CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)

CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

I. Title: MARKET GLOBALISM AND INTEGRATION

II. Learning Objectives:

At the end of the discussion, the students are challenged to:

define market globalism and global corporation in their own words;

recognize the crucial role of integrating markets and new
information technologies in understanding globalization;
explain the different core claims that bring about market globalism;
and
determine evidence that market globalism is sufficiently systematic
to add up to a comprehensive political ideology.

III. Introduction:
From its beginning in the early 1990s, the fledgling field of global studies
was dominated by accounts focusing primarily on the economic and
technological aspects of globalization. To be sure, a proper recognition of the
crucial role of integrating markets and new information technologies should be
part of any comprehensive understanding of globalization, but it is equally
important to avoid the trap of technological and economic reductionism.

This module explores the ideological dimension of globalization with

particular attention to its important discursive (using reason and argument rather
than intuition) features.

After a general overview of the role and function of political ideologies

within an overarching global imaginary, market globalism consists of a set of five
core claims that play crucial political roles.

IV. Content:

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CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

For Manfred Steger, market globalization contains an ideological

dimension filled with a range of norms, claims, beliefs, and narratives about the
phenomenon itself. It is construed to be the dominant ideology of our time.

Ideology is a system of widely shared ideas, patterned beliefs, guiding

norms and values, and ideals that are accepted as truths by certain group of
people (Manfred Steger, 2014) was first coined by Antoine Destutt de Tracy in the
late eighteenth century. It offers individuals a more or less coherent picture of the
world not only as it is, but also as it ought to be. In doing so, they help organize
the complexity of human experience into fairly simple, but frequently distorted
images and slogans that serves as guide and compass for social and political
action. Each ideology is structured around core claims which set it apart from
other ideologies and endow it with a specific conceptual form of morphology.

But according to the French Philosopher Paul Ricoeur, an ideology

distorts, legitimizes, and integrates.

With this, one has to be careful of the global circulation of ideas and their
impact on the rapid extension of social interactions and interdependence across
time and space. This applies to ones notion of globalization.

Market globalism is a hegemonic system of ideas that makes normative

claims about a set of social processes called globalization.

To understand the fundamental changes brought about by globalization

and affecting the ideological landscape of the twenty-first century, it is necessary
to grasp the connection between political ideologies and their overarching
social imaginary.

Hence, to understand changes brought about by globalization, it is

necessary to understand the connection between political ideologies and social
imaginary.

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CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

What makes an ideology political is that it claims select, privilege, and

constrict social meanings related to the exercise of power in the society.

Social Imaginary deep seated modes of understanding that provide the

most general parameters within which people imagine their communal existence
like the ilustrados concept of being Filipinos.

New technologies facilitated the speed and intensity with which new ideas
and practices infiltrated the national imaginary. Images, people, and materials
circulated more freely across national boundaries.

As Malcolm Waters (2001) puts it:

The increasingly symbolically mediated and

reflexive character of todays economic exchanges
suggests that both the cultural and political
arenas are becoming more activated and energetic.
And yet, despite the burgeoning recent literature
on crucial cultural and political aspects of
globalization, researchers have paid insufficient
attention to the global circulation of ideas and them
impact on the rapid extension of social
interactions and interdependencies across time
and space.

THE FIVE CORE CLAIMS OF MARKET

GLOBALISM

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CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

Globalization Globalization Nobody is in Globalization Globalization

five
two
one

three

four
is about the is inevitable Charge of Benefits Furthers the
Liberalization and Globalization Everyone Spread of
and Global irreversible (...in the Long Democracy in
Integration of run) the World
Markets

1. Globalization is about the liberalization and global integration of markets.

This obviously characterizes the goal of globalization in spreading open

market capitalism to practically every country in the world. The first claim of
market globalism is anchored in the neo- liberal ideal of the self-regulating
market as the normative basis for a future global order. According to this
perspective, the vital functions of the free market- its rationality and efficiency, as
well as its alleged ability to bring about greater social integration and material
progress- can only be realized in a democratic society that values and protects
individual freedom.

2. Globalization is inevitable and irreversible.

According to the market-globalist perspective, globalization reflects the

spread of irreversible market forces driven by technological innovations that
make the global integration of global economies inevitable. In fact, market
globalism is almost always intertwined with the deep belief in the ability of
markets to use new technologies to solve social problems far better than any
alternative course.

3. Nobody is in charge of globalization.

The claim is based on the classical concept of self-regulating market. In
other words, globalists are not in charge in the sense of imposing their own
political agenda on people rather, they merely carry out the unalterable

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CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

imperatives of a transcendental force much larger than narrow partisan interests.

The idea that nobody is in charge serves the neo-liberal political agenda of
defending and expanding global capitalism. As ordinary people cease to believe
in the possibility of choosing alternative social arrangements, market globalism
gains strength in its ability to construct passive consumer identities. This
tendency is further enhanced by assurances that globalization will bring
prosperity to all parts of the world.

