THE

CONTEMPORARY
WORLD

Teacher
PAULYN JOY ZABALA-LANGUIDO, MaFil
 COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course introduces students to the contemporary world
by examining the multifaceted phenomenon of
globalization. Using the various disciplines of the social
sciences, it examines the economics, social, political,
technological and other transformations that have created
an increasing awareness of the interconnectedness of
peoples and places around the globe. To this end, the course
provides an overview of the various debates in global
governance, development and sustainability. Beyond
exposing the student to the world outside the Philippines, it
seeks to inculcate a sense of global citizenship and global
ethical responsibility.
 INTENDED LEARNING
OUTCOMES
At the end of this class, you expect to:
1. examine the various conceptions of
globalization;
2. distinguish the different definitions of
globalization from experts; and
3. Adopt a working definition of
globalization.
• DIAGNOSTICS
• Instructions: Say agree if you think the
statement is correct; otherwise, say
disagree.
• _______1. Globalization is I and the world.
• _______ 2. The world that we live in now is a product of
globalization in the past.
• _______ 3. The united Nation is a global government.
• _______ 4. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is
a product of globalization.
• _______ 5. Globalization is a system of ideas, beliefs, norms,
values and ideals that are accepted as truth by some groups of
people.
 • DEFINING GLOBALIZATION
• Globalization is very important change, if
not, the “most important” (Bauman, 2003)
• The reality and omnipresence of
globalization makes us see yourselves as
part of what we refer to the “global age”
(Albow, 1996)
• It cannot be contained within a specific
time frame, all people and all situations (Al-
Rhodan, 2006)
• It is something that difficult to understand.
(Reich, 1998) says that it is a term whose
meaning is obscure.
• Schottle (1998) states that “globalization
stands for quite a large public spread across
the world as one of the defining terms of
the 20th century social consciousness”.
• For McGrew (1990), globalization is described as
something that is comprise of multiple sameness
and interconnectedness that go beyond the nation-
states.
• Cerny (1997) defines it as a cluster of economic and
political frameworks and procedures deriving from
the changing marks of the interests and assets that
comprise the foundation of the international political
economy- specifically, the expanding structural
differences of those interest and assets.
• Freeden (2003) posits that globalization denotes a
range of processes nesting under one rather
unwieldy epithet.
• Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai (1996) said that different kinds
of globalization occur on multiple and intersecting dimensions of
integration that he calls “scapes”
1. ethnoscapes , for example refers to the global movement of
people.
2. technoscapes, refers to the circulation of mechanical goods and
software.
3. mediascapes, is about the flow of culture.
4. financescapes, denotes the global circulation of money.
5. ideoscapes, is the realm where political ideas move around.
These Landscapes are created due to movements of people,
technologies, information through media, money and commodities
and political ideas.
Steger (2005-2014), the term globalization should be limited to a set
of intricate social processes that modify prevailing social statuses
based on the modern regime of self- dependent nation-states.
Swedish journalist Thomas Larsson (2001) saw globalization as “the
process of world shrinkage, of distances getting, thing moving closer.
Globalization is also defined differently depending on someone else’s
expertise, experience and perspectives. For a political scientist,
globalization serves as a challenge to nation-states. The strengthening
of regional blocks like EU, Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN). And the UN is gaining a stable ground. Similarly, the
emergence of global political norms is evident – for instance, the
norm that each country is entitled to the exploitation of human
natural resources for its own growth (Giensen & Pijl, 2006).