OVERVIEW

MODULE 1
The Study of Globalization: Aspects & Approaches
(PRELIM PERIOD) Globalization can be defined as the increased interconnectedness and
interdependence of peoples and countries. This global phenomenon can
be best understood by looking at the multi-faceted characteristics of
globalization.

This module presents a discussion on the study of the different aspects of

globalization into four major areas: (1) Meaning and Contending Theories
of Globalization; (2) Economic Globalization and the Global Economy; (3)
The United Nations and Global Governance; and (4) Regionalization vs.
Globalization.

TOPIC 1: Meaning and Intended Learning Outcomes:

Contending Theories of
-Identify the underlying philosophies & theories of globalization; and
Globalization
-Differentiate the competing conceptions of globalization.

Week 1 & 2  Recommended Readings and References

1. Steger MB. Chapter 1-2: “Is Globalization a New

Phenomenon?” In Globalization: A Very Short Introduction.
Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2003. PP. 1-17. Available at:
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e00
0xww&AN=264792&site=ehost-live. Accessed April 5, 2020.

Steger_Manfred._2003_._Globalization_A_v (1).pdf

 Supplementary Readings & Other Online Sources:

1. Steger, M. “Ideologies of Globalization”. Journal of Political

Ideologies (February 2005), 10(1), 11–30. Last accessed 05
July 2020.
http://socialsciences.people.hawaii.edu/publications_lib/JPI
%20Ideologies%20of%20globalization%20%20final.pdf
2. Rodriguez, R. Module 1: Introduction to Globalization- A
power point presentation. June, 2020.

 Video link(s):
1. “What is Globalization?”Explainity Explainer Video. Available
at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ0nFD19eT8
DISCUSSION After centuries of technological progress and advances in international
cooperation, the world is more connected than ever. This remarkable
change in the world is referred to as globalization.

Globalization is about the interconnectedness of people and business

across the world that eventually leads to global cultural, political and
economic integration.
 The succeeding lessons will introduce you to the different aspects and
approaches in studying globalization.

For you to appreciate this course, you need to broaden your perspective
and should be willing to stretch your imagination and outlook because you
will be exposed to unfamiliar ideas and cultures.

This course will challenge you to think beyond your own country and ask
what it means to be a citizen of the world. You need to study the world
and how it has been affected by the process of globalization because you
will be interacting with it.
Discussion:

Guide Questions:
(The guide questions are intended to help you in reading and digesting the
assigned readings and topics per module. Reading hours are part of the
asynchronous learning to be employed in each module. This is to give you
a deeper exposure and understanding of each lesson as designed in this
module. Clarification and analysis of the content shall be addressed during
the synchronous online discussion or whenever it is deemed to be
necessary.)

1. Why do we need to study the world?

2. What is globalization?
3. What are the different contending theories on globalization?
4. What are the different types of globalization according to Arjun
Appadurai?
5. What is the difference between globalization and globalism?

DISCUSSION:

 Question: Why do we need to study the (contemporary ) world?

 The world “out there” is worth exploring and comprehending;

 OFW phenomenon (stories and experiences);
 Media and the internet as windows to the contemporary world;
 Our consumption habits have become global; &
 We have become citizens of the world.
 Thus, just by living our lives, we think about the contemporary
 world!

Is it relevant?
 Cure to our parochialism. It broadens our perspectives.
 Allow us to compare our society with others.
 We need to study the world because we will be interacting with it.
 Even those who choose to remain in the Philippines must confront the
phenomenon of globalization.

How we frame the message (discourse) of GLOBALIZATION matters!

 Beyond a problem-solving approach, especially a perspective of
“promoting international competitiveness” (e.g.. economic and
technological);
 Beyond a buzzword: a process and discourse
 Critical view: globalization as contested; understood and constituted in
different ways;
 Frames of meaning used to describe the world are part of a political
process;

What is GLOBALIZATION?
-Key Themes & Characteristics (Manfred Steger)
 Globality: a social condition characterized by tight economic,
political, cultural and environmental interconnections and flows,
making currently existing borders and boundaries irrelevant.
 Globalization: a set of social processes that appear to transform
our present social condition of weakening nationality into one of
globality; human lives played out in the world as a single place;
redefining landscape of sociopolitical processes and social
sciences that study these mechanisms.

 Global Imaginary: a concept referring to people’s growing

consciousness of belonging to a global community

According to Steger (2003), Globalization applies to a set of social

processes that appear to transform our present social condition of
weakening nationality into one of globality.” Globalization is not a single
process but a set of processes that operate simultaneously and unevenly
on several levels and in various dimensions.

 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.
 Intensification- refers to the expansion, stretching, acceleration of
these networks.

