TERM PAPER PRESENTATION: IDENTIFY AND EXAMINE AT

LEAST THREE THEORIES OF GLOBALIZATION.

NAME:OBADA OLALEKAN, OLANREWAJU.

MATRIC NUMBER:17562004

PURPOSE:IMPERATIVES OF GLOBALIZATION (BUS 903)

ASSIGNMENT.

FACULTY: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE

UNIVERSITY:UNIVERSITY OF ABUJA, ABUJA.

PROGRAMME:PhD BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION.

1.1 WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION
Globalization in its literary sense is the process by which businesses or other organizations

develop international influence or start operating on an international scale. Meaning business is

now done across borders.

The above definition is further reinforced by the definition put forward by the Business

Dictionary where I discovered that Globalization is the worldwide movement toward economic,

financial, trade and communications integration. Globalization implies the opening of local and

nationalistic perspectives to a broader outlook of an interconnected and interdependent world

with free transfer of capital, goods and services across national frontiers. This definition relates

to the former in the sense that all barriers to international trade is now removed.

Further, Wikipedia sees globalization as the trend of increasing interaction between people or

companies on a worldwide scale due to advances in transportation and communication

technology, nominally beginning with the steamship and the telegraph in the early to mid-1800s

with increased interactions between nation-states and individuals came the growth of

International Trade, Ideas and Culture.

Economically, globalization involves goods and services and the economic resources of capital,

technology and data. In 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified 4 basic aspects

of globalization; Trade and Transactions, Capital and Investment Movements, Migration and

Movement of People and the Dissemination of Knowledge. Academic literature commonly

subdivides globalization into three major areas; Economic Globalization, Cultural Globalization
and Political Globalization. This deep insight given by Wikipedia has brought to light the fact

that one cannot talk about globalization without looking at it economically, cultural and

politically, since these are the major areas that globalization effects has been felt world over.

To round up the meaning of globalization, this study also discovered from Management Study

Guide that globalization is the free movement of goods, services and people across the world in a

seamless and integrated manner. Globalization can be thought of to be result of the opening up of

the global economy and the concomitant increase in trade between nations. In other words, when

countries that were hitherto closed to trade and foreign investment open up their economies and

go global, the result is an increasing interconnectedness and integration of the economies of the

world.

Furthermore, globalization also mean that countries liberalize their protocols and welcome

foreign investment into sectors that are the mainstays of its economy. What this means is that

countries become magnets for contacting global capital by opening up their economies to

multinational corporations. Globalization is grounded in the theory of comparative advantage

which states that countries that are good at producing a particular good are better off exporting it

to countries that are less efficient in producing that good.

1.2 THEORIES OF GLOBALIZATION

Since the advent of the nineteen century when economies of the world began to engage in

international trade which paved way for globalization several researchers and authors have

written about globalization, its meaning, theories and importance.

From political science notes.com (website devoted to sharing knowledge on political science)

eight theories were postulated under the following heading; Liberalism, Political Realism,

Marxism, Constructivism, Post Modernism, Feminism, Transformationalism and Eclecticism.

Also, katehon.com (katehon think tank is an independent organization consisting of an

international network of people from a wide variety of field and disciplines who specialize in the

geopolitical, geostrategic and political analysis of world events) identified five theories as

follows. Firstly, World Politics Theory as propounded by J. Meyer, J. Boli and G Thomas.

Secondly, The Theory of World Culture by R Robertson, Risk Society and Space of Culture

Theory by S Lash and M Featherstone. The End of History Theory by F Fukuyama and

Hyperglobalism as postulated by T Friedman and J Bhagwati. Further, William I Robinson also

wrote about seven theories of globalization under following headings; World System Theory,

Theory of Global Capitalism, The Network Society, Theories of Space, Place and Globalization,

Theories of Transnationalityand Transnationalism, Modernity, Post Modernity and Globalization

and lastly Theories of Global Culture.

