Module 1 The Structures of Globalization

Lesson 5: A WORLD OF REGIONS

Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
 differentiate between regionalization and globalization;
 explain how regions are formed and kept together;
 discuss the advantages and disadvantages of regionalism; and
 identify the factors leading to a greater integration of the Asian region.
 give value on the importance on the importance of Regionalization in Asia, the
Philippines and the ASEAN Region.

Introduction
Congratulations! You are now in the last part of the First Module. What can you
say about Globalization? You are right, the world works amazingly. It encompasses a
varied networks of connections from a single country to international linkages and
global partnership. This best describes the beauty of how connected the world is to
every single place in the planet. Are you hungry for more learnings? Good to know that,
well the long wait is over? Here are the timely facts you need to know about how the
world works in a synchronous manner. Have fun while reading! Kudos!
Activity
Activity

Analysis
Analysis

1. How did Asian Countries connect with other neighboring countries?

_____________________________________________________________________
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2. Based on the map presented above, what are the Regions in Asia?

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_____________________________________________________________________
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Abstraction

Governments, associations, societies, and groups form regional

organizations and/or networks as a way of coping with the challenges of globalization.
Globalization has made people aware of the world in general, but it has also made
Filipinos more cognizant of specific areas such as Southeast Asia. How, for instance,
did the Philippines come to identify itself with the Southeast Asian region? Why is it
part of a regional grouping known as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN)?

While regionalism is often seen as a political and economic phenomenon, the

term actually encompasses a broader area. It can be examined in relation to identities,
ethics, religion, ecological sustainability, and health. Regionalism is also a process, and
must be treated as an “emergent, socially constituted phenomenon”. It means that
regions are not natural or given; rather, they are constructed and defined by
policymakers, economic actors, and even social movements.
This lesson will look at regions as political entities and examine what brings
them together as they interlock with globalization. The other facets of regionalism will
then be explored, especially those that pertain to identities, ethics, religion, ecological
sustainability, and health. The lesson will conclude by asking where all these
regionalisms are bringing us as members of a nation and as citizens of the world.

 Countries, Regions, and Globalization

Edward D. Mansfield and Helen V. Milner state that economic and political
definitions of regions vary, but there are certain basic features that everyone can agree
on. First, regions are “a group of countries located in the same geographically specified
area” or are “an amalgamation of two regions [or] a combination of more than two
regions” organized to regulate and “oversee flows and policy choices”. Second, the
words regionalization and regionalism should not be interchanged, as the former refers
to the “regional concentration of economic flows” while the latter is “a political process
characterized by economic policy cooperation and coordination among countries”.

Countries respond economically and politically to globalization in various

ways. Some are large enough and have a lot of resources to dictate how they participate
in processes of global integration. China, for example, offers its cheap and huge
workforce to attract foreign businesses and expand trade with countries it once
considered its enemies but now sees as markets for its goods (e.g., the United States
and Japan). Other countries make up for their small size by taking advantage of their

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strategic location. Singapore and Switzerland compensate for their lack of resources by
turning themselves into financial and banking hubs. Singapore developed its harbor
facilities and made them a first-class transit port for ships carrying different
commodities from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and mainland Southeast Asia to
countries in the Asia-Pacific. In most cases, however, countries form a regional alliance
for – as the saying goes – there is strength in numbers.
Countries form regional associations for several reasons. One is for military
defense. The most widely known defense grouping is the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) formed during the Cold War when several Western European
countries plus the United States agreed to protect Europe against the threat of the Soviet
Union. The Soviet Union responded by creating its regional alliance, the Warsaw Pact,
consisting of the Eastern European countries under Soviet domination. The Soviet
Union imploded in December 1991, but NATO remains in place.
Countries also form regional organizations to pool their resources, get better
returns for their exports, as well as expand their leverage against trading partners. The
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was established in 1960
by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela to regulate the production and sale
of oil. This regional alliance flexed its muscles in the 1970s when its member countries
took over domestic production and dictated crude oil prices in the world market. In a
world highly dependent on oil, this integration became a source of immense power.
OPEC’s success convinced nine other oil-producing countries to join it.
Moreover, there are countries that form regional blocs to protect their
independence from pressures of superpower politics. The presidents of Egypt, Ghana,
India, Indonesia, and Yugoslavia created the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1961
to pursue world peace and international cooperation, human rights, national
sovereignty, racial and national equality, non-intervention, and peaceful conflict
resolution. It called itself non-aligned because the association refused to side with either
the First World capitalist democracies in Western Europe and North America of the
communist states in Eastern Europe. At its peak, the NAM had 120 member countries.
The movement, however, was never formalized and continues to exist up to the present,
although it lacks the same fervor that it had in the past.
Finally, economic crisis compels countries to come together. The Thai economy
collapsed in 1996 after foreign currency speculators and troubled international banks
demanded that the Thai government pay back its loans. A rapid withdrawal of foreign
investments bankrupted the economy. This crisis began to spread to other Asian
countries as their currencies were also devalued and foreign investments left in a hurry.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) tried to reverse the crisis, but it was only after
the ASEAN countries along with China, Japan, and South Korea agreed to establish an
emergency fund to anticipate a crisis that the Asian economies stabilized.
The crisis made ASEAN more “unified and coordinated”. The Association has
come a long way since it was formed as a coalition of countries which were pro-
American and supportive of the United States intervention in Vietnam. After the
Vietnam War, ASEAN continued to act as a military alliance to isolate Vietnam after
it invaded Cambodia, but there were also the beginnings of economic cooperation.

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  Non-State Regionalism
It is not only states that agree to work together in the name of a single cause (or
causes). Communities also engage in regional organizing. This “new regionalism”
varies in form; they can be “tiny associations that include no more than a few actors
and focus on a single issue, or huge continental unions that address a multitude of
common problems from territorial defense to food security.” Organizations
representing this “new regionalism” likewise rely on the power of individuals, non-
governmental organizations (NGOs), and associations to link up with one another in
pursuit of a particular goal (or goals). Finally, “new regionalism” is identified with
reformists who share the same “values, norms, institutions, and system that exist outside
of the traditional, established mainstream institutions and systems”.
Their strategies and tactics likewise vary. Some organizations partner with
governments to initiate social change. Those who work with governments
(“legitimizers”) participate in “institutional mechanisms that afford some civil society
groups voice and influence [in] technocratic policy-making processes”. For example,
the ASEAN issued its Human Rights Declaration in 2009, but the regional body left it
to member countries to apply the declaration’s principles as they see fit. Aware that
democratic rights are limited in many ASEAN countries, “new regionalism”
organizations used this official declaration to pressure these governments to pass laws
and regulations that protect and promote human rights.
In South America, left-wing governments support the Hemispheric Social
Alliance’s opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), while
member of the Mesa de Articulación de Asociaciones Nacionales y Redes de ONGs de
América Latina y El Caribe (Roundtable of National Associations and Networks and
NGOs in Latin America and the Caribbean) participate in “forums, summits, and
dialogues with presidents and ministers”. Likewise, a group called the Citizen
Diplomacy Forum tries to influence the policies and programs of the Organization of
American States. In Southeast Asia, the organization of an ASEAN Parliamentarians
for Human Rights was in part the result of non-government organizations and civil
society groups pushing to “prevent discrimination, uphold political freedom, and
promote democracy and human rights throughout the region”.
Other regional organizations dedicate themselves to specialized causes.
Activists across Central and South America established the Rainforest Foundation to
protect indigenous peoples and the rainforests in Brazil, Guyana, Panama, and Peru.
Young Christians across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and the Caribbean
formed Regional Interfaith Youth Networks to promote “conflict prevention,
resolution, peace education, and sustainable development”. The Migrant Forum in Asia
is another regional network of NGOs and trade unions “committed to protect[ing] and
promot[ing] the rights and welfare of migrant workers”.
These organizations’ primary power lies in their moral standing and their ability
to combine lobbying with pressure politics. Unfortunately, most of them are poorly
financed, which places than at a disadvantage when dealing with their official

