Malabo, Argy G.

MM 2-1
The Contemporary World
“Globalization”

1. Theoretical paradigm associated with Globalization

a) Word System Paradigm

 According to Immanuel Wallerstein, the principal proponent of this
theory, globalization is not a recent phenomenon but virtually
synonymous with the birth and spread of world capitalism.
 He believed that the appropriate unit analysis for macro-social inquiry
in the modern world is neither class, nor state/society, or country, but
the larger historical system, in which these categories are located.
 The followers of this paradigm argue that globalization is not all a new
process but something that is just continuing and evolving.

b) Global Capitalism Paradigm

 It treats globalization as a novel stage in the evolving system of world
capitalism.
 It focuses on new global production and financial system; both are
seen to have superseded earlier national forms of capitalism.
 It emphasizes the rise of processes that cannot be framed within the
nation-state system which lies ate the core of the world-system theory.

c) The Network Society School of Thought

 It does not subscribe to the contention that capitalism fuels
globalization. Instead, it puts forth the premise that technology and
technological change are the underlying causes of the several
processes that comprise globalization.

d) Space, Time and Globalization

 Anthony Giddens conceptualized globalization as ‘time-space
distanciation’. It is 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.
 However, Saskia Sassen’s The Global City is grounded in a larger
body of literature on world cities that can be viewed as sites of major
production, finances or coordinating of the world economy within an
international division of labor.
  On the other hand, Roland Robertson introduced and popularized the
concept of ‘glocalization’. This means that the ideas about home,
locality and community have been extensively spread around the world
so the local has been globalized. Significance of the local or communal
is one ingredient of the overall globalization process.

e) Transnationality and Transnationalism

 Transnationalism refers to an umbrella concept encompassing a wide
variety of transformative processes, practices and developments that
take place simultaneously at the local level and global level.
 Transnational ties among recent immigrants are more intense than
those of their historical counterparts due to speed and relatively
inexpensive character of travel and communications and that the
impact of these ties is increased by the global and national context in
which they occur.

f) Global Culture Paradigm

 It emphasizes 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’.
 For instance, Ritzer coined the term ‘McDonalization’ to describe the
sociocultural processes by which the principles of the fastfood
restaurant came to dominate more and more sectors of US and later
world society.

2. Some Misconception with Globalization

a) Globalization Will Alleviate Poverty

 This has been the theme strongly trumpeted since Bretton Woods; free
trade and globalization will "lift all boats," and end poverty. But in the
half century since this big push began, the world has more poor and
more hungry than ever before, and the situation is getting steadily
worse as we approach the millennium.
 Economic globalization creates wealth, but only for the few elite who
can sit at the hub of the process, able to benefit from the surge of
consolidations, mergers, global scale technology and financial activity.
Recent figures confirm how it all works.
b) Economic Globalization Increases Choice
 The ultimate expression of choice is diversity, and economic
globalization destroys both cultural and biological diversity.
Globalization is homogenizing values and behaviors, producing a new
global "monoculture," just as it creates monocultures in agriculture.
While economic globalization may increase consumer choices in some
cases, it drastically diminishes our choices in almost every sphere of
life. Also, domination of major industries by a handful of multinational
corporations makes it next to impossible for small, local producers to
compete. When brands like Coca-Cola and Levi’s proliferate around
the globe they put local operators out of business, which limits
consumer choice.

c) Developing Countries Are Depending on Economic Globalization To

Achieve First World Standard of Living
 Developing countries are, in fact, becoming poorer, not richer. They
are already paying the highest price for globalization. This is because
the rules of the global bureaucracies invariably favor Northern
corporate interests.

d) One global product for the world market

 Another misconception surrounding globalization is the belief that
MNEs develop one global product for the world market and are then
able, through their vast economies of scale, to dominate local markets
everywhere. Again, hard reality intervenes. Multinationals have to
adapt their products for the national market. For example, there is no
global car. Rather, there are American, European and Japanese
factories that are supported by local regional suppliers who provide
steel, plastic, paint and other necessary parts for producing autos for
the region.

e) Economic Globalization Increases Environmental Standards in

Developing Countries by Making Countries Wealthier
 Globalization is inherently destructive to the natural world because it
requires that products travel thousands of miles around the planet,
resulting in staggering environmental costs such as unprecedented
levels of ocean and air pollution from transport, increased energy
consumption and use of fossil fuels (furthering climate change), and
increased use of packaging materials. It also requires devastating new
 infrastructure developments: new roads, ports, airports, pipelines,
power grids—often constructed in formerly pristine places.

3. What is a global economy?

The global economy refers to the interconnected worldwide economic activities that
take place between multiple countries. These economic activities can have either a
positive or negative impact on the countries involved.

The global economy is innately tied to trade; it allows countries around the world to
obtain any resource they may want, whether or not it is produced on the home front.
This availability of resources is facilitated through trade. The global economy allows us
to eat the foods we want all year round and buy clothing and gadgets at lower prices.
During times of peace, it is beneficial in a global economy, to see
other nations succeed.

Global economy can be defined as the sum of activities that take place both within a
country and between different countries. Each country is a separate unit, with its own
industrial production, labor market, financial market, resources and environment.
Online Sources:

 https://depts.washington.edu/wtohist/World_Trade_Obs/issue5/8myths.htm
 https://developingfinance.org/download/3.%20MYTHS%20&
%20MISCONCEPTIONS%20on%20%20GLOBALIZATION.pdf
 https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-
globalization/2019/01/25/9e0d36e8-1f94-11e9-9145-3f74070bbdb9_story.html
 https://www.statista.com/topics/1467/global-economy/
 https://www.cnbc.com/world-economy/
 https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/resource-library-global-
economy-trade
 https://www.edology.com/blog/accounting-finance/how-does-global-economy-
work/