces mingling with local factors.

Globalization Approaches:

• Hyperglobalists views open markets and placing importance of multinational enterprises.
• Skeptical approach questions trade blocs and views them through a historic angle.
• Transformationalists stance are balanced with the growth of interconnectedness for political and economic integration.

Origins of Globalization:

• Luxury goods from China appearing in Rome during the first centuries BC/AD.
• The importance of spices to Islamic trades between the 7th - 15th centuries.
• The Age of Discovery between the 15th - 18th centuries when European explorers connected East and West.
• The British Empire conquered the world during the 19th century due to the first industrial revolution and creations like the steam engine
• The world economy was destroyed due to World War I in 1914.
• A new global economy was created with the United stated of America after WWII.
• Technologies connecting people around the world due to the third industrial revolution connected people around the world.
• The US and China have become the two global powers dominating around cyber world.

Hawkley's Dissertation asserts:

• In his 2014 dissertation, Ethan Hawkley asserts that the Philippines became the birthplace of globalization by weaving together local sovereignty, global trade, and interfaith alliances, particularly between 1565 and 1610.
• Key figures were involved in unifying independent villages of the Malay archipelago with a multiethnic network.
• Legazpi's European Christianity merging with Banal's Muslim heritage created cultural ties across Southeast Asia.
• Eng Kang's exchange of Chinese silk for American Silver tied Manila into a global market.
• By around 1610, the archipelato emerged as a hub under the three external systems.
• The archipelago's location caused it to emerge as a pivotal hub of early globalization.