THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

LESSON 1: DEFINING GLOBALIZATION

Introduction

They said that change is the only constant thing in this world, by so many happenings and long
listed history of the world what really change did to us? or did we make the world change? This
question serves as the opening remarks to you who will be attending GEC 3 “The Contemporary
World”, this subject aims to enlighten and gives you broad perspectives about the global changes
that hits and transform the world in different era.

The response of every human is this world are all accountable of what is the world is right now,
so let us examine the global changes and see where we are being part of it.

There are many factors affecting and contributing to globalization, but we will be going to focus
in four major areas namely, Economics, Politics, Society, and Culture. These areas are the most
working and visible contributor of how world changes fast and broad, from manual to
technological.

GLOBALIZATION:

There are many definitions of what globalization for many is, scholars and other academic
people have presented their unique meaning of it.

Meanwhile, even though it has been studied for so many years, still conflicts about perspectives
of Globalization is still existing because of many ideas presented affecting the economy, political
systems, and culture.

Next are the example of the Globalization according to each scholar on their own point of view.

BROAD AND INCLUSIVE VS NARROW AND EXCLUSIVE:

Webster’s Dictionary in 1961, many opinions about globalization have flourished. The literature
on the definitions of globalization revealed that definitions could be as either.

1. Broad and Inclusive 2. Narrow and Exclusive

The one offered by Ohmae in 1993 stated “globalization means the onset of borderless world”
this is an example of Broad and Inclusive type of definition. If one uses such, it can include a
variety of issues that deal with overcoming traditional boundaries. However, it does not shed
light on the implications of globalization due to its vagueness.
Narrow and Exclusive definitions are better justified but can be limiting, in the sense that their
application adhere to only particular definitions.

Robert Cox’s definition suits best in this type: “the characteristics of the 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, making states into agencies of the
globalizing world”.

WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION:

Thomas Larsson (2001)

“The process of world shrinkage, of distances getting, things moving closer.”

Robert Cox (2000)

“The characteristics of the 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 accelerate these processes, and the internationalizing
of the state.”

Thomas Friedman

“The continues evolution of unstable global order”.

OHMAE (1992)

“Globalization means the onset of the borderless world.”

Ritzer (2015)

“Globalization is a trans planetary process or a set of processes involving increasing liquidity and
the growing multidirectional flows of people, objects, places, and information as well as the
structures they encounter and create that are barriers to, or expedite, those flows.”

Ritzer (2008)

“The spread of worldwide practices, relations, consciousness, and organizations of social life”.
GLOBALIZATION SYSTEM:

Globalization system is built around three balances, which overlap and affect one another. The
first is the traditional balance between nation-states. In the globalization system, this balance
still matters. It can still explain a lot of the news you read on the front page of the paper, be it
the containment of Iraq in the Middle East of the expansion of NATO against Russia in Central
Europe.

The second critical balance is nation-states and global markets. These global markets are made
up of millions of investors moving money around the world with the click of the mouse. I call
them the “Electronic herd”. They gather in the key global financial centers, such as Frankfurt,
Hong Kong, London, and New York – the “supermarkets”. The United States can destroy you by
dropping bombs and the supermarkets can destroy you by downgrading your bonds.

The third balance in the globalization system – the one that is really the newest of all – is the
balance between individuals and nation – states. Because globalization has brought down many
of the walls that limited the movement and reach the people, and because it has simultaneously
wired to world into networks, it gives more direct power to individuals than at any time in
history. So, we have now not only superpower not only supermarkets, but super – empowered
individual. Some of these super empowered individuals are quite angry, some of them are quite
constructive – but all are now able to act directly on the world stage without the traditional
mediation of governments or even corporations.

“Dazzled by the glimmer of fast profits, the champions of globalization are incapable of taking
stock of the future”.

GLOBALIZATION AND THE PILLARS:

Globalization rests upon two pillars, or paradigms, which influence the way globalizers such as
Friedman, think.

1. The first pillar is communication. It has tended to replace, little by little, a major driver of the
last two centuries: progress. From schools to businesses, from families and law to government,
there is now one command: communicate.

2. The second pillar is market. It replaces social cohesion, the idea that a democratic society
must function like a clock. In a clock, no piece is unnecessary, and all pieces are unified. From
this 18th mechanical metaphor, we can derive a modern economic and financial version.
QUALITIES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF GLOBALIZATION:

To better grasp the core of this phenomenon, Held and McGrew (2002) described globalization
having four distinct qualities and characteristics.

1. Creation and Multiplication- the current modernization involves first, the creation and
multiplication of social networks and cultural activities thus, breaking the traditional norms and
practices in the political, economic, and cultural realms of most communities.

