Republic of the Philippines

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Alangilan Campus
Alangilan, Batangas City

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE & FINE ARTS

THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

GLOBALIZATION
⬗ Globalization is the process in which people, ideas and goods spread
throughout the world, urging more interaction and integration between the
world’s cultures, governments and economies.

⬗ Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among people,

companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by
international trade and investment and aided by information technology (this
has effects on the environment, culture, political systems, economic
development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies
around the world).

People are engaged in buying and selling from other places in far-away lands
like the famed Silk Road across Central Asia that connected China and Europe
during the Middle Age for thousands of years and they also invested in
enterprises in other countries for centuries.

ACCORDING TO MANFRED STEGER:

“Globalization is the expansion and intensification of social relations and
consciousness across world-time and world-space.”

⬗ Expansion: creation of new social networks and the increasing of existing

connection.

⬗ Intensification: stretching and acceleration of social networks.

⬗ Social relations: interactions between two or more people, groups, or

organizations. They are composed of social, physical, and verbal interactions
that create a climate for the exchange of feelings and ideas.

⬗ Time and Space: in the contemporary era, eople begin to feel that the world
has become smaller and distance has collapsed from thousand miles to just a
click away.
CHARACTERISTICS OF GLOBALIZATION
1. Globalization involves the creation of social networks that cut across
traditional, political, economic, cultural, and geographical boundaries.

⬗ Olympics: Today’s media combine conventional TV coverage with multiple

streaming feeds into digital devices that transcend nationally based services.

2. Globalization is reflected in the expansion and the stretching of social relations,

activities, and connections.

⬗ Opening of local fast food chains in other countries.

⬗ Existence of electronics around the globe.
⬗ Products whose various components were manufactured in different countries.

3. Globalization involves the intensification and acceleration of social exchanges

and activities.

⬗ The worldwide web relays distant information in real time.

⬗ Satellites provide consumers with instant pictures of remote events.
⬗ Social Media

4. Globalization processes do not occur merely on an objective, material level but

they also involve the subjective plane of human consciousness.

Globalization involves both the macro-structures of a global community and the micro-
structures of global personhood. It extends deep into the core of the self and its
dispositions, facilitating the creation of multiple individual and collective identities
nurtured by the intensifying relations between the personal and the global. They differ
from each other by acceleration in the speed of social exchanges and widening of
geographical scopes.

HISTORICAL PERIODS 0F GLOBALIZATION

⬗ The Prehistoric Period (10000 BCE-3500 BCE)

In this earliest phase of globalization, contacts among hunters and gatherers

were geographically limited. In this period due to absence of advanced forms
of technology, globalization was severely limited.

⬗ The Pre-modern Period (3500 BCE- 1500 CE)

In this period the invention of writing and the wheel were great social and
technological boosts that moved globalization to a new level. The invention of
wheel in addition to roads made the transportation of people and goods more
efficient while writing facilitated the spread of ideas and inventions.

⬗ The Early Modern Period (1500-1750)

It is the period between the Enlightenment and the Renaissance. During this
period, European Enlightenment project tried to achieve a universal form of
morality and law. This with the emergence of European metropolitan centers
and unlimited material accumulation which led to the capitalist world system
helped to strengthen globalization.

⬗ The Modern Period (1750-1970)

Innovations in transportation and communication technology, population

explosion, and increase in migration led to more cultural exchanges and
transformation in traditional social patterns. Process of industrialization also
accelerated.
 ⬗ The Contemporary Period (from 1970 to present)

The creation, expansion, and acceleration of interdependencies around the

world occurred in a dramatic way and it was a kind of leap in the history of
globalization.

DIMENSIONS OF GLOBALIZATION
Economic Dimension

This refers to the extensive development of economic relations across the

globe as a result of technology and the enormous flow of capital that has
stimulated trade in both sources and goods.

Major players in the global economic order:

⬗ Huge international corporations (General Motors, Walmart, Mitsubishi)
⬗ International Economic Institutions (IMF, World Trade Organization, World Bank)

Political Dimension

This refers to an enlargement and strengthening of political interrelations

across the globe.

Political Issues that Surface in this Dimension:

⬗ The principle of state sovereignty
⬗ Increasing impact of various intergovernmental organization
⬗ Future shapes of regional and global governance

Cultural Dimension

This refers to the increase in the amount of cultural flows across the globe.
Cultural interconnections are at the foundations of contemporary globalization.

Cultural diversity often results hybridization (a constructive interaction process

between global and local characteristics which is often visible in food, music,
dance, film, fashion, and language). As a result, there is a scarcely any society
in the world that expresses itself in its own unique and authentic culture.

Media empires generated and directed the extensive flow of culture. Examples
of these are Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and Disney. Advertisement plays an
important role in this cultural flow by featuring various celebrities in the
television aside from transforming newscast into entertainment shows.

Religious Dimension

Religion is a personal or institutionalized set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices

relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality
or deity. It is the most important defining element of any civilization as
contrasted with race, language, or way of life. As such, it is also portrayed as
a defining element in future conflicts. Religion is certainly central to much of
the strife currently taking place around the globe.

Ideological Dimensions

Ideology is a system of widely shared ideas, beliefs, norms and values among
a group of people. It is often used to legitimize certain political interests or to
defend dominant power structures. Ideology connects human actions with
some generalized claims.
Arjun Appadurai’s “Scapes”:

“Globalization occur on multiple and intersecting dimensions of integration”

⬗ Ethnoscape: represent the movement of people around the world

(Ex: refugees: people who have seek asylum from danger in their
homelands/people moving to seek jobs elsewhere; tourists)

⬗ Technoscapes: refers to the ways that technologies help speed up cross-border

movements

(Ex: handheld devices: smart phones, cameras and personal computing

devices; internet: technology helped us to connect across the globe at an
unprecedented rate)

⬗ Financescapes: represent the movement of money across borders

(Ex: stock exchange: trades of capital occur in seconds all hours of the day
across the global stock exchanges; credit cards: for easier spending)

⬗ Mediascapes: media has an increasingly global reach

(Ex: blogging: people can now get their news from anyone with an internet
connection; BBC: People around the world rely on global news outlets like the
BBC to get their information)

⬗ Ideoscapes: refers to the ideas, symbols and narratives that have spread
around the globe.

(Ex: the ideas of liberal democracy as one of the most powerful ideologies in
the world.)

MISCELLANEA
Globalization vs. Globalism

⬗ Globalization is a social process of intensifying global interdependence while

globalism is an ideology that gives meaning to globalization.

⬗ Globalization represents the many processes that allow for the expansion and
intensification of global connections while globalism is 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.

Prepared by:

___________________________
Mr. Gian Nicolo Dexter M. Atienza
Lecturer