Understanding Globalization Study Guide Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards defining key terms, theoretical frameworks, institutions, and key figures across economic, political, and cultural globalization based on the study guide.

Globalization

The process, condition, and ideology of intensified interdependence across economic, technological, political, and socio-cultural relations worldwide.

Process (Aspect of Globalization)

Social developments transforming the world.

Condition (Globality)

A secular state transformed into global interconnections that eliminate existing boundaries.

Ideology (Globalism)

Human social consciousness that globalization processes affect our beliefs and perceptions of the world's social order.

Expansionism

Creation and widening of social networks and connections across borders.

Intensification and Acceleration

Increased quality and speed of connectivity and development.

Human Awareness of Social Interdependence

A keen sense of becoming part of the global whole that influences behavior and perceptions.

Economic Dimension of Globalization

Growing integration of national economies through international trade, investment, production, technology, labor, and financial flows.

Political Dimension of Globalization

Increasing interaction and cooperation among governments, international organizations, and non-state actors addressing issues that cross national borders.

Socio-Cultural Dimension of Globalization

Worldwide exchange of ideas, values, beliefs, languages, lifestyles, media, food, and cultural practices.

Economic Globalization

The growing interdependence of the world economies manifested by the ever-increasing flows of capital, technologies, and communication through a common economic system.

Silk Route

Ancient path established in 130 BCE trading silk from China (Han Dynasty) to the Middle East and Europe.

Mercantilism

Economic policy where countries sought to sell more goods for economic growth, resulting in high tariffs, restricted trade routes, and subsidized exports.

Gold Standard

Common monetary system formulated at the International Monetary Conference with fixed gold reserves to prevent isolationism.

Fiat Currency

Government-issued currency not backed by a physical commodity (gold or silver), whose value is derived from supply and demand and the stability of the issuing government.

Bretton Woods System

1944 agreement established after WWII by Allied nations in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, which replaced the gold standard with the USD as the global currency.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Bretton Woods institution that provides emergency financing (lender of last resort) and promotes sound macroeconomic policies.

World Bank (IBRD)

Bretton Woods institution initially focused on reconstruction projects that now finances investment, mobilizes capital, and provides advisory services.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

Agreement that facilitated easier trading through the reduction of tariffs and trade barriers, absorbed by the WTO in 1995.

Keynesian Economics

Economic theory developed by John Maynard Keynes stating that governments should actively manage the economy through increased expenditures and lowered taxes to stimulate demand.

Stagflation

An economic condition combining stagnation (no economic growth, high unemployment) and inflation (sharp price increases).

Neoliberalism / Washington Consensus

Economic model emerging in response to Keynesianism in the 1970s that promotes free-market capitalism away from government spending, regulation, and public ownership.

Shock Therapy

Sudden transformation from a command economy to a mixed economy, such as Russia's abrupt privatization under IMF guidance.

Economic Protectionism

Policy seeking to protect domestic industries from foreign competition using tariffs, quotas, and other trade barriers.

Race to the Bottom

Phenomenon where developing countries lower labor standards, weaken social and environmental laws, and loosen tax laws to attract Foreign Direct Investment.

Elements of a State

The four essential components defined by the Montevideo Convention (1933): People, Territory, Government, and Sovereignty.

Sovereignty

Supreme authority within the state and independence from superior external political authority.

Peace of Westphalia

Historical settlement commonly associated with the establishment of territorial sovereignty in the interstate system.

Imagined Community

Benedict Anderson's concept describing a nation as an imagined political community that is both limited and sovereign.

Internationalism

The belief that shared global challenges require deliberate cooperation among sovereign states.

Liberal Internationalism

Ideology emphasizing individual freedom, democracy, free markets, rule of law, interdependence, and peaceful dispute settlement through international institutions.

Socialist Internationalism

Ideology emphasizing social justice, equality, class solidarity across national borders, and critique of capitalist economic relations.

International Court of Justice (ICJ)

Principal UN organ that settles legal disputes submitted by states.

Global Governance

Formal and informal arrangements that manage transboundary problems even when no single global sovereign exists.

Regionalism

State-driven or institution-driven political process involving deliberate policy cooperation and coordination.

Regionalization

Pattern of cross-border flows (such as trade, labor migration, and supply chains) that can grow without formal regional institutions.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Regional organization that institutionalizes consultation, consensus, and non-interference among Southeast Asian nations.

AHA Centre

ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management operating under the One ASEAN One Response framework.

Cultural Globalization

The intensification and expansion of cultural flows across the globe, involving the worldwide movement and exchange of ideas, values, customs, and ways of life.

Culture

Defined by Edward Tylor as a complex whole of knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and other capacities acquired by human beings as members of society.

Ethnoscapes

Arjun Appadurai's scape describing the movement of people across borders, including migrants, tourists, refugees, students, workers, pilgrims, and exiles.

Technoscapes

Arjun Appadurai's scape describing the cross-border flow of technology, technical knowledge, machines, and infrastructural capacities.

Financescapes

Arjun Appadurai's scape describing the rapid global flow of capital, money, investments, currency, and financial instruments.

Mediascapes

Arjun Appadurai's scape describing the global flow of images, stories, narratives, entertainment, news, and representations.

Ideoscapes

Arjun Appadurai's scape describing the global flow of political ideas, moral values, ideologies, and concepts.

The medium is the message

Marshall McLuhan's assertion that the form of a technology reshapes perception, behavior, and social organization beyond its content.

Infodemic

Defined by the WHO as an excessive amount of information, including false or misleading information, during a disease outbreak.

Cultural Imperialism

Concept articulated by Herbert Schiller and John Tomlinson that powerful media systems spread dominant Western capitalist values and consumer culture.

Consumerism

A lifestyle orientation in which identity and success are strongly associated with acquisition, display, and consumption.

Hybridization

Cultural mixing where foreign and local elements combine to produce new cultural forms.

Glocalization

The adaptation of global products to local contexts and cultural tastes.

Cultural Pluralism

A social condition in which multiple cultural groups maintain distinct identities while participating in a shared public life.

Secularization Theory

The perspective that modernization increases reliance on science and bureaucracy, potentially reducing religious authority in public institutions.

Resurgence Theory

The perspective that modern uncertainty intensifies religious identity by offering belonging, moral clarity, and resistance to consumerism.

Manfred Steger

Theorist who defined the three distinctive qualities of globalization (expansionism, intensification, human awareness) and defined cultural globalization.

Anthony Giddens

Theorist who defined globalization as the compression of time and geographic boundaries.

Benedict Anderson

Theorist who conceptualized the nation as an imagined political community.

John Maynard Keynes

Economist who advocated active government spending and tax policy to manage the economy and stimulate demand.

Friedrich Hayek & Milton Friedman

Economic critics who argued that government stimulus causes inflation by increasing demand without increasing supply, promoting free markets.

Herbert Schiller

Theorist who analyzed cultural imperialism and how global media spread American capitalist values.

Marshall McLuhan

Media theorist who coined the phrases Global Village and the medium is the message.

Arjun Appadurai

Theorist who developed the framework of five scapes (ethnoscapes, technoscapes, financescapes, mediascapes, ideoscapes) to explain cultural flows.

Peter Berger

Sociologist who asserted that the contemporary era is Furiously Religious rather than purely secularized.