APPROACHES TO THE

STUDY OF
GLOBALIZATION
Manfred B. Steger
 INTRODUCTION
01 A glimpse of what Globalization is all about.
Agenda GLOBALIZATION AS
“GLOBALONEY”
02 Rising from the passionate battle of words – and
often lost to view -

3 GLOBAL CRITICS
03 Rejectionists
Sceptics
Modifiers

3 GLOBALIZATION
04 PROCESSES
Economic, political, and cultural
 CONCLUSION
05
Agenda

GLOBALIZATION: A PROCESS,
06 CONDITION, AND IDEOLOGY
Jan Nedeerven Pietersee
Jan Aart Scholte
Manfred Steger
 Learning Objectives:
1. What is globalization in the:
a)Academic Perspective?
b)Unit Lens (globaloney)?
c)Ideological context?
2. Is globalization a concept, theory, a process, etc.?
3. Is globalization dynamic, relative, or multifaceted?
4. Are the various approaches
hierarchical/supplemental/complementary to the
significance of globalization?
 Globalization

Principles of Selected
Globalization Historical
Globalization Descriptors

Scholarly Broad Generally accepted

Definitions theories for
Globalization
 GLOBALONEY

Is Globalization Globaloney
An ideology that is imposed
real? Is it new? on material and cultural
Globaloney means Existing accounts of structures from a long time
nonsensical or absurb ago; a radicalization or
ideas or talk about the
Globalization are: acceleration of that already
existed. (Philipp Alman of
global issues. Incorrect, Imprecise and Central University of
Exaggerated Ecuador)
 Critics on Globalization
• Globalization utility not guaranteed
Rejectionist • Critics who consider globalization as non-
01 analytical, instead somewhat vague.
• Resolution 78
3 Broad
Categories • Globalization, in its limited nature
about the • Incoherent group of authors which include
critics on 02 such different positions
Globalization Sceptics
• Perspective
• Results8910

• Globalization under a narrow historical

framework
• They dispute the novelty of the process...
Modifiers 03
often been applied in a historically
imprecise manner.
• Solution 12
Vague terms relate to:
1. Nationalism – various alter (Calhoun,
1993)

2. Various – internet to hamburger (Strange,

1996)
3. Too big – for its slim foundations (Weiss,
1998) 788
Results:
1. Economic: Internationalization

2. Political: States Dominance

3. Cultural: Fragmentation97
Cultural: Fragmentation
Points in the writings of Hirst, Thompson, and Bromley
• Trade and foreign direct investment in the world economy have
been increasingly dominated by the 'Triad economic blocks’
(Europe, Eastern Asia, and North America).
• Today’s International processes are regionalized rather than
globalized
• Global economy as an economic model developed by the
economic elite to benefit the economic elite
Criticisms of the authors’ hypothesis
• Overly high standards for a fully globalized economy
• Argument assumes that globalization is predominantly an
economic occurrence.7
GLOBALIZATION AS A PROCESS

ECONOMIC PROCESS POLITICAL PROCESS CULTURAL PROCESS

 ❖Expanding economic
ECONOMIC activities
❖1944 Bretton Woods
PROCESS Conference
❖Neo-Liberalism
❖Emergence of global and international ❖Free Trade
trades are contributors to national ❖Two Most important
economic growth and development aspects of economic
o EU, IMF, World Bank, Bretton- globalization
Woods Agreement o Changing Nature of
❖Improves means of accessing non-local Production Process
products, materials, and services to o Liberalization and
other nations Internalization of
❖Give out loans: enhance budgets Financial
❖Direct investment by multinationals firms Transactions12
Political
Process
❖What are the political causes for the massive flows of
capital, money, and technology across territorial
boundaries?

❖Do these flows constitute a serious challenge to the power

of nation-state?12
1st
Group of
Scholars
❖Considers that political globalization as a process
intrinsically connected to the expansion of markets
❖Worldwide Web: seen as the primary forces responsible for
the creation of global market
❖ Economics: is portrayed as possessing an inner logic apart
from superior to politics.
❖Borderless World:
o Japanese Business: nation-state has already lost its role
as a meaningful unit of participation in the political global
economy
2ndGroup of
Scholars
❖ Disputes the view that large-scale economic changes simply
happen to societies in the manner of natural phenomena
❖Highlight the central role of Politics
❖Continued relevance of Conventional Political Units: operating
either nation states or global States
❖Example: Jan Aart Scholte
o Globalization refers to gradual processes of relative
deterritorialization that facilitate the growth of supraterritorial
relations between people.
 Core Message:
politics is the crucial category upon which
rests a proper understanding of globalization
3rd
group of
Scholars
❖Globalization is fueled by a mixture of political and
technological factors

❖Gray:
o “ultimate objective of the neo-liberal Anglo- American
initiative to engineer a global free market
3rd
group of
Scholars
❖Spanish Sociologist:
o The information technology revolution
o The economic crisis of both capitalism and statism, and
their subsequent restructuring
o The blooming of cultural social movements.
❖Castel:
❖Rise of a new informational capitalism based information
technology as the indispensable tool for the effective
implementation of processes of socioeconomic
restructuring.
4th
group of
Scholars
❖Approaches political globalization primarily from the
perspective of global governance

❖Globalization might facilitate the emergence of democratic

transnational social forces emerging from a thriving sphere
of global civil society

❖Anthony McGrew: globalization diminished the sovereignty

of national governance

❖Held’s view: emergence of multilayered from of democratic

governance
Cultural
Process
❖ Does Globalization increase cultural uniformity or
increase cultural diversity?

