GLOBALIZATION OPERATES

AT MULTIPLE,
INTERSECTING LEVELS
 SYDNEY
• a global city hat derives its wealth and influence from the
global capital that flows through it.
 SYDNEY
• Sydney is also a metropolis of Families of international
immigrants or foreigners working in the industries that also
sell their products abroad
 FACEBOOK
global social networking site that
provides instantaneous
communication across countries
and continents
 SINGAPORE

another hub for global commerce, with 40 percent of

the population being classified as “foreign talents.”
 EXAMPLE
• It is very common for young
women in developing countries to
be recruited in the internet as
“mail-order brides” for foreign men
living in other countries. After being
promised a good life once married
to a kind husband in a rich city,
they end up becoming sexual and
domestic servants in foreign lands.
Some were even sold off by their
“husbands” to gangs which run
prostitute rings in these cities.
• Governments that decide to
welcome the foreign investments
on the belief that they provide
jobs and capital for the country
offer public lands as factory or
industrial sites. In the process,
poor people living in these lands,
also called “urban poor
communities are being evicted
by the government.
Because different people encounter globalization in a variety of
ways, it is deemed useful to ask simple questions like:

a.Is globalization good or bad?

b.Is it beneficial or determental?
 TWO PREMISES OF
GLOBALIZATION:
1.It is a complex phenomenon that occurs at multiple levels.
2.It is an uneven process that affects people differently.
• When nationalists are resisting
“globalization”, it usually refers
to the integration of the national
markets to a wider global
market signified by the
increased free trade
•When activists refer to the “anti-
globalization” movement of
1990s, they mean resisting the
trade deals among countries
facilitated and promoted by
global organizations like WTO
• Globalization scholars do not necessarily disagree with the
people who criticize unfair international trade deals or global
economic organizations. In fact, many are sympathetic to the
critique of economic globalization. Academics differ from
journalists and political activists, however, because they see
globalization in much broader terms
• They view the process through
various lenses that consider
multiple theories and
perspectives. Academics call
this globalization as an
interdisciplinary approach and it
is used by the general
education courses
GLOBALIZATION
• is the expansion and
intensification of social relations
and consciousness across
world-time and across world-
space, according to Manfred
Steger.
EXPANSION
• refers to “both the creation of
new social networks and the
multiplication of existing
connections that cut across
traditional political, economic,
cultural, and geographic
boundaries.”
 EXAMPLE
• Social media establish new global connections between
people, while international groups of non-governmental
organizations (NGO) are networks that connect a more
specific group – social workers and activists – from different
corners of the globe
GLOBALIZATION
• is the expansion and
intensification of social relations
and consciousness across
world-time and across world-
space, according to Manfred
Steger.
INTENSIFICATION
• refers to the expansion,
stretching, and acceleration of
the networks. Not only are
global connections multiplying,
but they are also becoming
more closely-knit and
expanding their reach
 EXAMPLE
• There has always been a strong financial market connecting
London and New York. With the advent of electronic trading,
however, the volume of that trade increases exponentially,
since traders can now trade more at higher speeds. The
connection is this accelerating.
• Apart from this acceleration, however, as the world becomes
more financially integrated, the intensified trading network
between London and New York may expand and stretch to
cover more and more cities. After China committed itself to
the global economy in the 1980s, Shanghai steadily returned
to its old role as a major trading post
 • It is not only in the financial
matters that you can find these
connections. In 2012, when the
monsoon rains flooded much of
Bangkok, the Honda plant making
some of the critical car parts
temporarily ceased production.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-ND
 • This had a strong negative effect
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-ND
on Honda-USA which relied
heavily on the parts being
imported from Thailand. Not only
was it unable to reach the sales
targets I laid out, but the ability of
the service centers nationwide to
assist Honda owners also
suffered. As a result, the Japanese
car company’s global profits also
fell.
• Steger notes that “globalization processes do
not occur merely at an objective, material
level but they also involve the subjective
plane of human consciousness.”
• Steger posits that this definition of globalization must be
differentiated with an ideology he calls Globalism. If
globalization represents the many processes that allow for
the expansion and intensification of global connections,
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. It is a common belief forwarded in media and
policy circles.
• For now, what is crucial to note is that when activists and
journalists criticize “globalization,” they are, more often than
not, criticizing some manifestations of globalism. Often, these
criticisms are warranted. Nevertheless, it is crucial to insist
that “globalization” as a process refers to a larger
phenomenon that cannot simply be reduced to the ways in
which global markets have been integrated
• Some scholars have, therefore, found it
simpler to avoid talking about
globalization as a whole. Instead, they
want to discuss “multiple
globalizations,” instead of just one
process
• For anthropologist Arjun Appadurai, different
kinds of globalization occur on multiple and
intersecting dimensions of integration that he calls
“scapes”.
•Ethnoscape refers to the global movement of people,

•Mediascape is about the flow of culture.

•Technoscape refers to the circulation of mechanical goods

and software

•Financescape denotes the global circulation of money

•Ideoscape is the realm where political ideas move around.

• Appadurai’s argument is simple: there are multiple
globalizations. Hence, even if one does not agree that
globalization can be divided into five scapes, it is hard to
deny Appadurai’s central thrust of viewing globalization
through various lenses.
• Depending on what is being globalized, a different dynamic
(or dynamics) may emerge. So while it is important to ask,
“what is globalization?” it is likewise important to ask “What
is/are being globalized?” Depending on what is being
globalized, the vista and conclusions change.