Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD NOTES
MODULE 1 – APPROACHES AND DEFINITIONS OF GLOBALIZATION
Material 1 – The Essentials of Globalization – by Ritzer







It can be argued that globalization is the most important change in human history
...
This
definition does not assume that greater integration is an inevitable component of
globalization
...

A term that is closely related to Globalization is TRANSNATIONALISM - the processes that
interconnects individuals and social groups across specific geo-political borders
...

Globalization and transnationalism are often used interchangeably, but transnationalism is
clearly a more delimited process
...
Globalization includes such connections but is not restricted to them
and encompasses a far wider range of transplanetary processes (ex
...

- Further, geo-political borders are one
of the barriers encountered, and
often, overcome, by globalization
...


...
It is limited to the
interconnections
between
geopolitical borders
...
IT IS NOT NECESSARILY
GLOBAL
...

“SOLID” – to describe epochs before the era of globalizations
...

 SOLIDITY – having limited mobility
...

 As a result, people either did not go anywhere or they did not venture very far from where
they were born; their social relationships was restricted to those nearby
...










The solidity of material manifestations of information (ex
...
Since people didn’t move very far, neither did
information
...

It was the nation-state that was most likely to create these “solid” barriers
...
Berlin Wall, in order to keep East
Berliners in and Western Berliners out)
...
It is very often the case that demands
for new forms of solidity are the result of increased fluidity (ex
...


FLUDITY is more characteristic of today’s world, especially in terms of globalization
...

 Information could always travel more easily than goods or people (by word of mouth, it
moved even faster as more advanced communication technologies emerged)
...

 At an increasing rate over the last few centuries, what once seemed so solid has tended to
“melt” and become increasingly liquid
...

 New liquids that are being created are inherent parts of the new world and are radically
transforming
...

 LIQUIDITY – increasing ease of movement of people, things, information, and places in the
global age
...
Once they are on
the move, the are difficult to stop
...
But time in a liquid
world is more important than space
...

 “FLOWS”
 FLOWS – movement of people, things, information, and places in due, in part, to the
increasing porosity of global barriers
...

 Globalization is increasingly characterized by great flows of increasingly liquid phenomena of
all types, including people, objects, information, decisions, places
...

There are many different approaches to the study of globalization
...

No generally accepted definition of globalization has emerged, except for broad descriptions,
such as “increasing global,” or “inter-connectedness
...

Frederic Jameson (1998): There seems to be little utility in forcing such a complex set of
social forces as globalization into a single analytic framework
...


Globalization as “Globaloney”
A small and rapidly decreasing number of scholars contend that existing accounts of
globalization are incorrect, imprecise, or exaggerated
...
Representatives of the first group dispute Globalization as a sufficiently precise analytical
concept
...
The second group points to the limited nature of globalizing processes, emphasizing that the
world is not nearly as integrated as many globalization proponents believe
...
– sceptics
3
...
– modifiers


Rejectionists






Dismisses the utility of globalization as an analytical concept
...

Linda Weiss objects to the term as a big idea resting on slim foundations
...

The author suggests that globalization should be explored as an objective process with more
interpretive studies of the ideological project of globalism
...
They
assert that the concept is misused
...
The majority of economic
activity around the world still remains primarily national in origin and scope
...





But there are also remains a number of problems with the Hirst-Thompson Thesis
...
”
The most serious shortcoming of the Hirst-Thompson theory is that their argument implicitly
assumes that globalization is primarily an economic phenomenon
...


Modifiers (modify/enhance the idea of globalization)











The Third and final groups of globalization critics dispute the novelty of the process, implying
that the label ‘globalization’ has often been applied in a historically imprecise manner
...

Gilpin notes that the world economy in the late 1990s appeared to be even less integrated
than it was prior to the outbreak of World War I
...

World-system theorists argue that the modern capitalist economy in which, we live today
has been global since its inception five centuries ago
...
Instead, they emphasize that globalizing tendencies have been
proceeding along the continuum of modernization for a long time
...

