Introduction to Globalization

• Study of the contemporary world involves globalization, helping understand the world and ourselves.
• Analyzing globalization allows comparison of societies, providing solutions to challenges through learning from others' experiences.
• Interacting with diverse cultures is inevitable, especially for OFWs, requiring adjustments due to potential discrimination.
• Globalization affects everyone, impacting their way of life.

Introduction to the Meaning of Globalization

• Understanding globalization enables understanding the contemporary world.
• Defining globalization is complex due to its multifaceted nature.
• Literature on globalization is classified as broad/inclusive (borderless world) or narrow/exclusive (internationalizing of production).

Other Definitions of Globalization

• Globalization integrates economy, finance, commerce, and communications, opening local views to an interconnected world with free capital transfer.
• Globalization intensifies global awareness and compresses the world.
• Globalization contains increasing liquidity with growing flows of people, objects, information, and structures.
• Globalization is described as colonization.
• Globalization expands and intensifies social relations and consciousness across world-time and space.
• Globalization forms a global village with faster feedback due to the internet.
• Globalization obligates states to follow trade agreements, potentially harming less developed states.
• Globalization is a complex movement, making a single definition difficult due to its changing nature.
• Globalization is defined as an economic process facilitating the flow of goods, services, and information across borders, strengthening social relations and creating interdependence among economies.

Nature of Globalization

• Globalization involves integration of people, places, goods, services, and information with contradicting views.
• Liberalization and Free Trade are part of the nature of globalization.
• Globalization of economic activity, liberalization of import/export system, privatization, increased collaborations, and economic reforms are also elements of its nature.

Metaphors of Globalization

• Solidity refers to obstacles preventing movement, for example, landforms.
• Liquidity signifies the growing ease of movement of people, things, and information, such as the stock market.
• Flows represent the movement of people, things, and information due to penetrability of global limitations, for example, foods introduced by foreign cultures.

Signs of Globalization

• There is faster international trade.
• There is a surge in international capital flow including foreign direct investment.
• There is larger trans-border data flow via the internet and satellites.
• There is greater international cultural exchange, for example, Hollywood movies.
• Terrorism has also undergone globalization.
• There is loss of national sovereignty due to international agreements.
• There is grander international travel and tourism.
• Expanded immigration includes illegal immigration.
• There is an increase in global telecommunications infrastructure.
• There is improvement of global financial systems.
• More multinational corporations control a larger share of the world economy.
• Rising standards like copyright laws are applied globally by international organizations.

Advantages of Globalization

• It promotes peaceful relations, provides employment, and improves education.
• It raises product quality, lowers prices, and enhances communication.
• There is improved transportation, GDP increase, and free trade.
• Travel, tourism, and external borrowing opportunities exist.

Disadvantages of Globalization

• Health issues, loss of culture, and uneven wealth distribution are disadvantages.
• Environment degradation, disparity, and conflicts are drawbacks.
• Cut-throat competition is a disadvantage.

Types of Globalization

• Financial globalization involves interconnection of world’s financial systems.
• Economic globalization involves worldwide economic system easy movement of goods, production, capital, and resources.
• Technological globalization involves connection between nations through technology.
• Political globalization involves countries adopting similar political policies to facilitate globalization.
• Cultural globalization involves merging of world’s cultures.
• Ecological globalization involves seeing Earth as a single ecosystem.
• Sociological globalization involves growing belief in global citizenship.

Globalization Theories

• Liberalism sees globalization as driven by the market and connectivity stemming from human drives for material well-being and exercise of basic freedoms and rights.
• Political Realism focuses on state power, national interest, and conflict, with a strong state or 'hegemon' maintaining international rules that suit its interests.
• Marxism addresses production, social exploitation through unjust wealth distribution, and social deliverance beyond capitalism, viewing globalization as driven by profit-making opportunities.
• Constructivism focuses on how social actors construct their world through language, symbols, and dialogue, but it neglects structural inequalities and power hierarchies.
• Postmodernism stresses the significance of structural power in the creation of identities and standards, criticizing rationalism as a form of cultural imperialism.
• Feminism focuses on gender roles, highlighting the oppression and violation of women.
• Transformationalism, explained by David Held and associates, sees globalization as increased political, economic, and cultural interconnectedness, creating a shared social space.
• Eclecticism combines different social theories of globalization, including forces of production, governance, identity, and knowledge.

Other Theories of Globalization

• Homogeneity is increasing sameness in the world creating common practices.
• Heterogeneity involves the creation of various cultural practices, new economies, and political groups.
• Cultural imperialism involves a given culture influencing other cultures.
• Media imperialism undermines alternative global media from developing countries.
• Americanization involves import by non-Americans of products closely associated with Americans.
• McDonaldization refers to Western countries spread fast food principles like efficiency, calculability, predictability and control.
• Grobalization involves nations or corporations imposing themselves on geographic areas for profits.
• Glocalization coined by Roland Robertson in 1992 involves global forces mingling with local factors, producing "glocal" outcomes.

Three Globalization Approaches

• Hyperglobalists approach views globalization as an open market, valuing multinational enterprises (MNEs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) as key actors.
• Sceptical approach questions the usefulness of trading blocs, viewing exchange as primarily regional rather than global.
• Transformationalists approach takes a balanced stance towards globalization, agreeing on interconnectedness but noting stratification where some nations benefit more than others.

The Global Economy

• The global economy denotes worldwide interconnectedness of economic activities with positive and negative effects.

Characteristics of the Global Economy

• Globalization is a process combining national and regional economies to create a global network of trade, communication, and transportation.
• International trade involves the exchange of goods and services between different states.
• International finance is a principal global economy feature with currency, exchange rates, and quicker money movement.
• Global investment is a venture scheme not controlled by national borders through foreign direct investment.

Economic Globalization

• Economic globalization is how people, goods, and services move around the globe.
• Protectionism is a government policy intervening in foreign trade to encourage local production via quotas and tariffs.
• Trade liberalization is free trade where goods and services move more easily, but inequalities may develop.
• Fair trade is raised in the global world where there is concern for economic, social, and environment welfare of small producers.
• Actors of economic globalization: TNCs, State, Labor, Consumers, and Social groups.

Theories of Global Stratification

• Global Stratification ranks individuals and groups in stratified societies around the world.
• Modernization theory suggests economic growth stops when people fail to change certain beliefs.
• Dependency theory blames colonialism and the capitalist system for countries being left poor due to exploitation.
• World Systems theory implies a country’s place in the capitalist world economy.

Four Stages of Development

• Traditional stage is societies in small communities where people produce only for their family and tradition rules how a society functions.
• Take off stage is the stage with new markets and rising wealth.
• Technological maturity is the stage of industrial development where social and economic change rises.
• High mass consumption is whatever is produced is more on wants, and there are social support systems to provide access to basic needs.

Market Integration

• Market integration is a situation where separate markets for the same product become one single market.
• Market integration expands a corporation by merging other market activities in one organization structure.

Levels of Market Integration

• Horizontal integration raises marketability over distributors and suppliers, intensifies product differentiation, and help companies expand their market.
• Vertical Integration happens when a company purchases the buyer or supplier to remove their leverage and produce more profit.
• Backward Vertical Integration is the practice of a company becoming a supplier to its own production to escape higher supply prices or substandard materials
• Forward Vertical Integration happens when a company attempts retailing by means of vending machines to make more profit than selling its products to a retail store.
• Conglomerate Integration is the union of companies with unrelated business activities making mergers which allow a monopoly in a particular market.