40
counterparts who have large state funds. Their impact in global politics is, therefore,
limited.
New regionalism differs significantly from traditional state-to-state regionalism
when it comes to identifying problems. For example, states treat poverty or
environmental degradation as technical or economic issues that can be resolved by
refining existing programs of state agencies, making minor changes in economic
policies, and creating new offices that address these issues. However, new regionalism
advocates such as the NGO Global Forum see these issues as reflections of flawed
economic development and environmental models. By “flawed”, they mean economic
development plans that are market-based, profit-driven, and hardly concerned with
social welfare, especially among the poor.
Another challenge for new regionalists is the discord that may emerge among
them. For example, disagreements surface over issues like gender and religion, with
pro-choice NGOs breaking from religious civil society groups that side with the
Church, Muslim imams, or governments opposed to reproductive rights and other pro-
women policies. Moreover, while civil society groups are able to dialogue
withgovernments, the latter may not be welcoming to this new trend and set up one
obstacle after another. Migrant Forum Asia and its ally, the Coordination of Action
Research on AIDS (CARAM), lobbied ASEAN governments to defend migrant labor
rights. Their program of action, however, slowed down once countries like Malaysia,
Singapore, and Thailand refused to recognize the rights of undocumented migrant
workers and the rights of the families of migrants.

 Contemporary Challenges to Regionalism

Today, regionalism faces multiple challenges, the most serious of which is the
resurgence of militant nationalism and populism. The refusal to dismantle NATO after
the collapse of the Soviet Union, for example, has become the basis of the anti-NATO
rhetoric of Vladimir Putin in Russia. Now, even the relationship of the United States –
the alliance’s core member – with NATO has become problematic after Donald Trump
demonized the organization as simply leeching off American military power without
giving anything in return.
Perhaps the most crisis-ridden regional organization of today is the European
Union. The continuing financial crisis of the region is forcing countries like Greece to
consider leaving the Union to gain more flexibility in their economic policy. Anti-
immigrant sentiment and a populist campaign against Europe have already led to the
United Kingdom voting to leave the European Union in a move the me dia has termed
the “Brexit”.

ASEAN members continue to disagree over the extent to which member countries
should sacrifice their sovereignty for the sake of regional stability. The Association’s
link with East Asia has also been problematic. Recently, ASEAN countries also
disagreed over how to relate to China, with the Philippines unable to get the other

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countries to support its condemnation of China’s occupation of the West Philippine
Sea. Cambodia and Laos led the opposition favoring diplomacy over confrontation, but
the real reason was the dramatic increase of Chinese investments and economic aid to
these countries. Moreover, when some formerly authoritarian countries democratized,
this “participatory regionalism” clashed with ASEAN’s policy of non-interference, as
civil society groups in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand demanded that the other
countries democratized adopt a more open attitude towards foreign criticism.
A final challenge pertains to differing visions of what regionalism should be for.
Western governments may see regional organizations not simply as economic
formations but also as instruments of political democratization. Non-Western and
developing societies, however, may have a different view regarding globalization,
development, and democracy. Singapore, China, and Russia see democracy as an
obstacle to the implementation and deepening of economic globalization because
constant public inquiry about economic projects and lengthy debate slow down
implementation or lead to unclear outcomes. Democracy’s tedious procedures must,
therefore, give way to efficiency.

Conclusion
Official regional associations now cover vast swaths of the world. The
population of the countries that joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Council (APEC)
alone comprised 37 percent of the world’s population in 2007. These countries are also
part of “smaller” organizations that include the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
the Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, and the Union of South American Nations.
Even “isolationist” North Korea is part of the Regional Forum, which discusses security
issues in the region.

In the same way the countries will find it difficult to reject all forms of global
economic integration, it will also be hard for them to turn their backs on their regions.
Even if the UK leaves the EU, it must continue to trade with its immediate neighbors
and will, therefore, be forced to implement many EU rules. None of this is to say that
regional organizations will remain unaltered. The history of regionalism shows that
regional associations emerge as new global concerns arise. The future of regionalism
will be contingent on the immense changes in global politics that will emerge in the 21 st
century.

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Application
Application

From Kingdoms to Empires, to Colonies, and to Republics

Organize yourselves based on these following broad regional divisions:

East Asia
South Asia
Middle East
Southeast Asia
Central Asia

 At the beginning of the 16th century, before the Europeans ruled the
world, these regions have their own empires and kingdoms. When the
Spanish established the first global empire, some of these kingdoms and
empires disappeared or were weakened. This process was continued
under the British colonial rule, and other powers began to carve their
own spheres of interests. Europeans dominated and made colonies out
of their areas.
 After World War I, however, there began a noticeable shift, this
time with colonies challenging the colonial rule and demanding that
they be allowed to become nations and determine their own future. This
pursuit was what US President Woodrow Wilson called “the principle
of self-determination” (see the discussion on this in the Lesson 3)
reached a high point when World War II destroyed the empires, and the
colonies achieved their independence.
 Choose a regional division and trace how it is has changed from
the time before European powers like Britain and Spain ruled the world,
then during the era of colonialism, until its independence.
 List what kinds of changes happened to these areas (once
participates, then provinces, then republics) and the people who inhabit
there. Finally, see how the nations and republics that were born from
the ashes of colonialism after World War II looked back on the past ear
to explain their own histories. Use the model provided below?

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Instructions: Provide single picture for each system per region and a short description
of how these system defines their cultural identity.

DISTINCT FEATURES IN REGIONS OF ASIA

REGION POLITICAL SYSTEM ECONOMIC SYSTEM SOCIO-CULTURAL
SYSTEM

1.EAST ASIA

2.SOUTH EAST
ASIA

3.SOUTH ASIA

4.CENTRAL ASIA

5.NORTHERN
ASIA

6.WEST ASIA

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Module Assessment
You did a good job! You have successfully completed
module 1. Expected that you have now insights on the structures of
globalization. Are you now ready for assessment? The next page will be
the module assessment. Don’t stress yourself out! You have study hard of
course you can surely do this!

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Module Assessment

Test I. Multiple Choice Questions

1. This refers to a widespread belief among powerful people that the global
integration of economic markets is beneficial for everyone, since it spreads
freedom and democracy across the world.
a. Globalization
b. International Trading System
c. Globalism
d. Internationalism

2. He believed that economic crises occur not when a country does not have
enough money, but when money is not being spent and, thereby, not moving.
a. David Ricardo
b. John Maynard Keynes
c. Friedruch Hayek
d. Dennis O. Flynn

3. How do the countries established a common basis for currency prices and fixed
exchange rate system?
a. Based on the political standing of the country
b. All based on the value of gold.
c. By the scope of their territory
d. All based on the products they could able be to produced

4. The following described the The Bretton Woods System, except;

a. a network of global financial institutions that would promote economic
interdependence and prosperity
b. established IBRD, or World Bank to be responsible for funding postwar
reconstruction projects.
c. inaugurated in 1994 during the United Nations Monetary and Financial
Conference to prevent the catastrophe of the early decades of the century from
reoccurring and affecting international ties.
d. enacted role of governments in managing spending served as the anchor for what
would be called a system of global Keynesianism.

