Terms and meanings:
Time–Space Compression: The shrinking
of space and the reduction of the time
required by a wide range of processes,
brought about by changes in transportation
and communication technologies advanced
mainly by capitalist corporations.
Time–Space Distanciation: The
stretching of social relations across space and
time, brought about by technological change.
Leapfrogging: The bypassing by developing
nations of earlier technologies and adoption
of more advanced ones.
Mass media: media intended to reach large
audience.
Media Imperialism: refers to the
domination of western media and the
technologies associated with those media in
less developed nations and their culture.
Globalization from above: A process
created and disseminated by large‐scale
forces (such as the nation‐state and the
MNC), especially those associated with the
North, and imposed on the South.
Globalization from below: An attempt by
grassroots actors to shape global processes
and engage in global exchange, usually in
opposition to MNCs and other larger and
more powerful forces.
Prosumers: Those who simultaneously
produce what they consume.
Blockchain: Digital information (and assets,
such as Bitcoin) that is encoded in blocks,
distributed globally across multiple
computers in a network, and verified on a
regular basis.
Social Movements: a collective action of
people to stand against injustice.
Cultural differentialism: involves barriers
prevent flows that serve to make cultures
more alike; when cultures tend to remain
stubbornly different from one another.
Cultural hybridization: The mixing of
cultures and the integration of the global and
the local, leading to unique combinations.
Cultural convergence: When cultures are
subject to many of the same global flows and
tend to grow more alike.
Glocalization: The interpenetration of the
global and the local, resulting in unique
outcomes in different geographic areas.
Hybridization: The idea that external flows
interact with internal flows to produce a
unique cultural hybrid that combines
elements of the two.
Creolization: The combination of languages
and cultures that were previously
unintelligible to one another.
Ethnoscapes: The actual movement, as well
as fantasies about moving, of mobile groups
and individuals.
Technoscapes: Fluid, global configurations
of technology and the wide range of material
that moves freely and quickly around the
globe.
Financescapes: The processes by which
huge sums of money move through nation‐
states and around the world at great speed.
Mediascapes: The electronic capability to
produce and transmit information and
images globally.
Ideoscapes: Flows of images that are
primarily political in nature.
Cultural imperialism: Cultures imposing
themselves, more or less consciously, on
other cultures.
Deterritorialization: declining significance
of geographic location in which culture exist.
Isomorphism: A series of global models has
led to a great uniformity throughout the
world.
World culture: The spread of global
models, leading to global convergence.
McDonaldization: The process by which
the principles of the fast-food restaurant are
coming to dominate much of the world.
efficiency, or the effort to discover the best
possible means to whatever end is desired.
calculability, to an emphasis on quantity,
often to the detriment of quality.
predictability, meaning that things
(products, settings, employee and customer
behavior, etc.) are pretty much the same from
one geographic setting to another
(globalization!) and from one time to another.
Grobalization: The imperialistic ambitions
of nation‐states, corporations, and
organizations, and their imposition
throughout the world.
Nothing: Social forms largely devoid of
distinctive content.
Something: Largely full social forms; those
rich in distinctive content.
Non‐places: Settings largely devoid of
distinctive content.
Non‐things: Objects largely devoid of
distinctive content.
Non‐people: Those who occupy positions
that lead them to be devoid of distinctive
content, at least in those positions.
Non‐services: Services largely devoid of
distinctive content.
International migrant: Someone who lives
in a country where they were not born and to
which they have important social ties.
Refugees: Those forced to leave their
homeland, or who leave involuntarily,
because they fear for their safety.
Asylum seekers: Refugees who seek to
remain in the country to which they flee.
Liquid Migration: Migration that is
predominantly work‐ and study‐driven, and is
envisioned as temporary and unpredictable.
Diaspora: The large‐scale dispersal of a
population.
Labor migration mainly involves the flow
of less‐ and unskilled workers, as well as
undocumented immigrants who live on the
margins of the host society.
Modernization: The belief in an
evolutionary process that moved humankind
from agricultural and pre‐modern societies
into the modern era, brought about by wide‐
scale rational planning.
Ecological economics: An economic
theory that takes into account the ecological
carrying capacity of the earth, thus
integrating economic theory with
environmental knowledge
Climate refugees: People displaced by
environmental changes brought about by
climate change, such as rising sea levels,
drought, and increased exposure to
hurricanes, floods, and other environmental
disasters.