Six Core Claims of Globalization by Manfred Steger

Note: Refer to this site for a detailed discussion. Steger, M. “Ideologies of
Globalization”. Journal of Political Ideologies (February 2005), 10(1), 11–30. Last
accessed 05 July 2020.
http://socialsciences.people.hawaii.edu/publications_lib/JPI%20Ideologies%20of%
20globalization%20%20final.pdf
1. Globalization Is About the Liberalization and Global
Integration of Markets (not an ideology)
2. Globalization is Inevitable and Irreversible
3. Nobody is in Charge of Globalization
4. Globalization Benefits Everyone
5. Globalization Furthers the Spread of Democracy in The World
6. Globalization Requires War on Terror

Theoretical Perspectives of Globalization

[ Adapted from: Stefanovic, Z. Globalization: Theoretical Perspectives, Impacts and

Institutional Response to the Economy. FACTA UNIVERSITATIS Series: Economics
and Organization Vol. 5, No 3, 2008, pp. 263 – 272. Available at:
http://facta.junis.ni.ac.rs/eao/eao200803/eao200803-09.pdf ]

(1) Hyperglobalists or Liberal Perspective

By hyperglobalists, globalization is viewed as a legitimate and irrepressible
historical process, which leads to a world order based on the market and
supranational institutions. Globalization presents a new era in the development of
civilization, without precedent in the course of human history. This process is
referred to as progressive and socially desirable. It is also stressed that the
intensity and dynamics of current changes in the economy lead to changes in core
framework of social action (Held, McGraw, 2007, p. 5).

Guided by the self-enforcing growth of global markets and technological progress,

globalization inexorably destroys all previously established hierarchical structures.
The role of the nation-state in this context is also significantly diminishing.
Multinational corporations concentrate vast resources, and become the main
carriers of economic activity on a global level.

This creates a global civilization in which the market is integrated on the world
level, multinational companies are becoming major actors in the economic process
and international institutions substitute the role of national states. Multinational
companies have fundamental influence on the economy and represent natural
response to the "borderless" economy that is characterized by homogenous
consumer tastes. These companies crowd out national models of economy as
relevant units of economic activity (Ohmae, 1990).

Hyperglobalists conceive globalization as a process, which has the internal logic

and predictable outcome, the global society based on a fully integrated market. In
other words, all the variety of heterogeneous cultures withdraws in front of the
unique social pattern, based on markets and institutions derived from the radically
liberal cultural framework. In this sense, a well-known assumption about the ''end
of history'' is generated, which implies that the modern, global capitalism with
liberal democracy as the political framework, represents the last word of socio-
economic evolution (Fukuyama, 1992).

The aforementioned approach has evident deterministic character. Globalization is

seen as a kind of final stage in the spontaneous and self-enforcing process of
creating a global society, as the most efficient model of society, which stops the
further process of selection of types of socio-economic order. It should also be
mentioned that this reflection of globalization includes liberal-oriented authors
such as Theodore Levitt, Thomas Friedman as well as protagonists of neoclassical
economic theory – Sachs, Friedman and others. Moreover, all theories of socio-
economic dynamics that conceptualize that process as a simple succession of
phases, with the ''optimal'' final form of society as a social outcome, which stops
further dynamics, can be considered as a part of the same intellectual tradition.

(1) Transformationalists or Critical

Transformationalists (Giddens, Scholte, Castells, Walerstein) are more moderate in
terms of emphasis of ubiquity and linearity of the globalization process, as well as
assessing of progressivism of its effects. But they do not accept skeptic thesis about
globalization either. For them, the indisputable fundamental changes in the
organization of society that globalization brings are the growing overall integration
and acceleration of socioeconomic dynamics through "compression" of space and
time. However, their approach is multidimensional, taking into account
mechanisms of globalization other than economic ones.

In this sense, a sociologist of modernism, Anthony Giddens, considers globalization

as a phenomenon shaped by forces of "modern" capitalism: politics, military power
and industrialism (Giddens, 1990). These forces are the sources of dimensions of
globalization. Four basic dimensions of globalization are world capitalist economy,
system of national state, world military order and international division of labor.

The specified dimensions of modernity have enabled western countries to become

the leading force in the world. Spreading dimensions of modernity, according to
Giddens, to all countries in the world is identified as the process of globalization.
(Vuletić, 2001, p. 95). However, another sociologist of modernity, Beck, believes
that the unintended effects of modernity forces are global risk and the new global
threat. In order to overcome the risks, as important dimension of reality, it is
necessary to create institutions of democracy and cosmopolitan confidence.
Without it, globalization represents only a facade for the game of imperialist
powers (Vuletić, 2001, p. 96).

There are also opinions that the liberal economic policy, which is inseparable from
globalization, creates political backlash by groups whose interests are negatively
affected. It is difficult to predict how much and in what direction will this political
backlash influence future developments in the global economy (Heileiner, 2006, p.
85).
(1) Skeptics
The third group of theoreticians, who expressed skepticism with regard to ubiquity
of the process of globalization, is also characterized by the criticism towards
globalization. In that sense they emphasize that the level of integration and
openness of today's economy is not unprecedented. International trade and capital
flows were more important relative to GDP in the pre-1914 period (the first wave
of globalization) than in the contemporary economy (Hirst, Thompson, 2003).