5. Which of the is the best example of Economic Globalization?

a. Japan’s determined refusal to allow rice imports into the country to protect
its farming sector.
b. United States fiercely protects its sugar industry, forcing consumers and
sugar-dependent businesses to pay higher prices

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 c. Philippines exporting fruits such as banana and pineapple to various
country around Asia while importing rice from Vietnam.
d. None of the above

6. This refers to a country and its government, i.e., the government of the Philippines.
What is this concept being described to?
a. nation
b. nation-state
c. sovereignty
d. state
7. The origin of the present-day concept of sovereignty can be traced back
to_______________, which is a set of agreements signed in 1648 to end the Thirty
Years’ War between the major continental powers of Europe. What is being asked in
the statement?
a. Treaty of Westphalia
b. Treaty of Paris
c. Treaty of Versailles
d. Treaty of Zaragoza

8. Its main task “is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes
submitted to it by states and to give advisory opinions referred to it by authorized United
Nations organs and specialized agencies”. Which organ of the UN is being described
in the statement?
a. Secretary General
b. The Security Council
c. Economic and Social Council
d. International Court of Justice

9. This takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or an act of
aggression. It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle the act by peaceful means and
recommends methods of adjustment or terms of settlement. In some cases, it can resort
to imposing sanctions or even authorizing the use of force to maintain or restore
international peace and security. Which organ of the UN is being described in the
statement?
a. Secretary General
b. The Security Council
c. Economic and Social Council
d. International Court of Justice

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10. This is the most widely known defense grouping formed during the Cold War when
several Western European countries plus the United States agreed to protect Europe
against the threat of the Soviet Union. What regional associations is being highlighted
in the phrase?
a. OPEC
b. ASEAN
c. WARSAW PACT
d. NATO

Test II. Essay

1. How is regionalism different from and yet a part of globalization?
_____________________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

2. Compare and contrast the assumptions of the original Bretton Woods system with
those of the Washington Consensus.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
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Module Summary
 Different people encounter globalization in a variety of ways.
Globalization is a complex phenomenon that occurs at multiple levels
and it is an uneven process that affects people differently. Defined as an
integration of the national markets to a wider global market signified by
the increased free trade.”
 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) regards “economic
globalization” as a historical process representing the result of human
innovation and technological progress. The Bretton Woods system was
inaugurated in 1994 during the United Nations Monetary and Financial
Conference to prevent the catastrophe of the early decades of the century
from reoccurring and affecting international ties.
 Internationalism is but one window into the broader phenomenon of
globalization. Nevertheless, it is a very crucial aspect of globalization
since global interactions are heightened by the increased
interdependence of states. This increased interdependence manifests
itself not just through state-to-state relations.
 After the collapse of the League of Nations at the end of World War II,
countries that worried about another global war began to push for the
formation of a more lasting international league. Resulted to the
creation of the United Nations (UN). Is divided into five active organs;
(1) The General Assembly (GA) (2) The Security Council (SC) (3) The
third UN organ is the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC),(4) The
fourth is the International Court of Justice (5) “Secretary-General and
tens of thousands of international UN staff members
 International institutions like the UN are always in a precarious position.
They are groups of sovereign states. They are also an organization with
their own rationalities and agendas and continually evolving.
 Regions are “a group of countries located in the same geographically
specified area” or are “an amalgamation of two regions [or] a
combination of more than two regions” organized to regulate and
“oversee flows and policy choices”. Regionalization and regionalism
should not be interchanged, as the former refers to the “regional
concentration of economic flows” while the latter is “a political process
characterized by economic policy cooperation and coordination among
countries”.
 Much of globalization is anchored on changes in the economy. Global
culture, for example, is facilitated by trade. Filipinos, would not be as
aware of American culture if not for the trade that allows locals to watch
American movies, listen to American music, and consume American
products. The globalization of politics is likewise largely contingent on
trade relations. These days, many events of foreign affairs are conducted
to cement trading relations between and among states.

49
REFERENCES
Textbook
Claudio L.et. al,(2018), The Contemporary World, C&E Publishing, Inc. Quezon City,
Philippines

Images
Lesson 1
https://au.travel.yahoo.com/galleries/g/30922256/how-to-spend-a-day-in-singapore-like-a-
local/ [pp. 3]
http://www.colwis.ca/index.php/resume/11091/ [pp. 4]

Lesson 2
stock.adobe.com [pp. 10]
http://bitnewz.net/News/Timeline/Central-Banks-Should-Observe-Blockchain-Says-Japans-
Central-Bank-Official [pp. 10]

https://born2invest.com/articles/gold-real-rates-dollar/ [pp. 12]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_Conference [pp. 13]
Lesson3
http://www.emersonkent.com/history_notes/klemens_von_metternich.htm [pp. 20]

https://www.biography.com/us-president/woodrow-wilson [pp. 24]

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/ [pp. 25]

https://www.biography.com/political-figure/vladimir-lenin [pp. 26]

Lesson 4

https://medium.com/@inkbotdesign/top-10-united-nations-logos-un-logo-design-inspiration-
a963ff839cb9 [pp. 29]

https://www.ippf.org/news/ippf-deeply-condemns-us-administrations-decision-halt-funding-
world-health-organization [pp. 29]

https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2017/01/20/gmos-biotechnology-poses-challenge-
international-relations/ [pp. 30]

https://www.mastersportal.com/articles/584/what-can-i-become-if-i-study-international-
relations.html [pp. 30]

50
https://oppourtunities.com/2019-world-bank-manager-global-engagement-and-partnerships-
recruitment/ [pp. 32]

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/how-are-judges-elected-to-the-international-
court-of-justice/article20619816.ece [pp. 32]

https://www.plenglish.com/index.php?o=rn&id=54597&SEO=iran-announces-withdrawal-of-
its-membership-quota-from-the-imf [pp. 32]

https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/role-of-general-assembly [pp. 33]

https://www.dw.com/en/five-new-non-permanent-members-elected-to-un-security-council/a-
18000513 [pp. 33]

http://dagdok.org/un-system/economical-and-social-council/ [pp. 33]

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/how-are-judges-elected-to-the-international-
court-of-justice/article20619816.ece [pp.34]

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/08/secretary-general-commit-
accountability-160827151419570.html [pp. 34]
Lesson 5
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/Location-Asia-
UNsubregions.png/320px-Location-Asia-UNsubregions.png [pp.38]

Criteria/ Rubric
Lesson 3&4
CRITERIA POINTS

Content and Organization 10

Relevance 5

TOTAL 15

Lesson 2&5
CRITERIA POINTS

Content and Organization 10

Relevance 5

Creativity and Resourcefulness 5

TOTAL 20

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Module 2: A WORLD OF IDEAS: CULTURES OF
GLOBALIZATION

Welcome to Module 2 of the course pack. This module will deliberate on how
globalization structures affect various forms of cultural life. Culture is used here in the
broadest possible sense, referring to the daily practices of people. Thus, if the first until
focused on a large form of globalization, this module encompasses globalization in the
realms of religion, culture and city life.

Following are the lesson consists in Module 2:

Lesson 1- The Globalization of Religion

Lesson 2- Media and Globalization
Lesson 3- The Global City

The major learning outcomes of this module are to:

 explain the role of global processes in everyday life
 integrate the impact of globalization to religion
 acknowledge the importance of technology in the current generation

52
Module 2- A WORLD OF IDEAS: CULTURES OF GLOBALIZATION

Lesson 1
THE GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGION

Objectives
Upon the completion of the lesson, you are expected to:
 Explain how globalization affects religious practices and beliefs
 Illustrate the various religious responses to globalization
 Evaluate the future of religion in a globalized world

Introduction

The lesson is about the Globalization of Religion, how religion shaped

individuals morally and spiritually, and also to the community. You have an hour to
finish all the topics and answer the assessment task after the topic. Have fun in learning.

Activity

Write your answer on the space provided before the number. Answer it scholarly.

______________________1. Islam is considered as one of the oldest religions. What

is the name of their God?
______________________ 2. We believed that He was died on the cross for our
salvation.
______________________ 3. According to Islam’s faith, he was considered as the
messenger of their God.

______________________ 4. A place where most of the people gather to praise and

worship.
______________________ 5. He is called as the Highest Being.

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 Analysis

1. What are the teachings of religion that significantly influence you as individual
in shaping and molding your moral character?