2. Expansion and Stretching- second globalization are very evident in the expansion and
stretching of social operations and connections. This is reflected on how the financial markets
and trading operate around the globe.

3. Intensification and Acceleration- it describes how the process of world and individual
connection works. The digital age as part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is considerably the
fitting form of its structure.

4. Consciousness and Awareness- people, as the primary actors of globalization are the
front lines as reflected in their experiences. The human consciousness is critical on how they
impact the growing outcomes and markers of globalization.

ARGUMENTS ABOUT GLOBALIZATION

1. States are less and less like closed units, and they cannot control their own economies. The
world economy is more interdependent than ever, with cross-border trade and financial flows
ever expanding.

2. Communication have fundamentally revolutionized the way we deal with the rest of the
world. We now live in a world where events in one location can be immediately observed on the
other side of the world. Electronic communication alters our notions of the social groups we live
in.

3. There is now, more than ever before, a global culture, so that most urban areas resemble one
another. Much of the urban world shares a common culture, much of its emanating from
Hollywood.

4. Time and space seem to be collapsing. Our old ideas of geographical and chronological time
are undermined by the speed of modern communications and media.

5. A cosmopolitan culture is developing. People are beginning to think “globally and act locally”.

6. Globalization is very uneven in its effects. At times it sounds very much like a Western
theory applicable only to a small park of humankind. To pretend that even a small minority of
the world’s population can connect to the internet is clearly exaggeration when most people on
the planet are not so technologically connected. In other words, globalization applies to only to
the developed world.

7. It is the old modernization theory in a new guise. The forces that are being globalized are
conveniently those found in the Western world.

8. There are considerable losers as the world becomes more globalized. This is because
globalization represents the seeming “success” of liberal capitalism in an economically divided
world. Perhaps one outcome is that globalization allows the more efficient exploitation of poorer
nations, and segments of richer ones and all in the name of “openness”.

9. Not all globalized forces are necessarily “good” ones. Globalization makes it easier for
drug cartels and terrorists to operate, and the internet anarchy raises crucial questions of
censorship and preventing access to certain kind of material, including among those trading in
the sexual exploitation of children.

10. Turning to the so-called global governance aspects of globalization, the main worry here
is about responsibility. To whom are the transnational social movements responsible and
democratically accountable. The worry is that most of the emerging powerful actors in a
globalized world are not accountable. This argument also applies to seemingly “good” global
actors such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace.

The Globalization of the World Politics: an introduction to international relations, John Baylis et
al., University Press, United Kingdom., 2017

5 MAJOR THREATS OF GLOBALIZATION:

1. Too hard to many people

2. Too connected

3. Too intrusive- into people’s lives

4. Too unfair to many people

5. Too dehumanizing

Ignacio Ramonet - from his book “The Lexus and the Olive Tree”.

METAPHORS OF GLOBALIZATION:

 SOLID / LIQUID
 Natural and Man-made
 Prevent or make difficult the movement of things.
 Takes the shape of its container.
 Not fixed
Ex. Bodies of Water, Mountain ranges, and other God creation.

Ex. Great wall of China, Eiffel Tower, Philippine Arena, and other gigantic creation of human.

Ex. The spread of photo, video makes it viral, not only locally but also internationally.

The fluctuation of stock market and other digital platform crypto currency.

WHAT WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND?

Globalization is a reality. It is a changing as human society develops. It has happened before and
is still happening today. We should expect to continue to what happen in the future. The future
of globalization is more difficult to predict. What we could expect in the coming years is what
has happened over the past 50 years and that is the fluidity and complexity of globalization as a
concept, which made more debates, discussions, and definitions than agreements on it.

Overall. Globalization is a concept that is not easy to define because, globalization has a shifting
nature, it is complex, multifaceted, and can be influenced by the people who define it.
Moreover, the issues and concerns involving globalization have a wide range – from the
individual to society from small communities to nations and states, and from the benefits we can
gain from it to the costs it could carry.

The previous section described the melting process of solid phenomena followed by the increase
in liquidity. It is only logical to discuss the flows of liquid phenomena. Flows are the movement
of people, things, places, and information brought by the growing “porosity” of global limitations
(Ritzer, 2015). Think of the different foreign cuisines being patronized and consume by the
Filipinos. Aside from local dishes, many of us are fond of eating sushi, ramen, hamburger, and
French fries – food introduce to us by foreign cultures.

CONCLUSION

Globalization- the integration of markets, finance, and technologies in a way that is shrinking the
world from a size medium to small and enabling each of us to reach around the world father,
faster, and cheaper than ever before.

-Thomas L. Freidman