❖ How is consumerism affecting the natural environment?

Globalization as a Cultural Process

❖Held and McGrew: “multidimensional process involving

culture
❖Technologies, culture, and globalization

❖John Tomlinson:
❖Globalization is affected by culture and vice versa
❖Media has an influence in shaping the societies and
identities
 McWorld:
o Benjamin R. Barber
Globalization as o Soul-less consumer
capitalism that is
cultural process rapidly transforming
❖Americanization: the worlds diverse
o Globalization is written by population into a
Anglo- American value blandly uniform market
system
o Refers to the diffusion of
American values, consumer
goods, and lifestyle.

❖McDonaldization:
o George Ritzer: refers to the emerging dominance of the
principle of fast food restaurant in the world
o Deny the expression of creativity and cultural difference.
 ❖Cultural and
Globalization: How it
Globalization as affect the environment
❖Taoist, Buddhist, and
cultural process other: emphasize on
❖Islam vs. The West the interdependence
o Resistance to of all living beings
Mcworld : “Jihad” ❖There must be a
balance between
❖Glocalization and human wants and
Hybridization/Creolization: ecological needs.
❖Variations and sub-globalizations on ❖Problems:
the dominant US cultural theme ❖Human being
❖Glocalization: a complex interaction of induced climate
the global and local characterized by change
cultural borrowing. ❖Destruction of
❖Hybridization: process of cultural Biodiversity
mixing reflected in music, film, etc.
 Conclusion:
❖Globalization is an ever expanding subject, hence
we used these available approaches as to
complement the big picture of an obscured impact

❖At the same time framing political agendas by using

the right approach for a deontological grasp.
GLOBALIZATION as a process,
condition, and ideology
 Globalization as a process
Jan Nedeerven Pieterse’s view on globalization: A recent phenomenon?
 Globalization as a process
Jan Nedeerven Pieterse’s view on globalization: A recent phenomenon?

Jan Nedeerven Pieterse’s central claim:

The more recently you think Globalization
has started, the more likely you have a
Westernized view
 Globalization as a condition
Jan Aart Scholte’s view on globalization: A recent phenomenon?

1. Redundant concepts of globalization

2. Ideas of globalization reveal little new
when it is taken to mean
internationalization, liberalization,
universalization, and westernization
 Globalization as a condition
Jan Aart Scholte’s view on globalization: A recent phenomenon?

❖ Internationalization – cross-border relations between countries

❖ Liberalization – removing government-imposed restrictions on
movements bet. countries to create “open” and “borderless” world
economy
❖ Universalization – ‘global’ - “worldwide or everywhere”;
globalization’ is the process of spreading ideas, things, people’s
experience worldwide = globalization-as-homogenization
❖ Westernization – colonization, Americanization, “westoxification”
 Globalization as a condition
Jan Aart Scholte’s view on globalization: A recent phenomenon?
 Globalization as a condition
Jan Aart Scholte’s view on globalization: A recent phenomenon?

Scholte’s central claim:

Globalization is a contemporary phenomenon
because the way in which global connections take
place is different – time and space becomes irrelevant
(=supraterritoriality)
 Globalization as an ideology

Manfred Steger’s view:

1. Globalization as a process (GLOBALIZATION)
2. Globalization as a condition (GLOBALITY)
3. Globalization as an ideology (GLOBAL IMAGINARY---
an ideology)
 Globalization as an ideology
Steger’s 6 claims why globalization is an ideology :
1. Globalization is about the liberalization and global integration
of markets
2. Globalization is inevitable and irreversible
3. Nobody is in charge of globalization
4. Globalization benefits everyone (… in the long run)
5. Globalization furthers the spread of democracy in the world
6. Globalization requires a global war of terror
 References
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Nederveen Pieterse, J. (2012). Periodizing Globalization: Histories of Globalization, New Global

Studies, 6(2), 1-25.

Scholte, J.J. (2008). Defining Globalisation. The World Economy. 31(11), pp. 1471-1502 [E-journal]

Steger, M., Battersby, P., & Siracusa, J. (Eds.). (2014). The Sage handbook of globalization. Sage.
Approaches to the Study of Globalization, pp. 7-22.

Steger, Manfred B. “Ideologies of Globalization.” 2005. Journal of Political Ideologies, 10 (1):11-3

Sullivan, M. (2019). The Levelling: What's Next After Globalization. United Kingdom: Hachette UK Inc.