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

Abstraction

Religion, much more than culture, has the most difficult relationship with
globalism. First, the two are entirely contrasting belief systems. Religion is concerned
with the sacred, while globalism places value on material wealth. Religion follows
divine commandments, while globalism abides by human-made laws. Religion assumes
that there is the “the possibility of communication between humans and the
transcendent”. This link between the human and the divine confers some social power
on the latter. Furthermore, “God”, “Allah”, or” Yahweh” defines and judges human
actions in moral terms (good vs. bad). Globalism’s yardstick, however, is how much of
human action cam lead to the highest material satisfaction and subsequent wisdom that
this new status produces.

Religious people are less concerned with wealth and all that comes along with
it, (higher social status, a standard of living similar with the rest of the community,
exposure to “culture”, top-of-the-line education for the children). They are ascetics
precisely because the shun anything material for complete simplicity from their domain

54
to the clothes they wear, to the food they eat, and even to the manner in which they talk
(lots of parables and allegories that are supposedly the language of the divine).

A religious person’s main duty is to live virtuously , sin-less life such as that
when he/she dies, he/she is assured of a place in the other world ( heaven).
On the other hand, globalists are less worried about whether they will end up in
heaven or hell. Their skills are more pedestrian as they aim to seal trade deals, raise the
profits of private enterprises, improve government revenue collections, protect the
elites from being excessively taxed by the state, and, naturally, enrich themselves. If
he/she has a strong social conscience, the globalist sees his/her work as contributing to
the general progress of the community, the nation, and the global economic system. Put
another way, the religious aspires to become a saint; the globalist trains to be shrewd
businessperson. The religious detest politics and the quest for power for they are
evidence of humanity’s weakness; the globalist values them as both means and ends to
open up further the economies of the world.
Finally, religion and globalism clash over the fact that religious evangelization
is in itself is a form of globalization, the globalist ideal, on the other hand, is largely
focus on the realm of markets. The religious is concerned with spreading holy ideas
globally, while the globalist wishes to spread goods and services.

The “missions” sent by American Born- Again Christian churches, Sufi and
Shiite Muslim orders, as well as institutions like Buddhist monasteries and Catholic,
Protestant, and Mormon churches are efforts at “spreading the word of God” and
gaining adherents abroad. Religious regard identities associated with globalism
(citizenship, language, and race) as inferior and narrow because they are earthly
categories. In, contrast, membership to a religious group, organization, or cult
represents a superior affiliation that connects human directly to the divine and the
supernatural. Being a Christian, a Muslim, or a Buddhist places one I a higher plane
that just being a Filipino, a Spanish speaker, or and Anglo-Saxon.
The philosophical differences explain why certain groups “flee “their
communities and create impenetrable sanctuaries where they can practice their religions
without the meddling and control of the state authorities. The followers of Dalai Lama

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established Tibet for this purpose, and certain Buddhist monasteries are located away
from civilization so that hermits can devote themselves to prayer and contemplation.
These isolationist justifications are also used by Rizalistas in Mt. Banahaw,the Essenes
during the Roman-controlled Judea (now Israel, and for a certain period, the Mormons
of Utah. These groups believe that living among “non- believers” will distract them
from their mission or tempt them to abandon their faith and become sinners like
everyone else.
Communities justify their opposition to government authority on religious
ground. Priestesses and monks led the first revolts against colonialism in Asia and
Africa, warning that these outsiders were out to destroy their people’s gods and ways
of life. Similar arguments are being invoked by contemporary versions of these
millenarian movements that wish to break away from the hold of the state or vow to
overthrow the latter in the name of God. To their “prophets, the state seeks to either
destroy their people’s beliefs or distort religion to serve non-religious goals.

REALITIES
In actuality, the relationship between religion and globalism is much more
complicated. Peter Berger argues that far from being secularized, the “contemporary
world is … furiously religious. In most of the world, there are veritable explosions of
religious fervor, occurring in one form of another in all the major religious traditions--
- Christianity, Judaism, Isla, Hinduism, Buddhism, and even Confucianism (if one
wants to call it a religion) and in many places in imaginative syntheses in one or more
world religions with indigenous faiths”.

Religions are the foundations of modern republics. The Malaysian government

places religion at the center of the political system. Its constitution explicitly sates that
“Islam is the religion of the Federation”, and the rulers of each state was also the “head
of the religion of Islam”. The late Iranian religious leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, bragged out the superiority of Islamic rule over its secular counterparts and
pointed out that “there is fundamental distinction among constitutional, despotic,
dictatorial, democratic and communistic regimes”. To Khomeini, all secular ideologies
were the same they were flawed and Islamic rule was the superior form of government
because it was spiritual. Yet, Iran calls itself a republic, a term that is associated with
the secular.

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Moreover, religious movements do not hesitate to appropriate secular themes and
practices. The moderate Muslim association Nahdlatul Ulama in Indonesia has Islamic
Schools (pesantren)where students are taught not only about Islam but also about
modern sciences, the social sciences, modern banking , civic education, rights of
women, pluralism and democracy. In other cases, religion was the result of a shift in
state policy. The Church of England, for example, was “shaped by the rationality of
modern democratic (and bureaucratic) culture”. King Henry VIII broke away from
Roman Catholicism and established his own Church to bolster his own power. In the
United States, religion and law were fused together to help build this “modern secular
society”. It was observed in the early 1800s by French historian and diplomat.
Alexis de Tocqueville who wrote, “not only do the Americans practice their religion
out of self-interest but they often even place in this world the interest which they have
practicing it”. Jose Casanova confirms this statement by noting that “historically,
religion has always been the center of all great political conflicts and movements of
social reform. From independence to abolition, from nativism to women’s suffrage,
from prohibition to the civil rights movement, religion has always been the center of
these conflicts, but also on both sides of the political barricades”. It remains the case
until today with the power of Christian Right has on the Republican Party.
RELIGION FOR AND AGAINST GLOBALIZATION

There is hardly a religious movement today that does not use religion to oppose
“profane” globalization. Yet, two of the so- called “old world religion” Christianity and
Islam---see globalization less as an obstacle and more as an opportunity to expand their
reach all over the world. Globalization has “freed” communities from the “constraints
of the nation-state”, but in the process, also threatened to destroy the cultural system
that bind them together. Religion seeks to take the place of these broken “traditional
ties” to either help communities cope with their new situation or organize them to
oppose this major transformation of their lives. It can provide the groups “moral codes”
that answer problems ranging from people’s health to social conflict to even “personal
happiness”. Religion is thus not the “regressive force” that stops or slows down
globalization; it is a “pro-active force” that gives communities a new and powerful basis
of identity. It is an instrument with which religious people can put their mark in the
reshaping of the globalizing world, although in its own terms.
Religious fundamentalism, may dislike globalization’s materialism, but it
continues to use “the full range of modern means of communication and organization
“that is associated with this economic transformation. It has tapped “fast long-distance
transport and communications, the availability of English as a global vernacular of
unparalleled power, the know-how of modern management and marketing” which
enabled the spread of “almost promiscuous propagation of religious forms across the
globe in all sorts of directions”. It is therefore, not entirely correct to assume that the
proliferation of “Born-Again” groups, or in the case of Islam, the rise of movements
like Daesh (more popular known as ISIS, or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) signal’s
religion’s defense against the materialism of globalization. It is, in fact, the opposite.

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These fundamentalist organizations are the result of the spread of globalization and both
find ways to benefit or take advantage of each other.

While religions may benefit from the processes of globalization, this does not
mean that its tensions with globalist ideology will subside. Some Muslims view
“globalization” as a Trojan horse hiding supporters of Western values like secularism,
liberalism or even communism ready to spread these ideas in their areas to eventually
displace Islam. The World Council of Churches—an association of different Protestant
congregations—has criticized economic globalization’s negative effects. It vowed that
“we as churches make ourselves accountable to the victims of the project of economic
globalization”, by becoming the latter’s advocates inside and outside “the centers of
power”.

