APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF

GLOBALIZATION
MANFRED B. STEGER
• Academic Debates/Public
Disclosure
– Globalization remained contested and slippery
concept

• US/UK
– Wealthy countries who participated in
academic debates

• Part of Disagreements
– Globalization itself is fragmented, incomplete,
uneven, and contradictory of social
disagreements

• GLOBALONEY
– (Webster) absurd, meaningless, nonsense,
irrational
Categories of Arguments of Globalization

1. Rejectionist

o Dispute the usefulness of globalization

as analytical concept.

o Use vague words

o Scholarly suggestions for better

understanding of the concept.

• Academic community should provide

additional examples for how the term
globalization be enlightened
• Globalization as a process should
complement on the global interpretation
Categories of Arguments of Globalization

2. Sceptics

o Emphasizes the limited nature of

current globalizing processes.

o World economy is not a truly global

phenomenon because only centered
on Europe, Eastern Asia and North
America (Hirst & Thompson)

o “Without a truly global economic

system, there can be no such thing as
globalization.” (Hirst & Thompson)
Categories of Arguments of Globalization

3. Modifiers

o Disputes the novelty of the process

while acknowledging the existence of
moderate globalizing tendencies.

o The recent and new process (referring

to globalization) miss the bigger
picture and fall to narrow framework.
Globalization as Economic Process

• Evolution of international markets and

corporations led to an intensified form of
global interdependence.

• Increase linkage of national economies

through trade, financial flows, foreign
direct investment (by multinational
firms)

• Expanding economic activity is identified

as both the primary aspect of
globalization and the engine behind its
development.
Globalization as Economic Process

• Bretton Woods System contributed greatly to

the establishment of what some observers
have called the ‘golden age of controlled
capitalism.’

o State control over international capital movements

made possible full employment and the expansion of
the welfare state.

o Rising wages and increased social services secured

in the wealthy countries of the global north.
Globalization as Economic Process

o Rising wages and increased social services

secured in the wealthy countries of the
global north.

Traces:

1. Liberalization and internationalization of

financial transactions
2. Emergence of transnational financial
system
3. Privatization of government-owned banks
and financial institutions.
Globalization as Economic Process

o Advances in data processing and information

technology that contributed to the explosive growth of
tradable financial value.

o New satellite systems and fiber-optic cables provided

the nervous system of internet-based technologies
that further accelerated the liberalization of financial
transactions.

o Changing nature of transnational corporations

(TNCs) with subsidiaries in several countries.
Globalization as Political Process

• Perspectives of Different Groups of Scholars linking

explaining the relationship of politics and economy in the
study of globalization.

o 1st Group: considers political organization as a

process intrinsically connected to the expansion of
markets
 Technoeconomic
 Borderless World

o 2nd Group: exercising power to regulate economic

activities within the sphere of influence,

o 3rd Group: globalization is fueled by a mixture of

political and technological factors

o 4th Group: political globalization of global governance

Globalization as Cultural Process

• Think globally, act locally.”

• John Tomlinson: Globalization lies at the heart

of modern culture; cultural practices lie at the
heart of globalization.

• Cultural Globalization (Tomlinson): densely

growing network of complex cultural
interconnections and interdependencies that
characterize modern social life.
Globalization as Cultural Process

o Global cultural flows are directed by

powerful international media corporations
that utilize new communication technology
to shape societies and identities.
Ethnocentrism
Xenocentrism
McWorld – a superficial American culture.