It is instructive to mention that the theories mentioned above by the three authoritiescited are

inter-related and connected, however for the purpose of this study, Theories of Global
Capitalism, Modernity, Post Modernity and Globalization and Theories of Global Culture will be

examined.

1.2.1 THEORIES OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM

This school of thought with their theories tend to see globalization as a novel stage in the

evolving system of world capitalism (hence these theorists tend to speak of capitalist

globalization). They focus on a new global production and financial system that is seen to

supersede earlier national forms of capitalism and emphasize the rise of processes that cannot be

framed within the nation-state/inter-state system that informs world-system theory and indeed,

much traditional macro social theory. Robinson in 2003 advanced a theory of global capitalism

involving three planks: transnational production, transnational capitalists and a transnational

state. The new transnational stage of world capitalism involves the globalization of the

production process itself, which breaks down and functionally integrates what were previously

national circuits into new global circuits of production and accumulation. Transnational class

formation takes place around these globalized circuits.

Furthermore, Robinson theorizes an emergent transnational state (TNS) apparatus. This TNS is a

loose network comprised of supernatural political and economic institutions together with

national state apparatuses that have been penetrated and transformed by transnational forces.

National state as components of a larger TNS structure now tend to serve the interests of global

over national accumulation processes. The supranational organizations are staffed by

transnational functionaries who find their counterparts in transnational functionaries who staff

transformed national states. These ‘transnational state cadres’ act as midwives of capitalist
globalization. The nature of state practices in the emergent global system ‘resides in the exercise

of transnational economic and political authority through the TNS apparatus to reproduce the

class relations embedded in the global valorization and accumulation of capital.

Also Hardt and Negri’s twin studies Empire (2000) and Multitude (2004) proposed an empire of

global capitalism that is fundamentally different from the imperialism of European domination

and capitalist expansion of previous eras. This is a normalized and decentered empire- a new

universal order that accepts no boundaries and no limits, not only in the geographic, economic

and political sense, but in terms of its penetration into the most remote recesses of social and

cultural life, and indeed, even into the psyche and biology of the individual. However, there is a

tension between those theories that retain a national/international approach and view the system

of nation-states as an immutable structural feature of the larger world or inter-state system and

those that take transnational or global approaches that focus on how the system of nation-states

and national economies are becoming transcended by transnationalsocial forces and institutions

grounded in a global system rather than the interstate system.

1.2.2 MODERNITY, POSTMODERNITY & GLOBALIZATION

Some theories in this school of thought opined that we are now living in a postmodern world

while theorists like Robertson, Giddens and Meyer argue that globalization has simply

radicalized or culminated the project of modernity. Robertson in his 1992 study, Globalization:

Social Theory and Global Culture, he said globalization as a concept refers both to the

compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the global whole in the
twentieth century. His theory is particularly concerned with the subjective, cultural and

phenomenological dimensions of globalization. Giddens also advanced a similar construct, this

universalization of modernity is central to the very concept of globalization. This process

involves the universalization of the nation-state as the political form, the universalization of the

capitalist system of commodity production, a Foucaultian surveillance by the modern state, and

the centralization of control of the means of violence within an industrialized military order.

Further, he views globalization as ‘time-space distanciation’ as the outcome of the completion of

modernization- he terms it ‘late modernity’- on the basis of the nation-state as the universal

political form organized along the four axes of capitalism, industrialism, surveillance and

military power.

Albow in 1997 opined that transition from modern to postmodern society is the defining feature

of globalization, where a new ‘global age’ has come to supersede the age of modernity. He

argued that globalization signals the end of the ‘modern age’ and the dawn of a new historic

epoch, the ‘global age’. This Albrow’sWeberianconstruct opines that the quintessence of the

modern age was the nation-state, which was the primary source of authority, the centralized

means of violence, and of identity among individuals, and hence the locus of social action.

