- The Authors

https://bit.ly/30S9QL1

UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION TO
GLOBALIZATION Unit Outcome:

At the end of this unit, the learners must have:

Introduction 1. articulated different approaches and
interpreation of globalization.

Through times, people around the world have never been as connected as
today. Daily news or information are just on the tip of your fingers as you switch on
your radio, television or smart phones. Travel and movement of the people to
different places and across the world becomes easier and faster fast. Variety of
products from many points of the world are available in all. goods and securies
ower the world has brough multinational companies and foreign investors to
our shores. Also to mention the trending Zombie movies, Korean Dramas, hair
styles, outfits and the likes have invaded the whole world of arts and culture. All
these experiences or phenomenon are brought by technological advancement,
economic movement and political interconnectedness among nation-state which
some authors called “globalization.”

Anthony Giddens (2013) described globalization as “the intensificationof

worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local
happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.”

This unit will present to you the various expressions of globalization, its
perspectives and theories dealing with experiences and events that shaped
globalization.

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Lesson 1: Defining Globalization

Lesson Outcomes:
At the end of this lesson, the learners must have:
1. discussed the interconnecting definition of globalization;
2. examined the dimensions and history of globalizations;
3. appreciated the dynamic experiences of globalization.

Fun Quiz!

Before we properly proceed to our topic, I would like you to check things
you have maybe in your bedroom, kitchen or in your bag. Can you tell their brands,
their country of origin or the influencer of these things you have? Write it on the
table below.

Table 1

Items Country of Origin Known Influencer

What can you say about your answers? What have you realized?

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What is Globalization?

Globalization is a broad term mostly people linked to economic aspect; the

integration of national economies into international economy by trading, foreign
investment, flow of capital resources, movement of people or migration, the
proliferation of technology and presence of military. This consequently pertains
to the aspects of our society manifested by globalization. Moreover, it is mostly
identified to be powered by combination of economic, technological, socio-cultural,
political and biological aspects.

The term “globalization” can be tracked back to the early 1960s. In the book
of Roland Robertson, Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (London:
Sage, 1992) “globalization refers both to the compression of the world and
intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole.” “Compression” meaning
the world turns small in which everything is not far to reach and accessed by
everyone in the world. Furthermore, it is a process that breaks the gap, boundary
or barriers between nation-state to create common consciousness. “Intensification”
means the extent and strength of consciousness or practice not limited to a specific
geographical place but is able to cross the boarders of nation-states. Consider this
example, the use of Nike products, many people not only Filipinos are consumer
of these American products. Your favorite Guess products are sold in worldwide
markets and even in internet.

As espoused by Ritzer (2015), “globalization is a transplanetary process or

a set of processes involving increasing liquidity and growing multidirectional flows
of people, object, places, and information as well as the structures they encounter
and create that are barriers to, or expedite those flows…” So how is it happening?
Because of globalization movement of people, products and ideas are increased
in various directions that reach consumers easily and quickly. On the other hand,
the emergence of hindrances limit and diminish the flow of people, products and
ideas.

Globalization on the description of Manfred Steger (2009) states that “it

is the expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across
world-time and across world-space.” When you say “expansion” it relates to making
oa new connection of social network and further multiplying it that expands across
political, economic, cultural and geographic borders. Meaning, globalization creates
a wider opportunity for social relations among nation-states. But how can social
relations or connections may happen? The use of social media for example, tcould
create global connects between individuals. Another is when a nation-state like our
country the Philippines joins or registers as member of international organization like
United Nation or ASEAN. Meanwhile, Steger referred intensification as expanding,
stretching, accelerating the presence of connection or network a nation-state to
another nation-states.

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 Steger (2009) also cited that globalization has four main dimensions:
economic, political, cultural, and ecological, with ideological aspects for each
category.

1. Economic - Economic globalization is the intensification and stretching of

economic interrelations around the globe. It embraces such things as the
occurrence of a new global economic order, the internationalization of trade
and finance, the dynamic changing power of transnational corporations, and
the greater role of international economic institutions.

2. Political - Political globalization is the intensification and expansion of

political interrelations around the globe. It comprises the modern-nation
state system and its changing place in today’s world, the role of global
governance, and the path of our global political systems.

3. Military - Military globalization, as subdomain of political globalization,is

defined as the intensification and stretching of military power acrossthe
globe through numerous means of military power (nuclear military weapons,
radiation weapons simply weapons of mass destruction). This form of
globalization occurs across offensive and defensive uses of power and
survival in international field. Beyond states, global organizations such as
the United Nations also extend military means globally through support
given by both Global North and South countries.