4. Globalization benefits everyone..........in the long run.

This lies at the heart of market globalism because it provides an affirmative

answer to the crucial normative question of whether globalization represents a
good phenomenon. The adjacent idea of benefits for everyone is usually
unpacked in material terms such as the idea of economic growth and prosperity.

Economic growth and progress in todays interdependent world is bound up with

the process of globalization. Globalization provides great opportunities for the
future, not only for our countries but for all others too.
Its positive aspects include

Unprecedented expansion of investment and trade

Opening up to international trade of the worlds most populous regions
Opportunities for more developing countries to improve their standard of
living
The increasingly rapid dissemination of information, technological
innovation, and the proliferation of skilled jobs

There may be negative social effects in the short run but it will have
greater positive effect in the long run. Even those market globalists who concede
the strong possibility of unequal global distribution patterns nonetheless insist
that the market itself will eventually correct irregularities.

5. Globalization furthers the spread of democracy in the world.

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CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

The fifth claim links globalization and market to the adjacent concept of
democracy, which also plays a significant role in liberalism, conservatism, and
socialism.
The most obvious strategy by which neo-liberals generate popular support
for the equation of democracy and the market is discrediting traditionalism and
socialism.
A globalist logically regards freedom, free markets, and democracy as one
and the same terms. Persistently affirmed as common sense, the compatibility of
these concepts often goes unchallenged in the public discussion.

FROM MARKET GLOBALISM TO IMPERIAL GLOBALISMAND BACK

The five core claims of market globalism show that market globalism is
sufficiently systematic to add up to a comprehensive ideology.

In the 1990s, the social power elites of industrialized countries use the
soft language market globalization to define their imperial activities.

After the September 11th attacks, the power elites saw a legitimate
challenge to globalization ----- terrorism. As many market globalists struggled to
maintain the viability of their ideological project focused on open markets, the
unilateralist Bush administration supported the compromise of toughening up the
ideological claims of market globalism to fit the neo-conservative vision of a
compassionate US empire relying on overwhelming military power.

As a result, market globalism morphed into imperial globalism. Claims

One (globalization is about the liberalization and global integration of markets)
and Four (globalization benefits everyone)- the backbone of market globalism-
remained largely intact but the other claims had to undergo hard-power facelifts.
The determinist language of Claim Two, however, came under sustained criticism
by commentators who read the al-Qaeda attacks as exposing the dark side of
globalization. Some proclaimed the imminent collapse of globalism, worrying

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CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

that the terrorist attacks would usher in a new age of cultural particularism and
economic protectionism.

Global Corporation

The approach to the study of globalization sometimes termed historical

globalization locates the phenomenon itself in early patterns of trade and
exchange (Moore and Lewis 2000). In early historical periods as both cities and
countries extended their reach beyond their own borders, this view holds a form
of globalization was initiated which then followed complex patterns of interactive
engagements organized through trade and directly influenced by the emergent
and subsequently dominant technologies.

The contemporary global corporation is simultaneously and commonly

referred to either as a multinational corporation (MNC), a transnational
corporation (TNC), an international company, or a global company. Those offered
by Iwan (2012) are practically useful.

International companies are importers and exporters, typically without

investment outside of their home country;
Multinational companies have investment in other countries, but do not
have coordinated product offerings in each country. They are more
focused on adapting their products and services to each individual local
market
Global companies have invested in and are present in many countries.
They typically market their products and services to each individual local
market.
Transnational companies are more complex organizations which have
invested in foreign operations, have a central corporate facility but give
decision-making, research and develop (R&D) and marketing powers to
each individual foreign market.

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CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

Global corporations within the emerging economies appear to be of three

general types: those that have arisen as a result of growing national power of the
host country, responding to the need to aggregate and deploy national capital to
provide the bases for economic development; a second type of global firm has
focused on replicating major consumer pathways in both developed and
developing markets; a third type in which working through contract and other
relationships with developed market firms has been the basis for their rapid
increase in size and influence which in turn has empowered the firms to establish
other complex linkages beyond core contract markets to build competitive
advantage in both global and domestic markets usually by gaining access to and
exploitation of superior innovative technology.

V. Activity/Assessment:
1. Examine the title of this module, Market Globalism. In small groups,
quickly jot down at least five words that come to your mind.
2. Identify the Five Core Claims of Market Globalism and describe how this
can be applied in learning.

Core Claim Application

3. Interview businessmen in the city about the benefits and challenges in

creating a corporation.
4. 5-minute Non-stop Writing. Your 5-minute non-stop writing begins NOW!
From the Module on Market Globalism, I realized that .

VI. References:

Appadurai, A. (1996) Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of

Globalization.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

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CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

Moore, Karl and David Lewis. 2000. Foundations of Corporate Empire.

London:
Prentice Hall.

Steger, MB (2009) Globalisms: The Great Ideological Struggle of the 21 st

Century. 3rded, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.

The Sage Handbook of Globalization

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