HSS F317

Introduction to
Globalization
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Globalization of Technology, Communication and Entertainment -1

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Globalization of Technology, Communication and Entertainment -2

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Globalization of Trade, marketing and consumerism - 1

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Globalization of Trade, marketing and consumerism - 2

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Globalization of Trade, Diplomacy and Agreements

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 What is ‘Globalization’? - General overview and cross-disciplinary
intersections

Globalization is a global process or 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.

Since its earliest appearance in the 1960s, the term 'globalization'

has been used in both popular and academic literature to describe a
process, a condition, a system, a force, and an age.

Indeed, the popular phrase

'globalization is happening' contains three important pieces of
information:

first, we are slowly leaving behind the condition of

modernity that gradually unfolded from the 16th century onwards;

second, we are moving towards the new condition of (postmodern)

globality; and,

third, we have not reached yet.

 How old is globalization? is it a new phenomenon?
• One of the dominant ideas is that, Globalization began about 12,000 years ago
when small bands of hunters and gatherers reached the southern tip of South
America. This event marked the end of the long process of settling all five
continents that was begun by our hominid African ancestors more than one
million years ago.
• Some scholars consciously limit the historical scope of globalization to the last
four decades of post-industrialism in order to capture its contemporary
features.
• Others are willing to extend this timeframe to include the ground-breaking
developments of the 19th century.
• Some argue that globalization really represents the Continuation and extension
of complex processes that began with the emergence of modernity and the
capitalist world system some five centuries ago.
• Remaining researchers refuse to confine globalization to time periods
measured in mere decades or centuries. Rather, they suggest that these
processes have been unfolding for millennia.
Postmodern version of the parable of the blind men
and the elephant
• The ongoing academic quarrel over which dimension contains the
essence of globalization represents a postmodern version of the
parable of the blind men and the elephant.

• Even those scholars who agree that globalization is best thought of

as a singular process clash with each other over which aspect of
social life constitutes the primary domain of the phenomenon.

• Some scholars argue that economic processes lie at the core of

globalization. Others privilege political, cultural, or ideological
aspects.

• Still others point to environmental processes as the essence of

globalization. Like the blind men in the parable, each globalization
researcher is partly right by correctly identifying one important
dimension of the phenomenon in question.
• Globalization was discussed in Sociology and Anthropology, as well as in religious studies
during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
• The idea of globalization did not fully enter academic, not to speak of wider political and
intellectual, discourse until the late 1980s or early 1990s. The widespread use across the
world of this term began only after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
• The establishment of the global financial institutions and services like the World Trade
Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF) etc. and their countering anti-
capitalist movements during 1990s paved the way for the idea of globalization to grow and
come into debates and discussions widely.
• During late 1990s to early 2000s, more affluent and developed nations started arguing in
favour of desirability of open markets, free trade, deregulation and privatization.
• Accompanying the advocacy of such policies, one which has been labelled by the scholars
denoting the much anticipated and debated idea of ‘Neoliberalism’.
Hence, scholars who explore the dynamics of globalization are
particularly keen on pursuing research questions related to the
theme of social change---

• Definitions/ conceptual introduction to the idea.

• How does globalization occur?
• Theories depicting the idea of Globalization.
• Is it one cause or a combination of factors?/ Factors affecting Globalization.
• Is globalization a uniform or an uneven process?/ Processes of Globalization.
• Interconnectedness of the ideas of transnationality, TNCs, Glocalization, Global
village and so on.
• Does globalization create new forms of inequality and hierarchy?/ Criticism.
 Major Definitions….varied perspectives
• ‘Globalization can thus be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities
in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa’……
Anthony Giddens

• ‘The concept of globalization reflects the sense of an immense enlargement of world communication, as well as of
the horizon of a world market, both of which seem far more tangible and immediate than in earlier stages of
modernity’….. Fredric Jameson

• ‘Globalization may be thought of as a process (or set of processes) which embodies a transformation in the spatial
organization of social relations and transactions – assessed in terms of their extensity, intensity, velocity and
impact - generating transcontinental or interregional flows and networks of activity, interaction, and the exercise
of power’…..David Held

• ‘Globalization as a concept refers both to the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of
the world as a whole’….. Roland Robertson

• ‘Globalization compresses the time and space aspects of social relations’….. James Mittelman
Global Flow of Data and Information – Trend Analysis (2005-2014)
Time-Space Compression
 Perspectives of understanding Globalization- Three major approaches

• Neo-Liberal orientation of global market;

• Pledging for trans-national global co-operations;
• De-Nationalization of economy;
• Promotion of consumerist ideology
• Liberal market and trading situation;
• Declining authority of Nation-States on economy • Critical Neo-Marxist perspective;
• Regulation on economy and trade by Nation-States
 Key differences among these approaches

The power of national governments is waning

Erosion of old patterns of stratification Skeptical Approach

Declining relevance and authority of nation-states on market Critical towards the neo-liberal market economy

Pledging for State control over economy,

Hyperglobalist Approach structure and policies

Critical to the consumerist ideology

Pointing towards the marginalization of the third

world nations and systematic annihilation of
indigenous values and traditions

A new world order “architecture” is developing,

though the exact nature of the emerging is unknown
yet
The criticism of changing of traditional structures is Transformationalist Approach
not fully visible yet
Not focusing on specific agendas of transformation;
neither certain of trajectories of such changes
 Evaluating the impact of globalization and Neo-Liberalism on…
Economics and Trade Positives
 Evaluating the impact of globalization and Neo-Liberalism on…
Economics and Trade Negatives
Impact of trade imbalance/ deficit on domestic market and economy
 Evaluating the impact of globalization and Neo-Liberalism on….
Community Negatives
Positives
 Evaluating the impact of globalization and Neo-Liberalism on….
Technological Advancement Negatives
Positives
 Evaluating the impact of globalization and Neo-Liberalism on….
Positives Migration and Culture Negatives
Sociologist Roland Robertson coined the term
"glocalization" (1980) on the Harvard Business
Review. Robertson described glocalization as "the
simultaneity—the co-presence—of both
universalizing and particularizing tendencies".