“desertification” or the decline in the
water supply as a result of the degradation
and deterioration of soil and vegetation.
Sustainable development: Economic and
environmental changes that meet the needs of
the present without jeopardizing the future.
Carbon tax: A tax applied to the use of fossil
fuels (e.g. oil, coal, and natural gas) as a
means of curbing carbon emissions
Cap‐and‐trade: A system that limits total
carbon emissions and allows companies to
buy permits entitling them to produce more,
with prices set by the market
Carbon neutrality: A scenario wherein
carbon emissions are equal to (or less than)
the amount of those emissions that are
absorbed by the natural environment
terrorism can be defined as actions that
cause “deaths, serious bodily injuries, and
serious damage to public or private property,
places, facilities, or other systems” and that
are aimed at intimidating citizens,
governments, or international organizations
Industrial war generally involved
sovereign nation‐states, and the homeland
deeply supported it; it was fought over
territory; it involved the mobilization of a
large portion of the population and led to
mass casualties;
Information war: The increasing use of
information, misinformation, and
information technology in conducting
warfare.
Social class: Social rankings made on the
basis of economic factors such as wealth,
occupation, and income.
Capital: Material assets (e.g. factories and
machinery) and financial wealth that are used
to produce a profit.
World systems theory was an early theory
of globalization that relates to an important
perspective on development. It envisions a
world divided between the core, the
periphery, and the semi-periphery.
“the bottom billion.” poorest people in the
world
Conflict trap: The situation where a nation‐
state is trapped in a cycle of either continuing
civil wars or frequent violent coup d'états.
Natural resources trap: Limiting
economic development because of excessive
dependence on abundant natural resources.
Global cities: Key cities in the global –
especially capitalist – economy.
Gentrification: When poorer residents are
displaced by wealthier residents in a
particular neighborhood, together with
reinvestment in that area.
Minority group: A group of people in a
subordinate position in terms of wealth,
power, and/or prestige (status).
Majority group: A group of people in a
superordinate position in terms of wealth,
power, and/or prestige (status).
Race: A social group defined on the basis of
real or presumed physical, biological, or
phenotypical characteristics.
Ethnic group: A social group defined on the
basis of some cultural characteristics (e.g.
language, food, religion).
Racism: Belief in the inherent superiority of
one racial group and the inferiority of others.
Xenophobia: Beliefs, attitudes, and
prejudices that reject, exclude, and vilify
groups made up of outsiders or foreigners.
Sex: The physical differences (e.g. in
genitalia, and hormones) between males and
females.
Gender: The differences in meanings
attached to masculinity and femininity,
learned through socialization, prejudice, and
discrimination.
Intersectionality: The analysis of multiple
systems of oppression to understand how
members of any one group are affected by
their simultaneous positions in majority and
minority statuses.
Pluralism: The idea and fact that different
races and ethnic groups can live together, can
coexist.
Genocide: Acts committed with the intent to
destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious
group.
Ethnic cleansing: Forcibly removing people
of another ethnic group.
Pigmentocracy: A racial hierarchy based on
skin tone, where darker‐skinned members of
a single racial group (e.g. black) are more
discriminated against than those with a
lighter skin color.
Feminization of labor: The increasing
participation of women in
the formal and informal global paid labor
force.
Export Processing Zones (EPZs):
Independent area controlled by corporations
and free of national control.
Global care chain: A series of personal
relationships between people across the
globe, based on the paid or unpaid work of
caring.
Protectionism: Government intervention in
order to encourage domestic production.
Fair trade: A system of direct trade between
marginalized producers (mostly in the global
South) and consumers (mostly in the global
North) that provides workers with better
working conditions, higher pay, increased
community development, and more
sustainable environmental practices.
Populism: A political style through which
politicians contrast themselves with “the
elite” and claim to speak on behalf of “the
people” via public performances, bad
manners, and perceived crises.
cyberactivism. It is a huge social network,
that is based on the “cultural logic of
networking,” including: the creation of
horizontal ties and
connections among diverse and autonomous
elements; the free and open communication
of information among and between those
elements.
“Mad Max” scenario refers to a movie
series (including the hit 2015 movie, Max
Max: Fury Road) that deals with an
apocalyptic vision of the future, with people
thrown back into
primitive and extremely violent ways of life.