However, the contradictions of the modern age has resulted in the decentring of the nation-state,

so that under globalization both individuals and institutional actors such as corporations relate

directly to the globe, the logic of the modern age becomes replaced by a new logic in which the

globe becomes the primary source of identity and arena for social action.
1.2.3 THEORIES OF GLOBAL CULTURE

This set of theories are primarily concerned with the subjective dimension of globalization and

tend to emphasize globalizing cultural forms and flows, belief systems and ideologies over the

economic and/or the political. Such approaches distinctively problematize the existence of a

‘global culture’ and ‘making the world a single place- whether as a reality, a possibility or a

fantasy. They emphasize the rapid growth of the mass media and resultant global cultural flows

and images in recent decades, evoking the image famously put forth by Marshall McLuhan of

‘the global village’. Cultural theories of globalization have focused on such phenomena as

globalization and religion, nations and ethnicity, global consumerism, global communications

and the globalization of tourism. Cultural theories of globalization tend to line up along one of

three positions. Homogenization theories which see a global cultural convergence and would

tend to highlight the rise of world beat, world cuisines, world tourism, uniform consumption

patterns and cosmopolitanism. Heterogeneity approaches see continued cultural difference and

highlight local cultural autonomy, cultural resistance to homogenization, cultural clashes and

polarization, and distinct subjective experiences of globalization. Hybridization stresses new and

constantly evolving cultural forms and identities produced by manifold transnational processes

and the fusion of distinct cultural processes.

Appadurai’s thesis on the ‘global cultural economy’ refers to what he sees as the ‘central

problem of today’s global interactions’ the tension between cultural homogenization and cultural

heterogenization. To illustrate this tension he identifies ‘global cultural flows’ that ‘move in

isomorphic paths’. These flows generate distinct images- sets of symbols, meanings,
representations and values- that he refers to as ‘scapes’ or globalized mental pictures of the

social world, perceived from the flows of cultural objects. These scapes illustrates what he refers

to as a disjunctive order, or a disjuncture between economy, culture and politics in the

globalization age. Ethnoscapes are produced by the flows of people (immigrants, tourists,

refugees, guest workers etc.). Technoscapes are produced from the flows of technologies,

machinery and plant flows produced by TNCs and government agencies. Financescapes are

produced by the rapid flows of capital, money in currency markets and stock exchanges.

Mediascapes are produced by the flow of information and are repertoires of images, flows

produced and distributed by newspapers, magazines, television and film. Finally, Ideoscapes

involve the distribution of political ideas and values linked to flows of images associated with

state or counter-state movements, ideologies of freedom, welfare, right and so on. These

different flows to him create genuinely transnational cultural spaces and practices not linked to

any national society and may be novel or syncretic; hence a disjuncture between culture and the

economy and culture and politics.

1.2.4 CONCLUSION

After examing three out of the many theories of globalization, it will be apprporiate to bring to

fore its importance. Globalization teaches individuals, corporations and nations on how to

properly use resources, since information is available and people travel and tour. It also gives

multiple choices to buyers/importers. It brings foreign exchange earnings to nations through

exportation. Furthermore, it creates employment, makes tranfer of technology easier, faster and

cost effective. It also makes possible spreading of risk of loss, since various losses in domestic
markets can be easily compensated from international market. Globalization also benefit the

consumers, since it encourages free and fair competition at world level, due to this, organizations

try to supply quality goods and that also at a reduced price. Lastly, it improves living standards

and life expentancy in developing countries, though globalization can lead to spreading of

diseases.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Appelbaum, R and Robinson, W.I. 2005. Critical Globalization Studies. New York: Ruitledge

Barrie Axford 2013. Theories of Globalization. Maldon, MA. Polity Press, 2013.

Katehon.com (Katehon think tank. Geopolitics and Tradition).

www.businessdictionary.com

www.managementstudyguide.com

www.politicalsciencenotes.com

en.m.wikipedia.org