THE

CONTEMPORARY
WORLD
DEFINING
GLOBALIZATION
 Five Organs of the United
Nations
• Security Council
• General Assembly
 What is Globalization?
• Difficulty of a one-fit-it-all definition.
• It cannot be contained within a specific time frame, all people,
and all situations (Al-Rhodan, 2006).
• Encompasses multitude of processes that involves the
economy, political systems, and culture.
• Complex and multifaceted as the definitions deal with either
economic, political, or social dimensions.
• Has gained connotation over the years pertaining to progress,
development, and integration.
 Positive Views on
Globalization
• “the process of world shrinkage, of distances
getting shorter, things moving closer. It pertains
to the increasing ease with which somebody on
one side can interact, to mutual benefit with
somebody on the other side of the world”
(Larsson, 2001).
• Globalization as a unifying force
 Negative Views on
Globalization
• Occurring through and with regression,
colonialism, and destabilization
• Globalization as colonization
• Globalization creates inequalities among nations
• Globalization undermines national sovereignty
Classification of Definitions According to
Literatures
• Broad and inclusive (Generalized)
• Narrow and exclusive (Specific)
 Broad and Inclusive
• “globalization means the onset of a borderless
world” (Ohmae, 1992).
 Narrow and Exclusive
• “the characteristic of globalization trend include the
internationalizing of production, the new international
division of labor, new migratory movements from South
to North, the new competitive environment that
accelerates these processes, and the internationalizing of
the state... making states into agencies of the globalizing
world” (Cox, 2000).
 Recent Definition
• “Globalization is a transplanetary process or set of
processes involving increasing liquidity and the growing
multidirectional flow of people, objects, places, and
information as well as structures they encounter and
create that are barriers to, or expedite, those flows...”
(Ritzer, 2015).
 Globalization...
• Relativity of definition
• Globalization as a debate
• Globalization is a reality. A current condition.
• It is not easy to define because of its shifting nature.
 Metaphors of Globalization
• Solidity
• Liquidity
 Solidity
• Refers to the barriers that prevent or make difficult the
movement of things.
• Natural or manmade
• Natural (natural barriers such as oceans, mountains,
rivers, etc.)
• Manmade (Great Wall of China, Berlin Wall, Nine-dash
line, etc.)
 Liquidity
• Refers to the increasing ease of movement of people, things,
information, and places in the contemporary world.
• Today's liquid phenomena change quickly and their aspects, spatial and
temporal, are in continuous fluctuation (change).
• Space (spatial) and time (temporal) are crucial elements of globalization
• Liquid phenomena are also difficult to stop
• Forces (liquid forces) made political boundaries permeable (malusotan in
Visaya) to the flow of people and things.
• Liquid forces tend to melt whatever stands in its path (especially solids).
• Liquidity is more proliferating today
 Flows
• Flows are the movement of people, things, places, and
information brought about by the growing porosity of
global limitations.
• Examples: global financial system, culture, migration,
information, crimes, etc.
 Globalization Theories
• Homogeneity
• Heterogeneity
 Homogeneity (Uniformity)
• Increasing sameness in the world as cultural inputs,
economic factors, and political orientations or societies
expand to create common practices, same economies,
and similar forms of government.
• Homogeneity in culture is often linked with cultural
imperialism
• Christianity
• Americanization- “import by non-Americans of products,
images, technologies, practices, and behavior that are closely
associated with America.
• Spread of neoliberalism, capitalism, and the market economy.
• McDonaldization- it is the process where the Western societies
are dominated by the principles of fastfood restaurants. It also
involves the global spread of rational systems, such as efficiency,
calculability, predictability, and control.
• Grobalization- is a process wherein nations, corporations, etc.
Impose themselves on geographic areas in order to gain profits,
power, and so on.
 Heterogeneity
(Differentiation)
• Pertains to the creation of various cultural practices, new
economies, and political groups because of the
interaction of elements from different societies in the
world.
• Refers to the differences because of lasting differences
or of the hybrids or combinations of cultures that can be
produced through the different transplanetary processes.
• Unlike cultural imperialism, heterogeneity in culture is
associated with cultural hybridization.
• Glocalization (Global * Local = Glocal)
– Global forces interact with local factors or specific geographic
areas producing GLOCAL
• “Jihad”- refers to the political groups that are engaged in
an ‘intensification of nationalism and that leads to
greater political heterogeneity throughout the world”
• McWorld (homo) vs. Jihad (hetero)
Dynamics of Local and Global Culture
• What is CULTURE?
