MOD 1
CONTEMPORARY WORLD | MODULE 1
GLOBALIZATION
In Simple Terms
- Globalization is the process by which people and goods move easily across borders.
Cultural Concept - Through globalization, ideas and traditions are traded and assimilated.
An Economic Concept - Globalization is the integration of markets, trade and investments with few barriers to slow the flow of products and services between nations.
Not Good Terms - Globalization has brought many benefits to many people. But not to everyone.
STARBUCKS
- The first Starbucks outlet opened its doors in 1971 in the city of Seattle.
- At present. It has over 15,000 stores in 50 countries.
- These days you can find a Starbucks anywhere, whether Australia, Cambodia, Chile or Dubai.
- It's what you might call a truly globalized company.
- The company was purchasing 247 million kilograms of unroasted coffee from 29 countries.
Through its stores and purchases, it provided jobs and income for hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. And for many suppliers and jobseekers, not to mention coffee- drinkers, this was a good thing.
In 2012, Starbucks made headlines after a Reuters investigation showed that the chain hadn't paid much tax to the UK government, despite having almost a thousand coffee shops in the country and earning millions of pounds in profit there.
As a multinational company, Starbucks was able to use complex accounting rules that enabled it to have profit earned in one country taxed in another. Because the latter country had a lower tax rate, Starbucks benefited. Ultimately, the British public missed out, as the government was raising less tax to spend on improving their well-being.
How Did Globalization Happen?
We might think of globalization as a relatively new phenomenon, but it’s been around for centuries.
Silk Road
One example is the Silk Road, when trade spread rapidly between China and Europe via an overland route. Merchants carried goods for trade back and forth, trading silk as well as gems and spices and, of course, coffee. (In fact, the habit of drinking coffee in a social setting originates from a Turkish custom, an example of how globalization can spread culture across borders.
The Silk Road
The early form of globalization known as archaic globalization could be traced in the trade links known as the Silk Route. The Silk Route or the Silk Road is not a single road. It is a network of roads in Eurasia connecting Eastern and Southern Asia with the Mediterranean world, stretching from Changan in China across the Taklamakan Desert, over the Pamir Mountains, through the grasslands of Central Asia, into
Persia and then to the Mediterranean, with branches in the northern Eurasian steppes and India.
What Drives Globalization?
“Globalization has speeded up enormously over the last half-century, thanks to gr eat leaps in technology.”
ü - The internet has revolutionized connectivity and communication, and helped people share their ideas much more widely, just as the invention of the printing press did in the 15th century. The advent of email made communication faster than ever.
ü The invention of enormous container ships helped too. In fact, improvements in transport generally – faster ships, trains and airplanes – have allowed us to move around the globe much more easily.
ü A “global village” is created when distance and isolation no longer matter because people are connected by technology.
What's good about it?
Globalization has led to many millions of people being lifted out of poverty.
ü For example, when a company like Starbucks buys coffee from farmers in Rwanda, it is providing a livelihood and a benefit to the community as a whole.
ü A multinational company's presence overseas contributes to those local economies because the company will invest in local resources, products and services.
ü Socially responsible corporations may even invest in medical and educational facilities.
Globalization has not only allowed nations to trade with each other, but also to cooperate with each other as never before.
ü Take the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, for instance, where 195 countries all agreed to work towards reducing their carbon emissions for the greater global good.
What's bad about it?
-Widening the gap
Although globalization is helping to create more wealth in developing countries, it is not helping to close the gap between the world's poorest and richest nations.
-While many have been lifted out of poverty, not everybody has benefited.
Many argue that globalization operates mostly in the interests of the richest countries, with most of the world's collective profits flowing back to them and into the pockets of those who already own the most.
-Globalization when done right...
Basically, done wisely (in the words of the International Monetary Fund) globalization could lead to "unparalleled peace and prosperity". Done poorly, "to disaster".
-While some areas have flourished, others have floundered as jobs and
commerce move elsewhere.
Steel companies in the UK, for example, once thrived, providing work for hundreds of thousands of people. But when China began producing cheaper steel, steel plants in the UK closed down and thousands of jobs were lost.
-Every step forward in technology brings with it new dangers.
Computers have vastly improved our lives, but cybercriminals steal millions of pounds a year. Global wealth has skyrocketed, but so has global warming.
Definition of Globalization
Manfred B. Steger
Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawai’i-Manoa and Senior Advisor on International Education and Globalization to the Dean of Social Sciences. He is the author of Globalization: a Very Short Introduction.
What is his definition of globalization?
Globalization refers to the expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across world-time and world-space. It is a multi- dimensional phenomenon involving economics, politics, culture, ideology, environment, and technology.
What is expansion?
Expansion refers to both the creation of new social networks and the multiplication of existing connections that cut across traditional political, economic, cultural, and geographic boundaries.
What is intensification?
The spreading, stretching and acceleration of global connections.
Economic Globalization
Economic globalization is synonymous with the cross- border division of labor. Today, no country produces solely to satisfy its own needs, but instead also for producers and consumers in other countries. And each country makes what it knows best, relatively speaking. Economic globalization, with free trade being a natural component, increases productivity. Without it, the poverty on this planet would not have been reduced to the extent it has been over the past decades..
Political Globalization
The core argument of political globalization is that coping with ever more complex problems of this world — ranging from economic crises to the protection of the environment — requires a central decision- making process. The nation state — as a sovereign representative of people — has become obsolete and needs to be replaced by a globally active political power.
Globalism vs Globalization
Steger clarifies that his definition of globalization should not be confused with and ideology called “globalism”.
Globalism
A widespread belief among powerful people that global integration of economic markets is beneficial for everyone, since it spreads freedom and democracy. It is a common belief forwarded to the media and policy circles.
Globalization
Globalization refers to the expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across world-time and world- space. It is also a process that refers to a larger phenomenon that cannot be simply reduced the ways in which global markets have been integrated.
Appadurai’s Five Scapes of Globalization
Technoscapes- to the ways technologies help speed up cross-border movements
Mediascapes-the power of international media to send news information across the
globe at a rapid rate
Ethnoscapes-represent the movement of people around the world
Financescapes-represent the rapid movement of money across borders
Ideoscapes-refers to the ideas, symbols and narratives that have spread
around the globe.
Arjun Appadurai
Appadurai is a cultural theorist and anthropologist. He is the person
who came up with the scapes theory.