The Catholic Church and its dynamic leaders, Pope Francis, likewise
condemned globalization’s “throw-away culture” that is “fatally destined to suffocate
hope and increase risks and threats”. The Lutheran World Federation 10 th Assembly’s
292-page declaration message include economic and feminist critiques of globalization,
sharing the voices of members of the Church who were affected by globalization and
contemplations on the different “pastoral and ethical reflections” that members could
use to guide their opposition. It warns that as a result of globalization: “Our world is
split asunder by forces we often do not understand, but that result in stark contrasts
between who benefit and those who are harmed, especially under forces of
globalization. Today, there is also desperate need for healing from “terrorism”, its
causes, and fearful reactions to it. Relationships in the world continue to be ruptured
due to greed, injustices, and various forms of violence.
These advocates to reverse or mitigate economic globalization eventually
gained the attention of globalist institutions. In 1998, the World Bank brought in
religious leaders in a discussion about global poverty, leading eventually to a: cautious,
muted and qualified” collaboration in 2000. Although it only yielded insignificant
results (the World Bank Agreed to support some faith-based anti-poverty projects in
Kenya and Ethiopia), it was evident enough that institutional advocates of globalization
could be responsive to the “liberationist, moral critiques of economic globalization”
including many writings on “social justices”) coming from the religious.

With the exemption of militant Islam, religious forces are well aware that they
are in no position to fight for a comprehensive alternative to the globalizing status quo.
What Catholics call “the preferential option for the poor” is a powerful message of
mobilization but lack substance when it comes to working out a replacement system
that can change the poor’s condition in concrete ways. And, of course, the
traditionalism of the fundamentalist political Islam is no alternative either. The
terrorism of ISIS is unlikely to create a “Caliphate” governed by justice and stability.
In Iran, the unchallenged superiority of a religious autocracy has stifled freedom of
expression, distorted democratic rituals like elections, and tainted the opposition.
CONCLUSION

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 For a phenomenon that “is about everything”, it is odd that globalization is seen
to have very little to do with religion. As Peter Bayer and Lori Beaman observed,
“Religion, it seems, is somehow ‘outside’ looking at globalization as problem or
potential. One reason for this perspective is the association of globalization with
modernization, which is a concept of progress that is based on science, technology,
reason, and the law. with reason, one will have “to look elsewhere than to moral
discourse for fruitful thinking about economic globalization and religion.” Religion
being a belief system that cannot be empirically proven is, therefore, anathema to
modernization. The thesis that modernization will erode religious practice is often
called secularization theory.
Historians, political scientists, and philosophers have now debunked much of
secularization theory. Samuel Huntington, one of the strongest defenders of
globalization, admits in his book, The Clash of Civilizations, that civilizations can held
together by religious worldviews. This belief is hardly new. As far back as the 15 th
century, Jesuits and Dominicans used religion as an “ideological framework” to
legitimize the Spanish empire. Finally, one of the greatest sociologists of all time, Max
Weber, also observed the correction between religion and capitalism as an economic
system. Calvinism, as a branch of Protestantism, believed that God has already decided
who would and would not be saved. Calvinist, therefore, made it their mission to search
for clues as to their fate, and in their pursuit, they redefined the meaning of profit and
its acquisition. This “inner- worldly asceticism”—as Weber referred to his Protestant
Ethic—contributed to the rise of modern capitalism.

It was because of “moral” arguments that religious people were able to justify
their political involvement. When the Spaniards occupied lands in the Americas and
Philippines, it was done in the name of the Spanish King and of God, “for empire comes
from Go alone”. Then over 300 years later, American President William McKinley
claimed “that after a night of praying and soul- searching, he had concluded that it was
the duty of the United States “to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and
Christianize them and by God’s grace do the very best we could by them”. Finally, as
explain earlier, religious leaders have used religion to wield influence n the political
arena, either as outsiders criticizing the pitfalls of pro-globalization regimes, or as
integral members of coalitions who plays key roles in policy decision-makings and the
implementation of government projects.
In short, despite their inflexible features—the warnings of perdition (“Hell is a
real place prepared by Allah for those who do not believe in Him, rebel against His
laws and rejects His messengers”), the promises of salvation (“But our citizenship is in
heaven”), and their obligatory pilgrimages (the visits in Bethlehem or Mecca)—
religions are actually quite malleable. Their resilience has been extraordinary that they
have outlasted secular ideologies (ex. Communism). Globalists, therefore, have no
choice but to accept this reality that religion is here to stay.

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 Application

1. Identify the conflicting ideas between religious thought and the ideology of
globalism.

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
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2. Why globalists always contradict the concept of religion?

_____________________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

Congratulations for a job well done. You just finished lesson

one. It sounds interesting that you already know about the brief background
on s religious view and a globalist view. The most important thing is to
respect one another to avoid conflict. The next lesson is about the media
and globalization. Keep Going…

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Module 2: A World of Ideas: Cultures of Globalization

Lesson 2
MEDIA AND GLOBALIZATION

Objectives
At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:

 analyze how various media drive different forms of global integration

 compare the social impacts of different media on the processes of
globalization
 explain the dynamic between local and global cultural productions
 define responsible media consumption

Introduction

Welcome to lesson 2 of Module 2, it is about the media and globalization. In

this lesson we will know the roles of media in the community. Its positive and dark side
of being attached with the different platform of social media. You have 60 minutes to
finish the lesson, and you need to answer the activity at the end of the lesson. God bless.

Activity

Logo quiz. Identify what platform does the logo represents.

1. ____________ 2. _______________

3. __________ 4. ______________

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 Analysis

1. If technologies were not invented, what will be our means of communication

and source of information.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

Abstraction

Globalization entails the spread of various cultures. When a film is made in

Hollywood, it shown not only in the United States but also in other cities across the
globe. South Korea rapper Psy’s song “Gangnam Style” may have been about a wealthy
suburb in Seoul, but listeners included millions who have never been or may never go
to Gangnam. Some of them may not even know what Gangnam is. Globalization also
involves the spread of ideas. For example, the notion of the rights of lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities are spreading across the world and
becoming more widely accepted. Similarly, the conservative Christian Church that
opposes these rights from places like South America to Korea and to Burundi in Africa.
People who travel the world teaching and preaching their beliefs in universities,
churches, public forums, classrooms, or even as guests of a family play a major role in
the spread of culture and ideas. But today, television programs, social media
groups, books, movies, magazines, and the like have made it easier for advocates to
reach larger audiences. Globalization relies on media as its main channel for the spread
of global culture and ideas. Jack Lule was then right to ask, “Could global trade evolved
without a flow of information on markets, prices, commodities, and more? Could
empire have stretched across the world without communication throughout their
borders? Could religion, music, poetry, film, fiction, cuisine, and fashion could develop
as they have without the intermingling of media and cultures?

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 There is an intimate relationship between globalization and media which must
be unrevealed to further understand the contemporary world.

MEDIA A ND ITS FUNCTIONS

Lule describes media as “as a means of conveying something, such as a channel
of communication”. Technically speaking, a person’s voice is a medium. However,
when commentators refer to “media”(the plural of medium) they mean the technology
of mass communication. Print media include books, magazines, and newspapers.
Broadcast media involve radio, film, and television. Finally, digital media cover the
internet and mobile mass communication. Within the category of internet media, there
are the e-mail, internet sites, social media, ad internet-based video and audio.
While it is relatively easy to define the term “media”, it is more difficult to
determine what media do and how they affect societies. Media theorist Marshall
McLuhan once declared that “the medium is the message”. He did not mean that ideas
(“messages”) are useless and do not affect people. Rather his statement was an attempt
to draw attention on how media, as a form of technology, reshape society. Thus,
television, is not a simple barrier of messages, it also shapes the social behavior of users
and reorient family behavior. Since it was introduced in the 1960s, television has
steered people from the dining table they eat and tell stories to each other, to the living
room where they silently munch on their food while watching primetime shows.
television has also drawn people away from other meaningful activities such as playing
games or reading books. Today, smartphone allows user to keep in touch instantly with
multiple people at the same time. Consider the effect of the internet on relationships.
Prior to the cellphone, there was no way for the couple to keep constantly in touch, or
to be updated on what the other does all the time. The technology (medium) and not the
message, makes for this social change possible.

