Lesson 1 Globalization.pdf

CHAPTER 1: The Structures of Globalization At the end of this Module, the student will be able to analyze the various drivers of globalization, and describe the emergence of glob...

CHAPTER 1: The Structures of Globalization At the end of this Module, the student will be able to analyze the various drivers of globalization, and describe the emergence of global economic and political systems. Lesson 1: Globalization At the end of the lesson, students should be able to: 1. Agree on a working definition of globalization for the course; 2. Differentiate the competing conceptions of globalizations; and, 3. Narrate a personal experience of globalization. What is Globalization? Globalization is “everyday”. Globalization is “everyday”. You might be experiencing globalization by travelling to various countries. If not, by simply eating a Big Mac at McDonalds with a phone on your hand, doing Netflix and chill. Or, you might be enjoying every bite of your burger, air pods on both ears, listening to your favorite songs in Spotify. The point is, globalization is experienced on a daily basis. 1 Globalization is an “uneven” process that affects people differently. Globalization benefits everyone, but gains unevenly distributed. It affects people differently – inequalities remain. Case in point: HUMAN TRAFFICKING: MAIL ORDER BRIDE ABUSES The age-old concept of the mail order bride hinges on the fantasy of a handsome western man playing savior to a beautiful exotic Asian woman by lifting her out of a world of poverty and destitution. However, cultural, social, economic, and legal issues lay the foundation for an industry that merges sex and labor trafficking across the globe. The stereotypical Filipina mail order bride is portrayed as a young and obedient woman who connects with a Caucasian man through and online international marriage brokerage (IMB) firm that facilitates the process of establishing a “pen-pal” relationships for a year, which guides the men towards processing the marriage legally. These men are hardly virtuous, romantic, knight-in-shining-armor shown on Western films and projected across the world. These relationships do not live up to the fantasy. Mail order brides are often subject to physical and sexual abuse once they arrive in the US which they are especially vulnerable due to immigrant status. The common occurrence contributed to the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which will increase protections and resources for immigrant women subjected to the adverse effects of these marriages. As globalization affects us, at the end of the day, it is important to ask ‘what is globalization?’ Globalization: A Working Definition Is globalization an economic process? Economic globalization is just a window (aspect) in understanding globalization. This notion arises because most journalists and political activists view globalization as primarily an economic process. How should we define globalization? Globalization must be ‘viewed’ using interdisciplinary approach. Using the various lenses that consider multiple theories and perspectives Defining Globalization: Manfred Steger defined the process as ‘the expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across world-time and world-space’ 2 These definitions point to three (3) qualities at the core of globalization: 1. Expansion – It refers to both the creation of new social networks and the multiplication of existing connections that cut across traditional political, economic, and geographic boundaries. As we have seen in the case of Miss Universe, today’s media combine conventional TV coverage with multiple feeds into digital devices and networks that transcend nationally based services. Today’s media combine conventional TV coverage with multiple feeds into digital devices and networks that transcend nationally based services. 2. Intensification – It refers to the expansion, stretching, and acceleration of these networks. Not only are global connections multiplying, but they are also becoming closely-knit and expanding their reach. 1) The second quality of globalization is reflected in the expansion and the stretching of social relations, activities, and connections. Examples: 1. Gigantic and virtually identical shopping malls have emerged on all continent, catering to those consumers who can afford commodities from all regions of the world – including products whose various components were manufactured in different countries. 2. This process of social stretching applies to FIFA as well as to other non-governmental organizations, commercial enterprises, social clubs, and countless regional and global institutions and associations: the UN, the EU, the Association of South East Asian Nations, the Organization of African Unity, Doctors Without Borders, the World Social Forum, and Google, to name but a few. 2) 3) The third quality of globalization involves the intensification and acceleration of social exchanges and activities. The creation of global networks society fueled by ‘communication power’ required a technological revolution one that has been powered chiefly by the rapid development of new information and communication technologies. Proceeding at breakneck speed, these innovations are reshaping the social landscape of human life. Examples: 1. The World Wide Web relays distant information in real time, and satellites provide consumers with instant pictures of remote events. Sophisticated social networking by means of Facebook or Twitter has become a routine activity for more than a billion people around the globe. 3  The intensification of worldwide social relations means that local happenings are shaped by events occurring far away, and vice versa. To make the point again, the seemingly opposing processes of globalization and localization actually imply each other. Rather than sitting at the base and the top of conventional geographical hierarchies, the local and global intermingle, sometimes messily, with the national and regional, in overlapping horizontal scales. 3. Global imaginary Steger notes that “globalization processes do not occur merely at an objective, material level but they also involve the subjective plane of human conciousness. In other words, “people began to feel that the world has become a smaller place and distance has collapsed from thousands of miles to just a mouse-click away.” One can now email a Cable TV and the Spotify and other related Airplanes, ships, and friend in another internet has also music apps has exposed cars have made travel country and get a reply exposed one to news one to different music to different places easy. instantaneously, and from across the globe, across the world, so now, Now, one is highly as a result, begins to so now, he/she has this he/she has a variety of exposed to different perceive their distance greater sense of what music choices, of cultures, people, as less consequential is happening in other different genre, or even cuisines, language, places. language. ideas, and many more THE FIVE SCAPES OF GLOBALIZATION Arjun Appadurai Globalization refers to the increasing pace and scope of interconnections crisscrossing the globe. Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai has discussed this in terms of five specific “scapes” or flows: ethnoscapes, technoscapes, ideoscapes, financescapes, and mediascapes. 4 The table shows the summary of “scapes” with definition and examples: Scape Description Examples Migrants, asylum Global flow of people; Ethnoscape seekers, exiles, movement of people tourists Hardware Technoscapes Global flows of technology components, technical know-how National stock Financescapes Global flows of money exchanges, commodity speculations, bitcoins Newspapers, magazines, satellite television channels. Mediascapes Global flows of information Websites and the images and symbols they create and provide. Human rights, environmentalism, free Ideoscapes Global flows of ideas trade movements, anti-terrorism, LGBTQ++ Globalization vs. Globalism Globalization Globalism Multidisciplinary (focus) Economic It represents the many It is the widespread belief among processes that allow for the powerful people that global integration expansion and intensification of of economic and democracy around global connections. the world. Conclusion: Globalization from the Ground Up 1. Globalization is a complex process with various intersecting phenomena. 2. Globalization is an uneven process that affects everyone differently. 5