4. Cultural - Cultural globalization is the intensification and expansion of cultural

flows across the globe. Culture is a very wide-ranging concept and has
various facets, but in the argument on globalization, Steger means it to refer
to “the symbolic construction, articulation, and dissemination of meaning.”
Topics under this heading include discussion about the development of a
global culture, or lack thereof, the role of media in shaping our identities and
desires, and the globalization of languages.

5. Ecological - Topics of ecological globalization include population growth,

access to food, worldwide reduction in biodiversity, the gap between rich
and poor as well as between the global North and global South, human-
induced climate change, and global environmental degradation.

Furthermore, Steger also posits that his definition of globalization must

we separated with an ideology he termed globalism. Globalization refers to the
process and direction of change over time, globalism refers to a set of ideologies
ranging from the worship of the free-market to global jihadism, and globality is a
“single socio-political space on a planetary scale.” It is a wide spread belief among
powerful people that the global interaction of economic market be beneficial for
everyone (Paul, 2013).

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A Brief History of Globalization

The contemporary world is the era of a digital-driven period of globalization.

This era is called “ Globalization 4.0”. But, when did globalization start? What were
its major phases?

https://www.google.com/search?q=era+of+globalization&rlz

Silk roads (1st century BC-5th century AD, and 13th-14th centuries AD)

As one could remember, people have been trading goods. But as of the 1st
century BC, a noteworthy phenomenon occurred. For the first time in history, luxury
products from China started to appear on the other edge of the Eurasian continent
– in Rome. They got there after being hauled for thousands of miles along the Silk
Road. Trade had stopped being a local or regional affair and startedto become
global.

Silk was mostly a luxury good, and so were the spices that were added to
the intercontinental trade between Asia and Europe. The Silk Road could prosper
in part because two great empires dominated much of the route. If trade was
interrupted, it was most often because of blockades by local enemies of Rome or
China. If the Silk Road eventually closed, as it did after several centuries, the fall of
the empires had everything to do with it. And when it reopened in Marco Polo’s late
medieval time, it was because the rise of a new hegemonic empire: the Mongols. It
is a pattern we’ll see throughout the history of trade: it thrives when nations protect
it, it falls when they don’t.

Spice routes (7th-15th centuries)

The next chapter in trade happened with the Islamic merchants. As the new
religion spread in all directions from its Arabian heartland in the 7th century,

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so did trade. The founder of Islam, the prophet Mohammed, was famously a
merchant, as was his wife Khadija. Trade was thus in the DNA of the new religion
and its followers, and that showed. By the early 9th century, Muslim traders already
dominated Mediterranean and Indian Ocean trade; afterwards, they could be found
as far east as Indonesia, which over time became a Muslim-majority country, and
as far west as Moorish Spain.

The main focus of Islamic trade in those Middle Ages were spices. Chief
among them were the cloves, nutmeg and mace from the fabled Spice islands
– the Maluku islands in Indonesia. They were extremely expensive and in high
demand, also in Europe. Globalization still didn’t take off, but the original Belt (sea
route) and Road (Silk Road) of trade between East and West did now exist.

Age of Discovery (15th-18th centuries)

It was in this era, from the end of the 15th century onwards, that European
explorers connected East and West – and accidentally discovered the Americas.
Aided by the discoveries of the so-called “Scientific Revolution” in the fields of
astronomy, mechanics, physics and shipping, the Portuguese, Spanish and later
the Dutch and the English first “discovered”, then subjugated, and finally integrated
new lands in their economies.

The most (in)famous “discovery” is that of America by Columbus, which all

but ended pre-Colombian civilizations. But the most consequential exploration was
the circumnavigation by Magellan: it opened the door to the Spice islands, cutting
out Arab and Italian middlemen. The European empires set up global supply
chains, but mostly with those colonies they owned. Moreover, their colonial model
was chiefly one of exploitation, including the shameful legacy of the slave trade.
The empires thus created both a mercantilist and a colonial economy, but not a
truly globalized one.

First wave of globalization (19th century-1914)

This started to change with the first wave of globalization, which roughly
occurred over the century ending in 1914. By the end of the 18th century, Great
Britain had started to dominate the world both geographically, through the
establishment of the British Empire, and technologically, with innovations like the
steam engine, the industrial weaving machine and more. It was the era of the First
Industrial Revolution.

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The World Wars

In the years between the world wars, the financial markets, which were still
connected in a global web, caused a further breakdown of the global economy and
its links. The Great Depression in the US led to the end of the boom in South
America, and a run on the banks in many other parts of the world. Another world
war followed in 1939-1945. By the end of World War II, trade as a percentage of
world GDP had fallen to 5% – a level not seen in more than a hundred years.