(photos are from google)

McLuhan added that different media simultaneously extend and amputate human
senses. New media may expand the reach of communication, but they also dull the users
communicative capacities. Think about the medium of writing. Before people wrote
things down on parchment, exchanging stories was mainly done orally. To be able to
pass stories verbally from one person to another, storytellers had to have retentive
memories. However, papyrus started becoming more common in Egypt after the fourth
century BCE, which increasingly meant that more people could write down their
stories. As a result, storytellers no longer had to rely completely on their memories.
This development, according to some philosophers at the time, dulled the people’s
capacity to remember.

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 Something similar can be said about cellphones. On the one hand, the expands
people’s senses because they provide the capability to talk to more people
instantaneously and simultaneously. On the other hand, they also limit the senses
because they make users easily distractible and more prone to multitasking. This is not
necessarily a bad thing; it is merely a change with a trade-off.

The question of what new media enhance and what they amputate was not a
moral or ethical one, according to McLuhan. New media are neither inherently good or
bad. The famous writer was merely drawing attention to the historically and
technologically specific attributes of various media.

THE GLOBAL VILLAGE AND CULTURAL IMPERIALISM

McLuhan used his analysis of technology to examine the impact of electronic

media. Since he was writing around the 1960s, he mainly analyze the social changes
brought about by television. McLuhan declared that television was turning the world in
a “global village”. By this, he meant that, as more and more people sat down in front
of their television sets and listen to the same stories, their perception of the world would
contract. If tribal villages once sat in front of fires to listen collective stories, the
members of the new global village would sit in front of bright boxes in their living
rooms.

In the years after McLuhan, media scholars further grappled with the challenges
of a global media culture. A lot of these early thinkers assume that global media has a
tendency to homogenize culture. They argues that a global media spread, people from
all over the world would begin to watch, listen to, and read the same things. This
thinking arose at a time when America’s power had turned it into the world’s cultural
heavyweight. Commentators, therefore, believed that the media globalization coupled
with American hegemony would create a form of cultural imperialism whereby
American values and culture would overwhelm all others. In 1976, media critic Herbert
Schiller argued that not only that the world was Americanized but that this process also
led to the spread of “American” capitalist values like consumerism. Similarly, for John
Tomlinson, cultural globalization is simply a euphemism for “Western cultural
imperialism” since it promotes homogenized, Westernized, consumer culture. “

These scholars who decry cultural imperialism, however, have topped-down

view of the media, since they are more concerned with the broad structures that
determine media content. Moreover, there focus on America has led them to neglect
other global flows of information that media could enable. This media/ cultural
imperialism theory has, therefore, been subject to significant critique.

CRITIQUES OF CULTURAL IMPERIALISM

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 Proponents of the idea of cultural imperialism ignored the fact that media
messages are not just made by producers, they are also consumed by audiences. In the
1980s, media scholars began to pay attention to the ways in which audiences understood
and interpreted media messages. The field of audience studies emphasizes that media
consumers are active participants in the meaning-making process, who viewed media
“texts” ( in media studies, a “text” simply refers to the content of any medium) through
their own cultural lenses. In 1985, Indonesian cultural critic Ien Ang studied the ways
in which different viewers in the Netherlands experienced watching the American soap
opera Dallas. Through letters from 42 viewers, she represents a detailed analysis of
audience- viewing experiences. Rather than simply receiving American culture in a
“passive and resigned way”, she noted that viewers put “a lot of emotional energy” into
the process and they experienced pleasure based on how the program resonate with
them.
In 1990, Elihu Katz and Tamar Liebes decided to push Ang’s analysis further
by examining how viewers from distinct cultural communities interpreted Dallas. They
argued that texts are received differently by varied interpretive communities because
they derived different meanings and pleasures from these texts. Thus, people from
diverse cultural backgrounds had their own ways of understanding the show. Russians
were suspicious of the show’s content, believing not only that it was primarily about
America, but that it contained American propaganda. American viewers believed that
the show, though set in America, was primarily about the lives of the rich.
Apart from the challenge of audience studies, the cultural imperialism thesis
has been`belied by the renewed strength of regional trends in the globalization process.
Asian culture, for example, has proliferated worldwide through the globalization of
media. Japanese brands—from Hello Kitty to the Mario Brothers to Pokémon—are now
indelible part of global culture. The same can be said for Korean Pop (K-pop_ and
Korean telenovelas, which are widely successful regionally and globally. The
observation even applies to culinary tastes. The most obvious case of globalized Asian
cuisine is sushi. And while it is true that McDonald’s has continued to spread across
Asia, it is also a case that Asian brands have provided stiff competition. The
Philippine’s Jollibee claims to be the number choice for fast food chain in Brunei.

Given these patterns, it is no longer tenable to insist that globalization is a

unidirectional process of foreign cultures overwhelming local ones. Globalization as
discussed with the previous topics, will remain an uneven process, and it will produce
inequalities. Nevertheless, it leaves room for dynamism and cultural change. This is not
a contradiction; it is merely a testament to the phenomenon’s complexity.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE CREATION OF CYBER GHETTOES

By now, very few media scholars argue that the world is becoming culturally
homogenous. Apart from the nature of diverse audiences and regional trends in cultural
production, the internet and the social media are proving that the globalization of
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culture and ideas can move in different directions. While Western culture remains
powerful and media production is still controlled by a handful of powerful Western
corporations, the internet, particularly social media, is challenging previous ideas about
media and globalization.
As with all new media, social media have both beneficial and negative effects.
On the one hand, these forms of communication have democratized access. Anyone
with an internet connection or a smart phone can use Facebook and Twitter for free.
These media have enable users to consumers and producers of information
simultaneously. This democratic potential of social media was evident in 2011 during
the wave of uprising know as the Arab Spring. Without access to traditional broadcast
media like TV, activists opposing authoritarian regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya
used Twitter to organize and to disseminate information. Their efforts toppled their
respective governments. More recently, the “women’s march” against newly installed
US President Donald Trump began with a tweet from a Hawaii lawyer and become a
national, even global movement.
However, social media have also their dark side. In the early 2000s,
commentators began referring the emergence of a “splinternet” and the phenomenon
of “cyberbalkanization” to refer to the various bubbles people place themselves in
when they are online. In the United States, voters of the Democratic Party largely read
liberal websites, and voters from the Republican Party largely read conservative
websites. This segmentation, notes an article in the journal Science has been
exacerbated by the nature of social media feeds, which leads users to read articles,
memes, and videos shared by like-minded friends. As such, being on Facebook can
resemble living in an echo chamber, which reinforces one’s existing beliefs and
opinions. This echo chamber precludes users from listening to our reading opinions and
information that challenge their viewpoints, thus, making them more partisan and
closed-minded.
This segmentation has been used by people in power who are aware that the
social media bubbles can produce a herd mentality. It can be exploited by politicians
with less than democratic. Intentions and demagogues wanting to whip up popular
anger. The same inexpensiveness that allows social media to be democratic force
likewise makes it a cheap tool of government propaganda. Russian dictator Vladimir
Putin has hired armies of social media “trolls” (paid users who harass political
opponents) to manipulate public opinion through intimidation and the spreading of fake
news. Most recently, American intelligence agencies established that Putin used trolls
and online misinformation to help Donald Trump win the presidency—a tactic the
Russian autocrat is likely to repeat in European elections he seeks to influence.