Also, instead of a destructible character of globalization in relation to the hierarchy

and the nation-state, they emphasize the significant role of national economies in
pursuing economic liberalization and promotion of cross border activity. The
creation of regional blocks as the essential characteristic of the world economy
offers argumentation that the world economy is less integrated than it was in the
late nineteenth century (Held, McGraw, 2007, p. 5).

Within this direction of thought, assessments of the non-sustainability of the

current unification of the world are also present, because it raises radical
resistance within individual cultures, which in the end can lead to a conflict of
civilizations (Huntington, 1999). In short, skepticism is expressed both in terms of
impacts of globalization and its ubiquity, as well as in terms of sustainability of
unification influences which it produces.

Practice Test:
-Which among the three theoretical perspectives views globalization as
progressive and socially desirable?
A.Hyperglobalists B. Transformationalists C. Skeptics

Globalization vs. 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(?)

Multiple globalizations vs. Globalization as a single process

Arjun Appadurai asserts that 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- refers to the flow of culture;
 Technoscape-refers to the circulation of mechanical goods and
softwares;
 Ideoscape- refers to the diffusion and sharing of political ideas
 Financescape- refers to the global circulation of money

Globalization Explained: Q & A with Manfred Steger

(Manfred B. Steger, one of the leading experts on globalization. M. Steger is a Professor of
Political Science at the University of Hawai’i-Manoa and Senior Advisor on International
Education and Globalization to the Dean of Social Sciences. He is the author of Globalization:
a Very Short Introduction).

1. Can you provide us with your own definition of globalization?

Globalization refers to the expansion and intensification of social relations and

consciousness across world-time and world-space. It is a multi-dimensional
phenomenon involving economics, politics, culture, ideology, environment, and
technology.

2. Most of us are familiar with economic globalization, but don’t have much
knowledge of political globalization – what is it exactly about?

Political globalization refers to the intensification and expansion of political

interrelations across the globe. These processes raise an important set of political
issues pertaining to the principle of state sovereignty, the growing impact of
intergovernmental organizations, and the future prospects for regional and global
governance, and environmental policies affecting our planet. Obviously, these
themes respond to the evolution of political arrangements beyond the framework
of the nation-state, thus breaking new conceptual and institutional ground. After
all, for the last few centuries, humans have organized their political differences
along territorial lines that generated a sense of ‘belonging’ to a particular nation-
state.

Out of these disagreements there have emerged three fundamental questions that
probe the extent of political globalization. First, is it really true that the power of
the nation-state has been curtailed by massive flows of capital, people, and
technology across territorial boundaries? Second, are the primary causes of these
flows to be found in politics or in economics? Third, are we witnessing the
emergence of new global governance structures? Before we respond to these
questions in more detail, let us briefly consider the main features of the modern
nation-state system.

3. Can you mention us one nation that successfully managed globalization in the
last two decades and one example of failure?

Perhaps the most impressive success stories are South Korea and Brazil and
prominent failures would include North Korea and Iran.

4. As Rana Foroohar wrote in Time Magazine, these past two years global trade
has been lower than GDP growth for the first time since WWII. Do you fear that
globalization is in reverse?

I don’t think that it’s correct to say that the US ‘turned inward’ economically. It just
no longer dominates the world economy to the extent it did twenty or thirty years
ago. Also, if we look at the strong right-wing nationalist (anti-immigration)
tendencies in various European countries, such as Hungary, Greece, Austria, or
Switzerland, it would be more apt to call these dynamics ‘globalization in reverse’.

5. In his book “The Post- American world” Fareed Zakaria argued that the US was
able to globalize the world but basically failed to globalize itself. What is your
take on this?

I don’t think that one particular nation-state–not even the US–is capable of
‘globalizing’ the world on its own. Globalization is a long-term process that, over
many centuries, has crossed significant thresholds. The last of these thresholds
occurred in the 1980s/1990s, when the US seemed to be the world’s sole
‘hyperpower’. Yet, with hindsight, we know that these were also the decades
which laid the foundations for the rise of Asia. Since globalization is a many-
dimensional phenomenon, it does not make sense to talk about the ‘failure’ of the
US to ‘globalize itself’. In its economic and cultural dimensions, for example, the US
is much more globalized than Europe. If we take the ideological dimension,
however, the US lags behind Europe where voters still enjoy more ideological
choices.

6. Do you think the 21st Century is the Asian Century? Or, still, the West is going
to hold pre-eminence in terms of innovation, R&D and education?

In principle, I agree that the 21st century belongs to Asia. This does not mean that
we should expect the decline of American military and educational power or
European cultural and educational power any time soon. But Asia will gradually
emerge as the equal to the US and Europe. Also watch out for the rise of Australia
and Brazil.
Adapted from: Globalization explained: Q & A with Manfred Steger. Last
accessed 06 July 2020. https://asiancenturyinstitute.com/international/569-
manfred-b-steger-on-globalization