Second and third wave of globalization

Under the leadership of a new hegemon, the United States of America, and
aided by the technologies of the Second Industrial Revolution, like the car and the
plane, global trade started to rise once again. At first, this happened in two separate
tracks, as the Iron Curtain divided the world into two spheres of influence. But as of
1989, when the Iron Curtain fell, globalization became a truly global phenomenon.

The newly created World Trade Organization (WTO) encouraged nations all
over the world to enter into free-trade agreements, and most of them did, including
many newly independent ones. In 2001, even China, which for the better part of
the 20th century had been a secluded, agrarian economy, became a member of
the WTO, and started to manufacture for the world. In this “new” world, the US set
the tone and led the way, but many others benefited in their slipstream.

The new technology from the Third Industrial Revolution, the internet,
connected people all over the world in an even more direct way. The internet also
allowed for a further global integration of value chains.

In the 2000s, global exports reached a milestone, as they rose to about

a quarter of global GDP. Trade, the sum of imports and exports, consequentially
grew to about half of world GDP. In some countries, like Singapore, Belgium, or
others, trade is worth much more than 100% of GDP.

Globalization 4.0

In a world increasingly dominated by two global powers, the US and China,

the new frontier of globalization is the cyber world. The digital economy, in its
infancy during the third wave of globalization, is now becoming a force to reckon
with through e-commerce, digital services, 3D printing. It is further enabled by
artificial intelligence, but threatened by cross-border hacking and cyberattacks.

7
 At the same time, a negative globalization is expanding too, through the
global effect of climate change. Pollution in one part of the world leads to extreme
weather events in another. And the cutting of forests in the few “green lungs” the
world has left, like the Amazon rainforest, has a further devastating effect on not
just the world’s biodiversity, but its capacity to cope with hazardous greenhouse
gas emissions.

Summary
Globalization has been in our circulation a very long time ago. It has affected the system of
every nation’s society and thinking. Globalization as definedby many is the intensification of
worldwide social relations that enable the global society to be connected, that every event
affects one another leading towards progress and development. Then globalization as a
process transform social relation and transaction into a transcontinental or interregional
flow of network activity and exercise of power. However, many commentators view
globalization on the opposite side, like Martin Khor, President of the Third World Network
in Malaysia, who referred globalization.

Lesson 2: Theories of Globalization

Lesson Outcomes:
At the end of this lesson, the learners must have:
1. articulated perspectives or theories of globalization;
2. integrated theories of globalization in understanding issues and events in
the contemporary world.

Introduction

Globalization is usually used as the spread and connectedness of production,

communication and technologies across the world. That spread has involved the
interlacing of economic and cultural activity. Others would also refer globalisation
with the presence of world-wide organization like united nation, World Bank and
International Monetary Fund. The speed of communication and exchange, the
complexity and size of the networks involved, and the sheer volume of trade,

11
interaction and risk is what we now label as “globalization.”

This part will tackle the theories which will help you understand the concepts
of globalization.

Fun Quiz!

https://www.google.com/search?q=glocalization&tbm

Before we unfold the theories of globalization, let’s take a look at the picture
above as this will help clear out our thoughts.

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 What product can you see? . Do you notice
something peculiar about it? . What is it
_______________________________________________________________
. With
these, how can you relate it with our previous lesson, globalization?

Theories of Globalization

1. The World System Theory

This theory was proposed by Emmanuel Wallerstien (Goldfrank 2000).

A world-system is multicultural territorial division of labor which production and
exchange of basic goods and raw materials is necessary for the everyday life
of its inhabitants.

He pointed out that some nation-state failed to develop due to

asymmetrical trade in global capitalism making them difficult to compete and
become dependent to rich nation–states. For him globalization represents the
triumph of a capitalist world economy. For a tie, certain countries become the
world hegemon. The key structure of the capitalist world-system is the division
of the world into three great regions, or geographically based and hierarchically
organized tiers: the core, semi-periphery and the periphery. The core countries
focus in higher skill, capital intensive production and the rest of the world
focuses on low-skill, labor-intensive production and extraction of raw materials.

The world system perpetuates dominance by the core and dependency

of the periphery. Thus in this view, globalization also perpetuates inequality-
global economic system is inherently unfair.

