CHAPTER 1

THINKING GLOBALLY

Instructor: Anum Awan

Globalization:

All those processes by which the people of the world are incorporated into
single society, global society. Globalization is best understood as a set of
mutually reinforcing transformations tat occur more or less simultaneously.

1.Changing concepts of space and time

2.An increasing volume of cultural interactions
3.The commonalty of problems facing all the world’s inhabitants
4.Growing interconnections and interdependence
5.A network of increasingly powerful transnational actors and organization
6.The synchronization of all the dimension involved in globalization
1. Changing concepts of Space & Time
• In Pre modern societies, space was understood in terms of concrete localities.
Movement was dangerous and difficult while war, pestilence and famine
often made social life unpredictable.

• It was considered safer to remain in those places where people along with
their families can enjoy fixed and unchanging rights and obligations.

• Memory of past disasters , the passing of seasons and the cycle of agricultural
work determined understanding of time

• Number of changes altered how people understood space and time. (page 45)

• Not just in metaphorical terms but in relation to our experiences, the world
not only appears to be contracting, but in a sense really is shrinking.
We are less dependent on particular people and fixed social relationships.

Time-space compression facilitated by electronic media, has put many of the

worlds inhabitants on the same stage.

2. Increasing Cultural Interactions and Flows

•Culture: ideas, values. Knowledge , customs shared by individuals of
particular area.
•Contemporary commercialized culture is linked especially to the rise of the
mass media and the widespread dissemination of consumerist lifestyle.
•Example: Columbus discovered America

•Cultural interactions arising from increased contact between peoples have

transformed our experience of cultural meanings and knowledge.
• This led to an immense expansion in the scope and spread of abstract
knowledge linked to science and the growing availability of mass, formal
education.

• Electronic mass media enables even those who lack education to encounter
new ideas and experiences

3. The commonalty of Problems

Media have long brought the events and crises taking place in near and distant
locations into our living rooms on a daily and hourly basis. (page 49)

In our compressed and integrated globe, our choices not only rebound on our
own lives; but also directly affect the lives of others away.
Often we are unaware of this and do not intend our actions directly to harm
distant strangers. Example: page (50)

One reason for sharing concerns is that certain global problems require global
solutions.

Acting alone, governments cannot protect their boarders, territories or the

lives and well being of their citizens from a number of situations. Example
terrorism.

Global environmental problems affects us all (Page # 52)

4. Interconnections and interdependence

Fast expanding interconnections and interdependence bind localities, countries, companies,

social movements, professional and other groups as well as individual citizens into network of
transnational exchanges and affiliations. Thus we live in a “network society”.

These networks have burst across territorial borders, rupturing the cultural and economic
self-sufficiency once experienced by nations. Clear-cut separation between sphere of national
life and the international sphere has largely broken down.

Most social scientists, especially political theorists, thought about interactions at the world
level almost entirely in terms of inter-state dealings and exchanges.

Now the concept of interconnections between nation states has changed. The interaction
between countries involve trade pacts, arms agreements or the pursuit of diplomatic
alliances to avert wars by winning allies or isolating countries considered likely to pose a
threat.
Ultimately, as Waters (1995) observed, we can expect a situation in which ‘the entire world
is linked together by networks that are as dense as the ones which are available in local
contexts’.

5. Transnational Actors and Organizations

 Transnational corporations
 IGO’s
League of nations, UN
In 1900 there were 37 IGO’s, by 2000
the number had risen to 6,743
INGO’s
Greenpeace, Red cross, Oxfam, Amnesty International
Global social movements
Informal organizations working for change but roused around a single unifying issue. E.g.
Human rights, peace, environmental and women’s movements
 Diasporas and stateless people
A Diaspora is a scattered population whose origin lies within a smaller geographic locale.
Diaspora can also refer to the movement of the population from its original homeland.
 Other transnational actors (Read from page # 56)

6. Synchronization of All Dimensions

All dimensions of globalization- economic, technological, political, social and cultural-
appear to be coming together at the same time, each, reinforcing and magnifying the
impact of the others.

Examples (Read from page # 57)