Globalization Lecture Notes PDF

GLOBALIZATION DEFINED The term globalization is not new in the modern context. Many researches, debates and discussions were made as to the meaning of the word. Cuturela (2012) cited a published work, Towards New Education, which used the term “globalization” in 1930. Globalization means...

GLOBALIZATION DEFINED The term globalization is not new in the modern context. Many researches, debates and discussions were made as to the meaning of the word. Cuturela (2012) cited a published work, Towards New Education, which used the term “globalization” in 1930. Globalization means to designate an overview of the human experience in education. On the other hand, Inosemtsev (2008) distinguished globalization as one of the most known social studies, but is still a hollow terminology. However, after the Cold War the term was already used to define an interdependent world when it comes to its economical and informational dimensions. As it is defined by Webster, globalization is the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets. Robertson (1992), in his article, Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture, defined globalization as the “understanding of the world and the increased perception of the world as a whole.” Therefore, the term has a rich concept that people need to have deliberate grasp in order to fully understand the term. In fact, Albrow and King (1990) defined globalization as “all those processes by which the people of the world are incorporated into a single world society. This only means that peoples around the globe live in a borderless community. It is, however, significant to say that globalization has exerted a tremendously serious impact on each sovereign state. The transnational spread of capital and the formation of the global markets have replaced the disintegrated economies of various countries. The work of Giddens (1991) has supported this claim when he highlighted in his definition that globalization is the process of intensifying social relationships among countries around the world connecting separate localities in a manner in which local events are formed as a result of happenings that have occurred from afar. There is a rapid interconnection worldwide that links among people in the local, national and even in regional context. This interconnectedness is created because of social and economic relationships and networks which are relevant in the global interactions.  Steger (2005) cited Freeden (2003) who pointed out that globalization denotes not an ideology, but ‘a range of processes nesting under one rather unwieldy epithet. He furthered that global flows occur in different physical and mental dimensions. Steger (2005), on the other hand, opined that globalization should be confined to a set of complex, social processes that are changing out current social condition derived from the modern independence of nation-states. He furthered that key concepts of globalization have been defined such as multidimensional set of social processes that create, multiply, stretch, and intensity worldwide social interdependencies and exchange while making people aware of connections between the local and the distant. The term globalization should be confined to a set of complex, sometimes contradictory, social processes that are changing our current social condition based on the modern system of independent nation-states. Indeed, most scholars of globalization have defined their key concept along those lines as a multidimensional set of social processes that create, multiply, stretch, and intensify worldwide social interdependencies and exchanges while at the same time fostering in people a growing awareness of deepening connections between the local and the distant. The International Monetary Fund (IMF, 2000) identified some overviews of various areas of globalization. Globalization ‘offers extensive opportunities for truly worldwide development, but it is not progressing evenly’. IMF conveyed that there are some countries that have been able to integrate into the global market rapidly, yet there are also some that have not yet integrated. Those countries that were able to integrate in the global market are growing fast and are able to reduce problems of poverty. To reiterate, globalization is not a recent phenomenon and there is nothing mystifying about it. In the 1980’s, the term “globalization” has become a common word manifesting advances in modern technologies that have made international transactions, in both trade and finances, convenient, accessible, and easy. IMF (2000) noted that globalization refers to an extension beyond national borders of the same market forces that have operated for centuries at all levels of human economic activity which includes village markets, urban industries, or financial centers.  Conversely, Hutton & Giddens, as cited by Cuturela (2009) emphasized that globalization is the interplay of extraordinary technological innovation mixed with influence of the world that gives today’s changing its complexity. They expressed that the balance between science or knowledge and resources has changed in such a way that science and knowledge have become perhaps the most significant factor in the determination of the country/s standard of living. Truly, the countries with the most advanced economies are the countries with the most modern technology based on science and knowledge. THE FIVE CORE CLAIMS OF MARKET GLOBALISM Steger (2014) pointed out that in the mid-1990’s, more population in the global north and south had accepted globalism’s core claims, thus internalizing large parts of its overarching neo-liberal framework that advocated the deregulation of markets, the liberalization of trade, the privatization of state-owned enterprises, and , after 9/11, the qualified support of the global ‘War on Terror’ under US leadership. The five core claims of market globalism are as follows: First claim is that, Globalization is about the liberalization and global integration of market. This is absolutely anchored in the neo—liberal ideal of self-regulating market as the normative basis for a future global order. This perspective explains the relevant functions of free market-its rationality and efficiency, as well as its alleged ability to bring about greater social integration and material progress-can only be realized in a democratic society that values and protects individual freedom. The second claim is that, Globalization is inevitable and irreversible. The market-globalist perspective sees globalization as the spread of irreversible market forces driven by technological innovations that make the global integration of national economies inevitable. As a matter of fact, market globalism is always interlaced with a belief that markets have the capacity to use new technologies to solve social problems. Nobody is in charge of globalization is the third claim. This claim highlights the semantic link between ‘globalization-market’ and the adjacent idea of ‘leaderlessness’. Robert Hormats (1998) opined that ‘The great beauty of globalization is that no one is in control.’ This only means that no individual, no government or no institution has the control over globalization. Similarly, Thomas Friedman (1999:112-3) emphasized that the most basic truth about globalization is this: ‘No one is in charge…But the global marketplace today is an Electronic Herd of often anonymous stock, bond, and currency traders and multinational investors, connected by screens and networks.’ The next claim is that, Globalization benefits everyone. This lies at the heart of market globalism and represents a ‘good’ phenomenon. AT the 19986 G-7 Summit in Lyons, France, the heads of state and government of the world’s seven most powerful industrialized nations issued a joint Economic Communique (1996) that exemplifies the principal meaning of this claim: Economic growth and progress in today’s interdependent world is bound up with the process of globalization. Globalization provides great opportunities for the future, not only for our countries, but for all others, too. Its many positive aspects include an unprecedented expansion of investment and trade; the opening up to international trade of the world’s most populous regions and opportunities for more developing countries to improve their standards of living; the increasingly rapid dissemination of information, technological innovation, and the proliferation of skilled jobs. The fifth and the last claim is that, Globalization furthers the spread of democracy in the world. Francis Fukuyama (2000) stressed that there exists a ‘clear correlation’ between the country’s level of economic development and successful democracy. While globalization and capital development do not automatically produce democracies, ‘the level of economic development resulting from globalization is conducive to the creation of complex civil societies with a powerful middle class. It is this class and societal structure that facilitates democracy’. The former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (1999) praised the Eastern Europe’s economic transition towards capitalism by saying, “The emergence of new businesses and shopping centers in former communist countries should be seen as the ‘backbone of democracy.’