2. Theories of Global Capitalism

a. Leslie Sklair’s transnational Practices (TNP). ideological,

According to Sklair (2000) transnational practices whose agent is
operate in three spheres; the economic, political and cultural elites-
the cultural-ideological. These practices originate the
with non-state actors and cross state borders. The
economic spheres, whose agent is transnational
capital-the executives of transnational corporations.
The political spheres, whose agent is a transnational
capitalist class-they are the globalizing bureaucrats,
politicians and professionals. Then the cultural-

13
William Robinson. https://www.
google.comsearch?q=b.+William+
Robinson+global+capitalism&rlz

14
 consumerist elites in the media and commercial sectors.

b. William Robinson’s Transnational State Apparatus.

For Robinson (2017), Global capitalism evolved an
epochal shift. From world economy to global
economy. World Economy, wherein each country
developed a national economy that was linkedto
others through trade and finances in an integrated
international market. Global Economy the
globalization of the production process itself, which
breaks down and functionally integrates what were
previously national circuits into new global circuits of William Robinson.
production and accumulation. https://www.
google.comsearch?q=b.+
William+
Robinson+global+capitali
sm&rlz

Furthermore, this global capitalism involves three planks: (a)

transnational production - integration of every country and much of
humanity into a new globalized system of production, finance, and services;
(b) transnational capitalists - made up of the owners and managers of
transnational capital. Its interests lie in promoting global, not national,
circuits of accumulation; and (c) transnational state - a supranational
political authority (Robinson, 2017).

Robinson (2017) referred The Transnational State (TNS) is a loose

network comprised of supranational political and economic institutions
together with national state apparatuses that have been penetrated and
transformed by transnational forces. National states 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 and whose find their counterparts in transnational
functionaries who staff transformed national states.

3. The Network Society by Manuel Castell

A network society is a society whose social

structure is made up of networks powered by
microelectronics-based information and communication
technologies.

Globalization is seen to exercise the organized on a

technological change in various ways and processes. global scale and
This new economy is described as informational which global network
is knowledge based, production of information is interaction is used

15
for productivity. Whereby, internet usher the
constructions of a new symbolic environment which
makes “virtuality a reality” ( Castell, 2005).

Emmanuel
Wallerstien.
https://
www.google.com/
search?q=
Emmanuel+Walle
rstien+
&tbm=isch&ved

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 This new symbolic environment is characterized with: SPACE OF
FLOWS, in which informational flows bring physical spaces closer through
networks; TIMELESS TIME in which technology is able to manipulate the
natural sequence of events; and REAL VIRTUALITY based on a hypertext
reality and global interconnection which bends space and time relations.

Castell also argues that globalization is a network of production, culture

and power that is constantly shaped by advances in technology, which range
from communication technologies to genetic engineering. This globalization
represents a new age of information (2005).

Information has become the key substance of all human activity and is
directly integrated into culture, institutions and experience. The development of
new information technology (IT), in particular, computers and the Internet,
representing a new technological paradigm and leading to a new “mode of
development” that Castells terms “informationalism.” Informationalism refers
to a technological paradigm that replaces and subsumes the previous paradigm
of industrialism.

Yet, castells (2005) mentioned that it creates digital divide, the division
of the world into those areas and segments of population. Segment that
switched on to the new technological system and segment that switched off
or the marginalized. With it, information age does not necessarily mean that the
world has become flat, rather with technological advance Castell argues that it
creates a global forms of exclusion and inclusions, fragmentation and
integration.

4. Theories of Space, Place and Globalization

a. Time-Space-Distanciation by Anthony Giddens

Giddens defines time-space distanciation as ‘the intensification of

worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that
local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice
versa’ – social relations are ‘lifted out’ from local contexts of interactionand
restructured across time and space

b. Global Risk Society by Anthony Giddens

Giddens (2009) provocatively argues that globalization has led to the

creation of a “global risk society.” Human social and economic activities,
especially in modernity, produce various risks such as pollution, crime, new
illnesses, food shortages, market crashes, wars, etc., and societies have
become more responsible for managing these risks that their activities
intentionally or, more often than not, unintentionally produced.

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 c. Time-Space-Compression” by David Harvey

Time-space compression is the process whereby time is reorganized

in such a way as to reduce the constraints of space, and vice-versa. It
also refers to the way the acceleration of economic activities leads to the
destruction of spatial barriers and distances.

5. Theories of Transnationality and Transnationalism

Transnationality refers to the rise of new communities and the formation

of new social identities and relations that cannot be defined through the
traditional reference point of nation-states.

TRANSNATIONALISM refers to the multiple ties and interactions linking

people or institutions across the borders of nation states. Transnationalism
means living in another country than their country of origin. It is “a process by
which migrants, through their daily life activities create social fields that cross
national boundaries.” Immigrant communities do not de-link themselves from
their home country; instead, they keep and nourish their linkages to their place
of origin (Sánchez, 2010).