In places across the world, Putin imitators replicate his strategy of online trolling
and disinformation to clamp down on dissent and delegitimatize critical media. Critics
of the increasingly dictatorial regime of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are
threatened by online mobs of pro-government trolls, who hacked accounts and threatens

66
violence. Some of their responses have included threats of sexual violence against
women.

As the preceding cases show, fake information can spread easily on social media
since they have few content filters. Unlike newspaper, Facebook doe not have a team
of editors who are trained to shift through and filter information. If a news article, even
a fake one, gets a lot of shares, it will reach many people with Facebook accounts.
This dark side of social media shows that even a seemingly open and democratic
media may be co -opted towards undemocratic means. Global online propaganda will
be the biggest threat to face as globalization of media deepens. Internet media have
made the world so interconnected that a Russian dictator can, for example, influence
American elections on the cheap.

As consumers of media, users must remain vigilant and learn how to distinguish
fact from falsehood in a global media landscape that allows politicians to peddle what
President Trump’s senior advisers now call “alternative facts”. Though people must
remain critical of mainstream media and traditional journalism that may also operate
based on vested interest, we must also insist that some sources are more credible than
others. A newspaper story that is written by a professional journalist and edited by a
professional editors are still likely to be more credible than a viral video produced by
someone in his/her bedroom, even if both will have their biases. People must be able to
tell the difference.

CONCLUSION

This lesson showed that different media have diverse effects on globalization
processes. At one point, it seemed that global television was creating a global
monoculture. Now, it seems more likely that social media will splinter cultures and
ideas into bubbles of people who do not interact. Societies can never be completely
prepared for the rapid changes in the systems of communication. Every technological
change, after all, create multiple unintended consequences. Consumers and users of
media will have a hard time turning back the clock. Though people may individually
try to keep out of Facebook or Twitter, for example, these media will continue to
produce social changes. Instead of fearing these changes or entering a state of moral
panic, everyone must collectively discover ways of dealing with them responsibly and
ethically.

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 Application

1. What are your strategies you can use to distinguish between fake and factual
information on the internet?

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

2. Compare and contrast the social impacts of television and social media.

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

Congratulations. You’re done with lesson 2. Interesting right?

Social media is not bad; we must be responsible on things we posted on the
different platform. Always remember that THINK BEFORE YOU
CLICK… ok… the next lesson will tackle about the Global City.

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Module 2: A World of Ideas: Cultures of Globalization

Lesson 3 THE GLOBAL CITY

Objectives Upon the completion of the module, you are able to:
 Explain why globalization is a spatial phenomenon
 Identify the attributes of a global city
 Analyze how cities serve as engines of globalization

Introduction
In this lesson you will be acquainted of the feature of a global city. The
sacrifices made by people to give way for the development of the place. Also, what are
the indicators of a city to be considered as “global city”. You will know all of that as
you go along with this lesson. ‘Still you have 60 minutes to complete the lesson and
don’t forget to answer the activities. Good luck…

Activity

With the given pictures, identify the city where the landmark is being located. (Photos
are from Google)

1. 3.
_____________ __________________

2. 4.
__________________ _________________

Analysis

1. Compare and contrast the lifestyle in urban and in rural.

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__________________________________________________________________
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Abstraction

WHY STUDY GLOBAL CITIES?

So far, much of the analysis of globalization in the previous lessons has looked
of internationalism shaped modern world politics. We also examine cultural
movements like K-pop, and how they spread through media like the internet. What
this lesson will emphasize, however, is that globalization is spatial. This statement
means two things.
First, globalization is spatial because it occurs in physical spaces. You can see
it when foreign investments and capital move through a city, and when companies
build skyscrapers. People who are working in these businesses – or Filipinos
working abroad-- start to purchase or rent high-rise condominium units and better
homes. All these events happen, more poor people are driven out of city to make
way for the new developments.
Second, globalization is spatial because what makes it move is the fact that it is
based in places. Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood, is where movies are made
for global consumption. The main headquarter of Sony is in Tokyo, and from there,
the company coordinates the sale of its various electronics goods to branches across
the world. In other words, cities act on globalization and globalization acts on cities.
They are the sites as well as the mediums of globalization. Just as the internet
enables and shapes global forces, so too do cities.
In the years to come, more and more people will experience globalization
through cities. In 1950, only 30% of the world lived in urban areas. By 2014, the
number increased to 54 %. And by 2050, it is expected to be reached 66%. This

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lesson studies globalization through the living environment of a rapidly increasing
number of people.

DEFINING THE GLOBAL CITY

Sociologist Saskia Sassen popularized the term “global city” in the 1990s. her
criteria for what constitute a global city were primarily economic. In her work, she
initially identified three global cities: New York London and Tokyo, all of which
are hub of global finance and capitalism. They are the homes, for instance, of the
world’s top stock exchanges where investors buy and sell shares in major
corporations. New York has the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), London has
the Financial Time Stick Exchange (FTSE), and Tokyo has the Nikkei. The amount
of money traded in these markets is staggering. The value of shares traded in NYSE,
for example, is $19,300 billion while that of the shares in the Philippine Stock
Exchange is only $231.3 billion.

Photo from Google

Limiting the discussion of global cities to these three metropolises, however, is

proving more and more restrictive. The global economy has change significantly
since Sassen wrote her book, and any account of the economic power of cities today
must take note of the latest developments. Recent commentators have expanded the
criteria that Sassen used to determine what constitutes a global city. Though it is
not as wealthy as New York, movie-making mecca Los Angeles can now rival the
Big Apple’s cultural influence. San Francisco must now factor in as another global
city because it is the home of the most powerful internet companies—Facebook,
Twitter, and Google. Finally, the growth of the Chinese economy has turned cities
like Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou onto centers of trade and finance. The
Chinese government reopened the Shanghai Stock Exchange in late 1990, and since
then, it has grown to become the fifth largest stock exchange market in the world.

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 Others consider some cities “global” simply because they are great places to
live in. in Australia Sydney commands the greatest proportion of capital. However,
Melbourne is described as Sydney’s rival “global city” because many magazines
and lists have now referred to it as the world’s “most livable city”—a place with
good public transportation, a thriving cultural scene, and a relatively easy pace of
life.
Defining a global city can thus be difficult. One way of solving this dilemma is
to go beyond the simple dichotomy of global and non-global. Instead of asking
whether or not one city is a global city ( a yes or a no question),it is better to ask: In
what ways are cities global and to what extent are they global?

INDICATORS FOR GLOBALITY

So what are the multiple attributes of a global city? The foremost characteristics
is economic power. Sassen remains correct in saying that economic power largely
determine which cities are global. New York may have the largest stock market in
the world but Tokyo houses the most number of corporate headquarters (613
company headquarters as against 217 in New York, its closest competitor).
Shanghai may have a smaller stock market compared to New York and Toyo, but
plays a critical role on the global economic supply chain ever since China has
become the manufacturing center of the world. Shanghai has the world’s busiest
container port, moving over 33 million container units in 2013.
Economic opportunities in a global city make it attractive to talents from across
the world. Since the 1970s, many of the top IT programmers and engineers from
Asia have moved to San Francisco Bay Area to become some of the key figures in
Silicon Valley’s technology boom. London remains a preferred destination for
many Filipinos with nursing degrees.
To measure the economic competitiveness of a city. The Economist Intelligence
Unit has added ither criteria like market size, purchasing power of citizens, size of
the middle class, and potential for growth. Based on these criteria, “tiny” Singapore
is considered as Asia’s most competitive city because of its strong market, efficient
and incorruptible government, and livability. It also houses the regional offices of
many major global corporations.
Global cities are also centers of authority. Washington D.C. may not be as
wealthy as New York but it is the seat of American state power. People around the
world know its major landmarks: the White House, the Capitol Building (
Congress), the Supreme Court, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington
Monument. Similarly, compared with Sydney and Melbourne, Canberra is a sleepy
town and thus is not as attractive to tourists. But as Australia’s political capital., it
is the country’s top politicians, bureaucrats, and policy advisor.

