CONTEMPORARY WORLD

CONTEMPORARY WORLD
- it is the modernization of the world
- it is the situation of the world that was shaped by history
- in order to define the contemporary world, one must consider the past and the future
CHAPTER I. GLOBALIZATION
GLOBALIZATION
 It encompasses a multitude of processes that involves the economy, political systems and culture.
 It is the process of world shrinkage, of distances getting shorter, things moving closer. It pertains to the
increasing ease with which somebody on one side of the world can interact, to mutual benefit with
somebody on the other side of the world (Thomas Larson, 2001).
 Globalization is colonization (Martin Khor, 1990s).
 Globalization means the onset of the borderless world (Ohmae, 1992).
 Globalization is a transplanetary process or a set of process involving increasing liquidity and the growing
multidirectional flows of people, objects, places, and information as well as the structures the encounter
and create that are barriers to, or expedite those flows (Ritzer, 2015).

METAPHORS OF GLOBALIZATION
1. Solidity and Liquidity
- Solidity refers to barriers that prevent or make things to move difficultly.
- Solids can either be natural or man-made
Examples:
a. Natural
i. landforms
ii. bodies of water
b. Man-made
i. Great Wall of China
ii. Berlin Wall
- Liquidity refers to the increasing ease of movement of people, things, information and places in the
contemporary world.
- Liquid phenomena change quickly and their aspects spatial and temporal are in continuous fluctuation.
Examples:
a. Space
b. Time
- Liquid phenomena also is difficult to stop.
Examples:
a. Videos uploaded on YouTube
b. Social Media
- The metaphor that best describe globalization today is liquidity.
2. Flows
- Flows are the movement of people, things, places and information brought by the growing ‘porosity’ of
global limitations (Ritzer, 2015).
Examples:
a. Food is being globalized because most Filipinos patronize the cuisine of other countries.
b. Filipino communities abroad and the Chinese communities in the Philippines.

GLOBALIZATION THEORIES
1. Homogeneity
- It refers to the increasing sameness in the world as cultural inputs, economic factors, and political
orientations of societies expand to create a common practices, same economies, and similar forms of
government.
EFFECTS OF HOMOGENIZATION:
a. Cultural Imperialism
- homogeneity is often linked to cultural imperialism
- this means a given culture influences other cultures
Example:
 a. The dominant religion in our country is Christianity which was brought by
Spaniards.
b. Americanization
b. Economic Globalization
- global crises are products of homogeneity in economic globalization
Example:
a. International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s “one-size-fits-all” approach.
c. Suffering in the Political Realm
- Political realm suffers homogenization if one takes into account the emerging similar models of
governance in the world.
- A political orientation is existing and growing in today’s societies called “McWorld”.

d. Media Imperialism
- the effect with regards to the global flow of media
- it undermines the existence of alternative global media originating from developing countries.
e. McDonaldization
- it is a process by which Western societies are dominated by the principles of fast food restaurants.
- it involves the global spread of rational systems, such as efficiency, calculability, predictability
and control.
Grobalization
- it is a process wherein nations, corporations, etc. impose themselves on geographic areas
in order to gain profits, power and so on.
Example: McDonalds offer different menu based on the country like McTeriyaki
Burger in Japan.
2. Heterogeneity
- it 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.
- it refers to the differences because of either lasting differences or of the hybrids or combinations of
cultures that can be produced through the different transplanetary processes.
- contrary to cultural imperialism, heterogeneity is often linked to cultural hybridization.
Glocalization
- as global forces interact with local factors or a specific geographic area, the “glocal” is being
produced.

DYNAMICS OF LOCAL AND GLOBAL CULTURE

1. Cultural differentialism
- it emphasizes the fact that cultures are essentially different and are only superficially affected by global
flows.
- the interaction of cultures is deemed to contain the potential for catastrophic collision
2. Cultural hybridization
- it emphasizes the integration of local and global cultures.
- Globalization is considered to be a creative process which gives rise to hybrid entities that are not
reducible to either the global or local.
3. Cultural Convergence
- it stresses out the homogeneity that was introduced by globalization.
- cultures are deemed to be radically altered by strong flows, while cultural imperialism happens when
one culture imposes itself on and tends to destroy at least parts of another culture.
Deterritorialization
- it means that it is much more difficult to tie culture to a specific geographic point of origin.

THE GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGION

 Most religious are not relegated to the countries where they began, it is in fact, spread and scattered
on the global scale.
 “Accelerated globalization has enabled co-religionists across the planet to have greater direct contact
with one another.
  Information technologies, transportation means, and the media are deemed important means on
which religionists rely on the dissemination of the religious ideas.
Example: Countless websites were to provide information about religions.
 Media plays an important role in the dissemination of religious ideas.
 Religion has always been promoted by its practitioners so that it could reach the level of globality and
be embraced by many people as possible.
 Globalization make religions more conscious of themselves as being “world religions” reinforcing their
respective specific identities.
 Since religions have distinct internal structure, their connections to different cultures and their rituals and
beliefs contradict.
Example: Islam and Christianity are mostly incompatible with each other.