However, more recent studies produced by world-system scholars acknowledge that the
pace of globalization has significantly quickened in the last few decades of the century
...


GLOBALIZATION AS AN ECONOMIC PROCESS





Some of the earliest writings on the topic explore in much detail how the evolution of
international markets and corporations led to an intensified form of global interdependence
...
Thus expanding economic activity is
identified as both the primary aspect of globalization and the engine behind its rapid
development
...










Perhaps the two most important aspects of economic globalization relate to the changing
nature of the production process and the liberalization and internationalization of financial
transactions
...

The availability of cheap labor, resources, and favorable production conditions in the third
world countries enhanced both mobility and profitability of TNCs
...

The availability of cheap labor, resources, and favorable production conditions in the third
world country enhanced both the mobility and profitability of TNCs
...

What are the political causes for the massive flows of capital, money, and technology across
territorial boundaries? Do these flows constitute a serious challenge to the power of the
national boundaries? These questions imply that economic globalization might be leading to
the reduced control of national governments over economic policy
...
In particular, steady advances in computer
technology and communication systems such as the WWW are seen as the primary forces
responsible for this creation
...

politics is rendered powerless in the face of an unstoppable and irreversible technoeconomic
juggernaut that will crush all governmental attempts to reintroduce restrictive policies and
regulations
...

The role of government will ultimately be reduced to serving as a superconductor for global
capitalism
...
The
nation-state has already lost its role as a meaningful unit of participation in the global
economy
...
But this does not mean that nation-states are no longer the main
organizing forces of the world
...
These concrete political decisions are responsible for changing the
international context in the direction of deregulation and privatization
...










John Gray for example, presents globalization as a long-term technology-driven process
whose contemporary shape has been politically determined by the world’s most powerful
nations
...
Some researchers might believe that political globalization might facilitate the
emergence of democratic transnational social forces emerging from a thriving sphere of
‘global civil society
...
They portray globalization as diminishing the sovereignty of national
governance, thereby, reducing the relevance of the nation state
...
However, sceptics like Robert Holton do
not explore in sufficient detail the cultural feasibility of global democracy
...

A number of prominent scholars have emphasized the centrality of culture to contemporary
debates on globalization
...
”
EQ: Does globalization increase cultural homogeneity, or does it lead to greater diversity and
heterogeneity? – Simply, does globalization make people more alike or more different? And
second, how does the dominant culture of consumerism impact the natural environment?
Tomlinson (1999) defines cultural globalization as a densely growing network of complex
cultural interconnections and interdependencies that characterize normal social life
...

This makes images and ideas be easily transmitted from one place to another easily
...

A number of scholars argue that these processes have facilitated the rise of an increasingly
homogenized global culture underwritten by an Anglo-American value system
...

The American sociologist Goerge Ritzer (1993), for example coined the term
Mcdonaldization to describe the wide-ranging process by which, the principles of the fastfood restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of the American society, as
well as the rest of the world
...

The American political theories, Benjamin R
...















1
...

3
...

5
...

Jihad and McWorld are dialectically interlocked in a bitter cultural struggle for popular
allegiance
...
Roland Robertson (1995) has famously argued that global cultural often
reinvigorates local cultural niches
...
The result is not increasing
cultural homogenization, but ‘glocalization’
...
These interactions lead to a complex mixture of both homogenizing and
heterogenizing impulses
...

Scholars like Pieterse, Hannerz, and Robertson seek to expand the concept of globalization
by portraying it as a multidimensional field
...

Appadurai identifies five conceptual dimensions or ‘landscapes’ that are constituted by
global cultural flows:
Ethnoscapes – shifting populations made up of tourists, immigrants, refugees, and exiles
...

Finanscapes – Flows of global capital
Mediascapes – electronic capabilities to produce and disseminate information
...


