Understanding Globalization

• Globalization is examined as a process, condition, and ideology
• Explores academic perspectives from political scientists, economists and communication experts

Concepts of Globalization

• Students learn to distinguish definitions
• Students learn to adopt a working definition

What is Globalization?

• Globalization intensifies worldwide social relations, linking distant areas
• Local events are shaped by occurrences far away and vice versa, according to Anthony Giddens
• Roland Robertson defines globalization as how the world compresses and intensifies awareness
• David Held considers globalization a process that transforms spatial organization and transactions
• Generating transcontinental or interregional flows and networks
• TOhmae: Globalization is the onset of the borderless world

The 5 "Scapes" of Globalization

• Globalization entails increasing interconnections across the globe, explained by Arjun Appadurai's five "scapes" or flows
• Ethnoscapes refer to the flow of people across boundaries, including labor migrants, refugees, and leisure travelers
• Technoscapes describe the flows of technology, like Apple's iPhone
• Ideoscapes refer to the flow of ideas, ranging from personal views on Facebook to the spread of religious doctrines
• Financescapes refer to the flow of money across political borders
• Mediascapes refer to the flow of media across borders
• Brazilian telenovelas being shown on African bus trips are an example of mediascapes
• Appadurai's scapes provide tools for understanding circulation but can be misleading, as phenomena often involve multiple scapes

Development of Globalization

• The term "globalization" appeared in the Oxford dictionary in the 1930s
• It Entered the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 1951
• The noun form appeared in the Oxford English dictionary in 1962
• Marshall McLuhan introduced the "global village" concept in 1960
• Social scientists and economists widely adopted it in the 1960s
• Globalization developed as a paradigm in social sciences in 1992

Perspectives on Globalization

• Skeptical approach: Internationalization isn't new; developments only change the scale of globalization
• Hyperglobalist approach: Identifies a historical break-point where contemporary globalization emerged
• Transformationalist thesis: Argues for unprecedented global interconnectedness
• Hyperglobalists believe we are in a global age with global capitalism and declining national governments
• Skeptics see trading blocs weaker than in earlier periods with reinforced national governments
• Transformationalists describe historically unprecedented levels of global interconnectedness and restructured governments

Five Waves of Globalization

• First wave: Occurred for over 5000 years through trade, migration, and conquest
• Second wave: Associated with Western European conquest of Asia, Latin America, and Africa and the spread of capitalism
• Third wave: Started around 1870, declined around 1914, and was characterized by technological advancements, global production, and mass migration
• Fourth wave: From 1945-1980, spurred by retreat of nationalism, strengthening of internationalism, led by the United States
• Fifth wave: The current period and is characterized by unprecedented interdependence and growth of powerful actors

World-System Theory

• Dominant theory in the 1950s was modernization theory
• Wallerstein argues globalization represents the triumph of a capitalist world economy with global division of labour
• A world-system is a "multicultural territorial division of labor" where trade of commodities is necessary

Division of the World

• Core: Powerful, developed centers like Western Europe, North America, and Japan
• Periphery: Regions forcibly subordinated by the core through colonialism, including Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe
• Semi-periphery: States previously in the core moving down or previously in the periphery moving up

Theories of Global Capitalism

• The Transnational Practices (TNP) by Leslie Sklair: Rejects state-centrism and globalism, supports a global system and involves the transnational capitalist class (TCC)
• Emergent Transnational State (TNS) apparatus by William Robinson analyzes the rise of a Transnational Capitalist Class (TCC)
• Network society: Society's structure is networks powered by microelectronics, information, and communication technologies

Key aspects of the Network Society

• Informational and knowledge-based
• Globally organized in production
• Networked, productivity through global interactions

Time-Space Distanciation

• Time-space distanciation is the intensification of worldwide social relations, according to Anthony Giddens
• Social relations are lifted out from interactions and restructured across time and space

Global Risk Society

• Globalization has led to the creation of a "global risk society.” Human activities cause risks like pollution, crime.

Globalization and Culture

• Homogenization: Globalization causes the consumption of one culture by another
• Hybridization: Mixing cultural forms, genres, or styles occur
• Heterogeneity: Continued cultural difference with local autonomy happen

The Global Village

• McLuhan used that phrase to highlight that an electronic nervous system rapidly integrating the planet
• Events globally can be experienced instantly similar to life in small villages

McDonaldization

• Process where principles of fast-food restaurants come to dominate sectors of society and the world
• Efficiency: Completing tasks is a rational determination of the best mode of production
• Calculability: Assessment of outcomes based on quantifiable (quantity over quality)
• Predictability: The production process ensures uniformity of product and standardized outcomes
• Control: Substituting human labor for non-human labor

Glocalization

• Roland Robertson's concept that the global is only manifest in the local
• GLOCALIZATION has lead to ideas about home, locality and community has been extensively spread and globalized

Landscapes or Dimensions of Cultural Flows

• Mediascapes: Flows of image and communication
• Ethnoscapes: Flows of individuals around the world
• Ideoscapes: Exchanges of ideas and ideologies
• Technoscapes: Flows of technology and skills to build linkages
• Financescapes: Interactions with money and capital
• Appadurai's suffix "scape" signifies processes with fluid, irregular shapes