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 The city that houses major international organizations may also be considered
centers of political influence. The headquarters of the United Nations is in New
York and that of the European Union is in Brussels. An influential political city near
the Philippines is Jakarta, which is not just a capital of Indonesia, but also the
location of the main headquarters of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN). Powerful political hubs exert influence on their own countries as well as
on international affairs. The European Central Bank, which oversee Euro ( the
European Union’s currency), is based in Frankfurt. A decision made in that city,
therefore, affect the political economy of an entire continent and beyond.
Finally, global cities are centers of higher learning and culture. A city’s intellectual
influence is seen through the influence of its publishing industry. Many of the books
that people read are published in places like New York, London, or Paris. The New
York Times carries the name of New York City, but it is far from being a local
newspaper. People read it not just across America, but also all over the world. One
of the reasons for the many tourists visiting Boston is because they want to see
Harvard University—the world’s top university. Many Asian teenagers are moving
to cities in Australia because of the leading English language universities there.
Education is currently Australia’s third largest export, just behind coal and iron ore,
and significantly ahead of tourism. In 2015, the Australian government reported
that it made as such 19.2 billion Australian dollars (roughly 14billion US dollars)
from education alone.
We have already explain why Los Angeles, the center of the American fil
industry, may be considered as global city. A less obvious example, however, in
Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. It is so small that one can tour the entire city
by bicycle in thirty minutes. It is not a home of a major stock market, and its
population is rather homogenous. However, Copenhagen is now considered as one
of the culinary capitals of the world, with its top restaurants incommensurate with
its size. As the birthplace of “New Nordic” cuisine, Copenhagen has set into motion
various culinary trends like foraging the forests for local ingredients. Similarly,
Manchester, England is the 1980s was a dreary, industrial city. But many prominent
post-punk and New Wave bands—Joy Division, the Smiths, the Happy Mondays—
hailed from this city, making it a global household name. in Southeast Asia,
Singapore (again) is slowly becoming a cultural hub for the region. It now houses
some of the region’s top television stations and news organizations (MTV Southeast
Asia and Channel News Asia). Its various art galleries and cinemas also show
paintings from artists and filmmakers, respectively, from the Philippines and
Thailand. It is, in fact, sometimes easier to watch the movie of a Filipino indie
filmmaker in Singapore that it is in Manila.
It is the cultural power of global cities that ties them to the imagination. Think
about how many songs have been written about New York ( Jay Z and Alicia Keys’s
“Empire State of Mind” Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York”, and numerous
songs by Simon and Garfunkel) and how these references conjure up images of a

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place where anything is possible – “a concrete jungle where dreams are made of”,
according to Alicia Keys.

Today, global cities become culturally diverse. In a global city, one can try
cuisines from different parts of the world. Because of their large Turkish
populations, for example, Berlin and Tokyo offer some of the best Turkish food one
can find outside of Turkey. Manila is not very global because of the dearth of
foreign residents (despite the massive domestic migration), but Singapore is
because it has a foreign population of 38%.

THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL CITIES

Global cities conjure up images of fast- paced, exciting, cosmopolitan lifestyles.
But some descriptions are lacking. Global cities also have their undersides. They
can be sites of great inequality and poverty as well as tremendous violence. Like
the broader processes of globalization, global cities create winners and losers. In
this section, we will list some “pathologies” of the global city, based on the research
of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
Cities can be sustainable because of their density. As Richard Florida notes:
“Ecologists have found that by concentrating their populations in smaller areas,
cities and metros decrease human encroachment on natural habitats. Denser
settlement patterns yield energy savings; apartment buildings, for example, are
more efficient to heat and cool that detached suburban houses”. Moreover, in cities
with exclusive public transportation system people tend to drive less and thereby
cut carbon emissions. It is no surprise to learn that, largely because of the city’s
extensive train system, New Yorkers has the lowest per capita carbon footprints in
the United States. In Asia, dense global cities like Singapore and Tokyo also have
relatively low per capita carbon footprints.
Not all cities, however, are as dense as New York or Tokyo. Some cities like
Los Angeles are urban sprawls, with massive freeways that force residents to spend
money on cars and cars. And while cities like Manila, Bangkok, and Mumbai are
dense, their lack of public transportation and their government’s inability to regulate
their car industries have made extremely pollutes.

More importantly, because of the sheer size of city populations across the world,
it is not surprising that urban areas consume most of the world’s energy. Cities only
cover 2 percent of the world’s landmass, but they consume 78% of the global
energy. Therefore, if carbon emissions must be cut to prevent global warming, this
massive energy consumption in cities must ne curbed. This action will require a lot
of creativity. For example, many food products travel many miles before they got
to major city centers. Shipping this food through trains, buses, and even planes
increases carbon emissions. Will it be possible to grow more food in the cities
instead? Solutions like so-called “vertical farms” built in abandoned buildings ( as

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 is increasingly being done in New York) may lead the way towards more
environmentally sustainable cities. If more foods can be grown with less water in
denser spaces, cities will begin to be greener.
The major terror attack of recent years have also targeted cities. Cities,
especially those with global influence, are obvious targets for terrorists due to their
high populations and their role as symbols of globalization that many terrorists
despise. The same attributes that make them more attractive to workers and migrants
make them sites of potential terrorist violence. Only by looking at this perspective
will be able to understand the 9/11 attacks that brought down the twin towers of the
World Trade Center in New York, and the November 2015 coordinated attacks in
Paris by zealots of Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL). Now that real estate
magnate Donald Trump is the president of the United States, security experts believe
that properties around the world that carry his name may be targets of terror attacks.
There are Trump Towers, for example, in places like Istanbul and Manila.

THE GLOBAL CITY AND THE POOR

We have consistently noted that economic globalization has paved the way for
massive inequality. This phenomenon is thus very pronounced in cities. Some large
cities, particularly those in Scandinavia, have found ways to mitigate inequality
through state-led social redistribution programs. Yet many cities, particularly those
in the developing countries, are sites of contradiction. In places like Mumbai,
Jakarta and Manila, it is common to find gleaming buildings alongside massive
shantytowns. This duality may even be seen in rich, urban cities.
In the outskirts of New York and San Francisco are poor urban enclaves
occupied by African- American and immigrant families who are often denied
opportunities at a better life. Slowly, they are being forced to move father away
from the economic center of their cities. As city attracts more capital and richer
residents, real estate prices go up and poor residents are forced to relocate to far
away but cheaper areas. This phenomenon of driving out the poor in favor of newer,
wealthier residents is called gentrification.
In Australian cities, poor aboriginal Australians have been acutely affected by
this process. Once living in a public urban housing, they were forced to move farther
away from city centers that offer more jobs, more government services, and better
transportation due to gentrification. In France, poor Muslim migrants are forced out
of Paris and have clustered around ethnic enclaves known as banlieue.

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 In most world
global cities, the middle class is also thinning out. Globalization creates high-
income jobs that are concentrated in global cities. These high earners, in turn,
generate demand for an unskilled labor force (hotel cleaners, nannies, maids,
waitresses, etc.) that will attend to their increasing needs. Meanwhile, many middle-
income jobs in manufacturing and business process outsourcing (call centers for
example) are moving cities has heightened the inequality within them. In places like
New York, there are high-rolling American investment bankers whose children are
raised by a Filipina maid. A large global city may thus be a paradise for some, but
a purgatory for others.

CONCLUSION
Global cities, as noted in this lesson, are sites and medium of globalization.
They are, therefore, material representations of the phenomenon. Through them, we
see the best globalization; they are places that create exciting fusions of culture and
ideas. They are also places that generate tremendous wealth. However, they remain
sites of great inequality, where global servants serve global entrepreneurs. The
question of how globalization can be made more just is partly a question of how
people make their cities more just.

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