GLOBALIZATION AND REGIONALIZATION

 Regional organizations prefer regional partners over the rest.
 Regional organizations respond to the states’ attempt to reduce the perceived negative effects of
globalization
 Regionalism is counter-globalization.
MANAGED GLOBALIZATION
- it refers to all attempts to make globalization more palatable to citizens
- it is a way to counter ungoverned globalization
 It is important to consider the gradual development of interregional relations
Example:
a. Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
b. European Union (EU)
c. South American trade bloc
 Regional development in one part of the world have affected and fueled regionalization everywhere
else in a sort of domino effect.
 Regionalization process is global in nature.
 Regionalization is intimately linked to globalization since it is part of it and builds on it.
REGION
-group of countries in the same geographically specified area
REGIONALIZATION
- societal integration and the often-undirected process of social and economic interaction
REGIONALISM
- the formal process of the intergovernmental collaboration between two or more states.
 One of the reasons behind regionalism is the concern for security which is to ensure peace and stability.

ORIGINS AND HISTORY OF GLOBALIZATION

HARDWIRED
 It is a basic human need to make our lives better that made globalization possible (Nayan Chanda,
2007)
 One can trace the beginning of globalization from our ancestors in Africa who walked out from the said
continent in the late Ice Age
 Commerce, religion, politics and warfare are the urges of people toward a better life. These are
connected to four aspects of globalization and they can be traced all throughout history: trade,
missionary work, adventures and conquest. (Chanda, 2007)
CYCLES
 For some, globalization is a long-term cyclical process
 Points of globalization will soon disappear and reappear
EPOCH
 According to Therborn, there are six great epochs of globalization. These are also called waves.
 The following are the epochs:
1. Globalization of religion (4th to 7th century)
2. European colonial conquest (late 15th century)
3. Intra-European wars (late 18th to early 19th century)
 4. Heyday of European imperialism (mid-19th century to 1918)
5. Post- World War II period
6. Post- Cold War period
EVENTS
 Specific events are also considered as part in explaining the origin of globalization.
 Several points can be considered as the start of globalization:
1. Roman conquests centuries before Christ were its origin (Gibbon, 1998)
2. Rampage of the armies of Genghis Khan into Eastern Europe in the 19 th century (Economist
magazine, 2006)
3. Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America in 1942, Vasco de Gama in Cape of Good Hope
in 1498 and Ferdinand Magellan’s completed circumnavigation of the globe in 1522. (Rosenthal, 2007)
 Some events also in the recent years were marked as the beginning of globalization:
1. First transatlantic telephone cable in 1996
2. First transatlantic television broadcasts in 1962
3. Founding of modern internet in 1988
4. Terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York (9/11 attack) in 2001
 Specific events will characterize not just the origins of globalization but also more of its history

BROADER, MORE RECENT CHANGES

 There are three notable changes as the origin of globalization that we know today
1. The emergence of the United States as the global power (post-World War II)
 USA was able to outrun Germany and Japan in terms of industry because of their
supremacy in military and economy
 Both Axis powers and Allies fall behind economically
 USA soon began to process in different aspects like diplomacy, media, film and
many more.
2. The emergence of multinational corporations (MNCs)
 United States, Germany and Great Britain had great corporations which the world
knows today.
 They did not remain there as far as their production and market are concerned.
 Ford and General Motors originated in the United States but in the 20 th century,
they exported automobiles and opened factories to other countries.
3. The demise of the Soviet Union and the end of Cold War
 Soviet Union fell in 1991
 The fall of Soviet Union led to the opening of the major parts of the world for the
first time since the early 20th century like immigration, tourism, media, diplomacy
and MNCs
 It paved way to so-called “free” world
 Even if Chinese government remains communist, it is on its way to become a major
force in global capitalism. China is also globalizing in terms of other aspects like
their hosting of the Olympics in 2008.

GLOBAL DEMOGRAPHY
DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION
- it is a singular historical period during which mortality and fertility rates decline from high to low
levels in a particular country or religion.
 The broad outlines of the transition are similar in countries around the world, but the pace and timing of
the transition have varied considerably.
 The transition started in mid or late 1700s in Europe
 Death rates and fertility began to decline
 High to low fertility happened 200 years in France and 100 years in United States
 It was only in the 20th century that mortality declined in Africa and Asia (except Japan)
 Life expectancy of India was only 24 years in the early 20 th century while the same life expectancy
occurred in India in 1929 until 1931.
 Fertility declined in Asia on the 1950s
 It was until 1930 that total fertility rate did not drop below five births per woman in Japan
  The baby boom in the developing countries was caused by the decline of infant and child mortality rates.
 On the West, they experienced baby boom that resulted from rising birth rates.

GLOBAL MIGRATION
 Movement of people around the world can be see through the categories of migrants
CATEGORIES OF MIGRANTS
1. Vagabonds
- they are on the move because they have to be
- they are not faring well in their home countries and are forced to move in the hope that
their circumstances will improve.
- refugees are vagabonds forced to flee their home countries due to safety purposes
2. Tourists
-they are on the move because they want to be and because they can afford it
3. Labor migration
- migration to find work
- driven by two factors
Factors of Labor Migration:
a. Push factor
- they migrate to find work because of lack of employment opportunities in
home countries
b. Pull factor
- they migrate to find available work elsewhere
 State may seek to control migration because it involves the loss of part of the workforce.
 An influx of migrants can lead to conflicts with local residents
 Concern about terrorism also affect the desire of the state to restrict population flows.

An outline prepared by:

Fe Regine Castillo, CES Faculty

Reference:
Aldama, Prince Kennex Reguyal. The Contemporary World. Rex Book Store, Manila. 2018

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