6. Theories of Global Culture

There are three main bodies of theory regarding the effects of

globalization on local culture: homogenization, hybridization and heterogeneity
or polarization. Each of these processes can be demonstrated in different parts
of the world.

• Homogenization is the name given to the process whereby globalization

causes one culture to consume another. Homogenization theories see
a global cultural convergence and would tend to highlight the rise of
world beat, world cuisines, world tourism, uniform consumption patterns
and cosmopolitanism (Appadurai). Many use the term Americanization
to depict specifically the way that American culture has been exported
to all corners of the globe.

• Hybridization - Cultures are however rarely simply consumed. More often

two cultures clash and a new hybrid culture is formed. Hybridization
stresses new and constantly evolving cultural forms and identities
produced by manifold transnational processes and the fusion of distinct
cultural processes.

• Polarization or heterogeneity - this condition continued culturaldifference

and highlight local cultural autonomy, cultural resistance to
homogenization, cultural clashes and polarization, and distinct
subjective experiences of globalization.

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7. Global Village by Marshall McLuhan

The late Marshall McLuhan, a media and communication theorist,

coined the term “global village” in 1964 to describe the phenomenon of the
world’s culture shrinking and expanding at the same time due to pervasive
technological advances that allow for instantaneous sharing of culture.

McLuhan chose the insightful phrase “global village” to highlight his

observation that an electronic nervous system (the media) was rapidly
integrating the planet - events in one part of the world could be experienced
from other parts in real-time, which is what human experience was like when
we lived in small villages.

Moreover, his insight known as “the medium is the message” suggests

that the qualities of a medium have as much effect as the information it transmits.
It is from this that various medium are used to convey information in best way
possible it is.

8. McDonaldization by George Ritzer

Ritzer (1996) claimed that the contemporary world is undergoing

process of Mcdonaldization. McDonaldization theory is defined as “the process
whereby the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more
and more sectors of American society and the world.” The said theory follows
the Four Main Dimensions such as;

Efficiency - The optimum method of completing a task. It is he rational

determination of the best mode of production. Individuality is not allowed.

Calculability - The assessment of outcomes based on quantifiable rather

than subjective criteria. In other words, quantity over quality. They sell the Big
Mac, not the Good Mac.

Predictability - The production process is organized to guarantee

uniformity of product and standardized outcomes. All shopping malls begin to
look the same and all highway exits have the same assortment of businesses.

Control - The substitution of more predictable non-human labor for

human labor, either through automation or the deskilling of the work force.

9. Glocalization by Roland Robertson

The theory of Robertson suggested that the global is only manifested

in the local. GLOCALIZATION means that ideas about home, locality and
community have been extensively spread around the world in recent years,
so that the local has been globalized, and the stress upon the significance

19
 of the local or the communal can be viewed as one ingredient of the overall
globalization process.

10. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural

Economy”by Arjun Appadurai

For anthropologist Arjun Appadurai (1997), different kinds of

globalizationoccur on multiple and intersecting dimensions of integration that
he calls “scapes.” Appadaurai uses the suffix SCAPE to connote the idea
that these processes have fluid, irregular, variable shapes. Mediascapes are
about the flows of image and communication. Ethnoscapes are concerned
with the flows of individuals around the world. Ideoscapes deal with
exchanges of ideas and ideologies. Technoscapes refer to the flows of
technology and skills to create linkages between organizations around the
world. Financescapes relate to theinteractions associated with money and
capital.

Summary

Various perspectives have described how globalization take part in the

world wide social relation. The world system theory of Emmanuel Wallerstein
discussed the regions of globalization; core, semi-periphery and the periphery
which described the opposing scenario of the world. The global capitalism that
examined the transnational production and global economy. Another was the
network society of Manuel Castells, showing the informational change made by
technological advancement. Notable theory was the work of Anthony Giddens,
expressing that globalization diminished time and space. He also cited the risk
of globalization in many aspects of the world.

On the aspect of global culture, there are three main bodies of theory
regarding the effects of globalization on local culture: homogenization,
hybridization and heterogeneity or polarization. Moreover the idea of “global
village” was introduced by Marshall McLuhan, that technological advancement
was made as culture was shared and spread. Another famous theory was the
McDonaldizationtheory of George Ritzer, the westernization of the world and the
principle of a fast-food chain process.

Meanwhile Roland Robertson stresses upon the significance of the local

or the communal which can be viewed as one ingredient of the overall
globalization process. And finally the theory of Arjun Appadurai suggested that
globalization occurs in different dimensions he calls scapes.

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