Cultural Globalization and Consumerism







Cultures steeped in Taoist, Buddhist, and various animist religions often emphasize the
interdependence of all living beings – a perspective that calls for a delicate balance between
human wants and ecological needs
...

The two most ominous ecological problems connected to the global spread of consumer
culture are human-induced global climate change, such as global warming, and the
worldwide destruction of biodiversity
...
Initiatives such as carbon ‘taxes’, trading, and biodiversity ‘banks’ have emerged in
policy discussions at national and global levels about approaches to global warming, species
extinction, and overpopulation
...

Overall, there exists a variety of approaches to the subject, but no scholarly agreement on a
single conceptual framework for the study a globalization
...


*global south refers to economically less developed countries

READING MATERIAL 2 – DEFINITIONS OF GLOBALIZATION






Globalization cannot be expounded upon with certainty and be applicable to all people in all
situations
...

The debate of globalization stems largely from defining this concept
...


“Globalization is the process of world shrinkage, of distances getting shorter, things moving closer
...
” – Thomas Larsson



Review the definitions that are available in an attempt to truly understand this concept
...
Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses
...

EXAMPLE OF A SPECIFIC DEFINITION: The characteristics of globalization trend include the internationalizing of
production, the new international division of labor, new migratory movements from South to North, the new
competitive environment that accelerates these processes, and the internationalizing of the state…
...







Kumar argues that “ the debate about what to do about Globalization is very much a debate about
what globalization is
...

Due to the complexity of the concept, research projects, articles, and discussions usually remain
focused on a single aspect of globalization in order to be able to provide some concrete solutions and
recommendations
...










Globalization is NOT an endpoint to be discussed and then forgotten
...

HUMAN ACTIVITIES encompass the linguistic, cultural, economic, and political aspects of human life
that are a part of the human and social sphere
...

Globalization is an activity that influences us in a number of ways BOTH TO OUR BENEFIT, and ALSO
TO OUR DETRIMENT
...

67 of 114 definitions presented in the paper make some reference to the economic dimension
...

The paper argues that the perspective of the person who defines globalization shapes any definition
thereof
...

As globalization exists at different times and means different things to different facets of society and
the international system, it can NEVER BE FULLY DEFINED to the satisfaction of all who are impacted
by its implications
...


*refer to definitions of globalization
...

The idea of it being a reality is something being debated, there are scientists who think that there really is
globalization
...
”
Globalization is not something new, it has happened before
...
Globalization is only
political, cultural, and environmental
...

For some people who live in societies who benefit from globalization is something positive
...

IDEOLOGY – a system of beliefs used by people to justify a particular order or situation
...

“We cannot study something if we cannot understand/define it” but at least we have something to begin with
...
But some
tried to be very broad to catch all possible dimensions of globalizations
...

The world is becoming borderless as political boundaries are being less strict
...


My definition:
Globalization is the flow of people, objects, and information from one nation state to another as a result of
technological advancements
...
The pace of global connectivity has
greatly increased due to economic and technological advancements
...

Globalization fostered by information revolution
...

Thus the privilege of global interaction was only a tiny minority of any society
o ex
...

o The formation of global interactions was only limited to the upper classes, to the nobility
...

With the advent of industrial technologies such as the steam engine and telephone, people can
communicate/travel to places far from their indigenous localities
...

o RAILROAD – a prominent invention during the Industrial Revolution
...

o Expanded the geographic mentality of the people (national culture was fostered)
...
Globalization went hand in hand with the rise of the nation-state as transportation technologies
enabled people to experience a wider geographic area as if it was one national culture that was
fostered
...

The nation state regulates everything
...

o However, technologies, such as transportation technologies, connect people that go beyond
the paradigm of the nation-state
...















The global connections these technology enable, start local and travel globally, with limited reference
to the national level
...
PRIVATIZATION AND REDUCTION OF TRADE BARRIERS ENABLED GLOBAL FREE MARKET
...