• Three perspectives on global cultural flows
– Differentialism
– Hybridization
– Convergence
 Cultural Differentialism
• Emphasizes the fact that cultures are essentially different
and are only superficially affected by global flows.
• Interaction of cultures is deemed to contain the potential
for “catastrophic collision”
 Cultural Hybridization
• Emphasizes the integration of local and global cultures
• Globalization is considered as a creative process which
gives rise to hybrid entities that are not reducible to either
global or local.
• Glocalization (interpenetration of the global and local
resulting in unique outcomes in different geographic areas)
• Scapes (global flows involve people, technology, finance,
media, and the disjuncture between them, which lead to
the creation of cultural hybrids)
 Cultural Convergence
• Stresses cultural homogeneity introduced by
globalization
• Cultures are deemed to be radically altered by strong
flows, while cultural imperialism happens when one
culture imposes itself on and tend to destroy at least
parts of another culture
• Deterritorialization- it is much difficult to tie culture to a
specific geographic point of origin.
 Globalization of Religion
• Globalization has played an enormous role in providing
the context for the current revival and resurgence of
religion.
• The role of modern technologies, transportation, media
and communication
• Conflict among world religions is a proof on the failure
of hybridization
• Religion (akin to nationalism)
• Difficult for religion to cope with values that accompany
globalization like liberalism, consumerism, and
rationalism. Such phenomena advocate scientism and
secularism.
• Since religion is anti-rationalism, religion is anti-
globalization (Scholte, 2005)
 Globalization and
• The processesRegionalization
of globalization and regionalization reemerged
during the 1980’s and heightened after the Cold War in the
1990’s.
• Global vs. Regional
• Regionalization of economic activity undermines potential
benefit coming from a liberalized global economy because
regional organizations favor or prefer regional partners over
the others.
• Regionalism in a way can be considered as counter-
globalization
• Ungoverned vs. Managed globalization
• Managed globalization- all attempts to make
globalization more palatable to citizens.
• contagion or domino effect of regionalization
 Organizations (Regional)
• Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
• European Union (EU)
• Mercosur (South American trade bloc)
• African Union
• “new regionalism is not a barrier to political globalization
but on the contrary, entirely compatible with it- if not an
indirect encouragement”
• Region - a group of countries in the same
geographically specified area
• Regionalization - integration and the often
undirected process of social and economic
integration)
• Regionalism – formal process of intergovernmental
collaboration between two or more states
 Factors of Regionalization
• Security
• Economic Cooperation
• Culture and Identity
Origins and History of
Globalization
 Hardwired
• It is our basic human need to make our lives better that
made globalization possible (Chanda, 2007).
• Beginning of globalization started when our ancestors in
Africa walked out from the continent to other parts of
the world thousand years ago.
• Religion, politics, and warfare are the urges of people
towards a better life. They are connected towards the
four aspects of globalization throughout history: trade,
missionary work, adventures, and conquest.
 Cycles
• Globalization is a long-term and cyclical process, thus
finding its origins will be a daunting task
• Subscribing to this view suggest the adherence to the
idea that other global ages have appeared.
• The notion to suspect that this point of globalization will
soon disappear and reappear.
 Epoch
• Globalization of religion (4th to 7th centuries)
• European colonial conquest (late 15th century)
• Intra-European wars (late 18th to early 19th centuries)
• Heyday of European imperialism (mid 19th century to
1918)
• Post-World War 2 period
• Post Cold War period
 Events
• Important events that explains the origin of globalization
• Roman Conquest (before Christ) were its origins (Pax
Romana)
• Vast conquest of the Mongol Emperor Genghis Khan
• Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, Vasco
de Gama (Cape of Good Hope), and the
circumnavigation by Ferdinand Magellan.
• Recent technological breakthroughs
 Broader, More Recent
Changes
• The emergence of the United States as a global power
(post World War 2)
• Emergence of multinational corporations (MNCs)
• The demise of Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War
 Global Demography
• Demographic transition- singular historical period which
mortality and fertility rates decline from high to low
levels in a particular country or region.
 Global Migration
• Global movement of people
• Categories of migrants
– Vagabonds (they move because they have to)
– Tourists (they move because they want to)
• Refugees- vagabonds forced to leave their country due
to safety concerns
• Labor migration- migrated to find work. Driven by push
factors
• Migration is driven by both push (social conditions) and
pull (incentives) factors
• Diaspora- movement, migration, or scattering of people
away from an established or ancestral homeland.