Given these realities, pressing questions have been emerging:
o “How can we manage the global economy?”
o “How to regulate and manage the global level activities given that the management of the world
remained in the nation states?”
Financial crisis, pandemics (COVID-19) offshore tax havens, illegal migration, and other environmental
issues such as global warming, air pollution, or overfishing are directly linked the to lack of GLOBAL
GOVERNANCE
...

o We need to recognize that the current nation state cannot manage the current context of the
global economy
...
BUT IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE A
CENTRALIZED GLOBAL GOVERNANCE?
Networks are emerging for managing human activities as an alternative to the industrial framework
...

o These networks have cross-boundary connectivity
...

MARKET SYSTEM: A new logic of commercial exchange has risen
...

o Economies around the world are no longer governed by the nation state, and more by the
rules of economics, and flow of financial capital
...


GLOBALIZATION: THE MARKET LOGIC (1
...
Resources have been consumed by their
families
...

Before the rise of market systems, political entities governed and made decisions for the ordering of
societies
...

MODERN ERA: The rise of capitalism and market system, particularly since the industrial revolution
...

MARKET SYSTEM TAKES ON A NEW ROLE: it becomes an end themselves, instead of a means to an
end that is controlled by the political elite
...

ECONOMY BINDS PEOPLE through interdependence
...
Though this was challenged by planned economies such as USSR, it came to
dominate
...


o





-

An ideology that promotes the free market is the rationale of capitalism and the market
system
...
Although the
state is needed for basic support, Hayek saw the MARKET as an optimal self-sustaining system and
enabling it required converting it to private property
...
It came to encompass a set of
ideas about human nature, economics and social organization
...
Associated with free market capitalism
...

o NEOLIBERALISM had a clear agenda to shift power from democratic systems of governance
and move it to the market
...
AND SHIFTING OF POWER INTO THE EXECUTIVE AND
INTERNATIONAL BODIES NOT CONTROLLED THROUGH DEMOCRATIC PROCEDURES
...

- The shift of power from political institutions to the market or private enterprise
...
Countries around the world then
began to industrialize their economies
...


GLOBALIZATION: 4 PLATFORM ECONOMY (2
...

However, the financial crisis in the past two decades made us question neoliberalism (1997 and 2008
financial crisis)
...

o “Were the financial crises signs of the end of globalization?”
o The financial crises fueled the re-emergence of nationalist sentiments (deglobalization)
The globalization of today is no longer driven by increasing exchange of goods, but instead, is driven
by the exchange of information and services
...

o Everything started to shift in the realm of information and technology
...

WEB 2
...
Allowed people to interact through
collaborative platforms
...
0
...
Less capital intensive
...

o Nowadays, we are witnessing a platform economy where there is a convergence between the
market system and the information network
...

o The platform economy is an information network economy
...

The control of global activities and exchanges shifted from the nation state to the market system and
then to information networks
...


GLOBALIZATION: EMPIRE OF NETWORKS














Societies start to become aware of living in a globally interconnected context
...

The level of inequality brought about by globalization became unbearable for many societies
...

o We are not sure about the consequences of the current digital mode of operation or the
system of networks
...

o Economic organization and information networks are about to truly become one
...

o The internet became privately owned by data centers
...

o There are 400 hyperscale data centers in the world, half reside in the United States
...

o The current move is a decentralized web – it removes the internets dependence on
centralized systems
...

DECENTRALIZED WEB – decentralize economic activity and shift operations to global information
based networks
...

The DECENTRALIZED WEB removes the internet’s dependency upon centralized systems to enable
trust, security, value exchange, and computing resources
...

There are new forms of economies (microeconomies), such as token market economies
...

o TOKEN MARKET ECONOMIES can now be built for any resources that needs managing
(people investing in bitcoin)
GLOBAL COLLABORATION can potentially enable very rapid economic development for any society by
having a shared and trusted global computing network
...
But who will rule that world? It could be us

---