INTRODUCTION OF THE MODULE

Course Code: CWORLD1

Course Title: The Contemporary World
Credit: Three (3) Units
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
economic, 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.

Requirements of the Course:

1. Three (3) Major Examinations

2. Regular Attendance
3. Scheduled Quizzes, Seat-works, Home-works/ Assignments, Classroom-Based Recitations
4. Critique Papers, Synthesis Papers, Essay Writing
5. Group Power-Point Presentations, Video Presentations
6. Research Paper Writing

Learning Competencies:
As the course progresses, the students are expected to:
1. write a personal definition of globalization based on a concept map
2. differentiate the competing conceptions of globalization
3. identify the underlying philosophies of the varying definitions of globalization
4. agree on a working definition of globalization for the course
5. define economic globalization
6. identify the actors that facilitate economic globalization
7. define the modern world system
8. articulate a stance on global economic integration
9. explain the role of international financial institutions in the creation of a global economy
10. narrate a short history of global market integration in the twentieth century
11. identify the attributes of global corporations
12. explain the effects of globalization on governments
13. identify the institutions that govern international relations
14. differentiate internationalism from globalism
15. identify the roles and functions of the United Nations
16. identify the challenges of global governance in the 21 st century
17. explain the relevance of the state and globalization
18. define the term “global south”
19. differentiate the “global south” from the “third world”
20. analyze how a new conception of global relations emerged from the experiences of Latin
American countries
 21. differentiate between regionalization and globalization
22. identify the factors leading to a greater integration of the Asian region
23. analyze how different Asian states confront the challenges of globalization and regionalization
24. synthesize knowledge concerning globalization
25. analyze how various media drive various forms of global integration
26. explain the dynamics between local and global cultural production
27. explain how globalization affects religious practices and beliefs
28. analyze the relationship between religion and global conflict and, conversely, global peace
29. identify the attributes of a global city
30. analyze how cities serve as engines of globalization
31. explain the theory of demographic transition as it affects global population
32. analyze the political, economic, cultural, and social factors underlying the global movements of
people
33. display first-hand knowledge of the experiences of OFWs
34. write a research paper proposal with proper citation
35. critique research proposals of classmates
36. differentiate stability from sustainability
37. articulate models of global sustainable development
38. define global food security
39. critique existing models of global food security
40. articulate a personal definition of global citizenship
41. appreciate the ethical obligations of global citizenship
42. write a research paper on a topic related to globalization with proper citations

LESSON 1
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
GLOBALIZATION

Learning Objectives:

1. To differentiate the competing approaches to the study of globalization

2. To understand the varying processes of globalization
 3. To explain the different ideological dimensions of globalization
4. To appreciate the core claims of market globalism
5. To agree on a working definition of globalization for the course

SOURCE: https://www.pinterest.ph/christine06295/advantages-of-globalisation/

LESSON 1
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
GLOBALIZATION
 The first part of this lesson discusses the summary of the “Approaches to the Study of
Globalization” as presented by Manfred B. Steger (2014) which was adopted from the “SAGE Handbook
of Globalization” edited by Manfred B. Steger, Paul Battersby, and Joseph M. Siracusa (2014). The
succeeding discussion presents the work of Manfred B. Steger (2014) entitled “Market Globalism” which
was also adopted from the “SAGE Handbook of Globalization”.

A. Approaches to the Study of Globalization

There are many different approaches to the study of globalization. The purpose of this chapter is to
provide a general overview of the various approaches to the concept as espoused by several scholars since
the 1990s.

Various scholars have advanced the concept of globalization by analyzing the changing economic,
political, and cultural processes that happened since the 1970s. Some of the accepted definitions of
globalization include the following: “increasing global inter-connectedness”; “the expansion and
intensification of social relations across world-time and world-space”; “the compression of time and
space”; “distant proximities”; “a complex range of processes, driven by a mixture of political and
economic influences”; and “the swift and relatively unimpeded flow of capital, people, and ideas across
national borders” (Giddens, 1990; Harvey, 1989; Held & McGrew, 2007; Lechner & Boli, 2011;
Robertson, 1992; Steger, 2013; Waters, 2001).

Globalization as “Globaloney”.

Three groups of scholars argue that the existing accounts of globalization are incorrect and
imprecise. Their arguments fall into three differing categories. The first group disagrees with the
usefulness of globalization as a precise analytical concept. The second group contends that the world is
not really integrated as many proponents believe. The last cluster disputes the novelty of the process
while acknowledging the presence of moderate globalizing tendencies.

Rejectionists. These scholars believe that the term “globalization” is an example of a vague word
employed in academic discourses. Just like the term “nationalism”, “globalization” is a complex and
ambiguous phenomenon, thus both are hard concepts to define (Calhoun, 1993).

Sceptics. This group stresses the limited nature of current globalizing processes. According to Hirst
and Thompson (2009), our international economy is not really a global phenomenon, since it only
centered on Europe, Eastern Asia, and North America. They also emphasized that most of the economic
activities are still national in terms of origin and scope.

Modifiers. They entail that “globalization” has often been applied in a historically inaccurate
manner. Gilpin (2000) argues that our international economy in the late 1990s was even less incorporated
before the outbreak of World War I. According to the neo-Marxist proponents of World-System Theory
(Wallerstein, 1979; Frank, 1998), the modern capitalist economy today has been global five centuries ago.
Thus globalization can be drawn back to the political and cultural relations that developed the ancient
empires of Persia (Iran), China, and Rome.

Globalization as an Economic Process

The evolution of global markets and international corporations led to global economic
interdependence among nation-states. The development of international economic institutions such as the
European Union, the North American Free Trade Association, and other regional trading blocs are some
of the examples (Keohane & Nye, 2000). This only shows that economic globalization increases the
linkage of national economies through trade, financial flows, and foreign direct investment (FDI) by
multinational or trans-national corporations (MNCs/TNCs) (Gilpin, 2000).

Globalization as a Political Process

Political globalization includes the discussion and analysis of political processes and institutions.
Thus two questions are asked: (1) what are the political grounds for the immense flows of capital, money,
and technology across territorial boundaries?; (2) do these flows create a serious test to the power of the
nation-state? These dilemmas imply that economic globalization might lead to the reduced control of
national governments over restrictive policies and economic regulations.

Globalization as a Cultural Process

According to Tomlinson (1999), cultural globalization signifies a growing linkage of intricate

cultural interconnections and interdependencies that define our modern social life. These can be made
possible through the emergence of powerful global media corporations that develop new communication
technologies which promote the Anglo-American value system. This global dissemination of American
values (Americanization), consumer goods, and lifestyles promote the objectives of American “cultural
imperialism” which is also termed by Ritzer (1993) as “McDonaldization” which describes the ideals of
the fast-food business that dominate the American society and the rest of the globe.

According to Barber (1996), a type of cultural imperialism that was assembled in the 1950s and
1960s promoted an American culture of popular consumerism which he termed as “McWorld”. This was
driven by expansionist commercial interests which was evident in its choice of music, video, theater,
books, and theme parks which create exports that center around common logos, advertising slogans, stars,
songs, brand names, jingles, trademarks, and the like.

As argued by Robertson (1995) global cultural flows also take place in local contexts which result
to “glocalization”. This refers to an intricate collaboration of the global and local cultures characterized
by cultural borrowing. These interactions lead to a complex mixture of both cultures often referred to as
“hybridization” or “creolization” which signifies processes of cultural mixing that are replicated in music,
film, fashion, language, and other types of social expression.

B. Market Globalism

The Ideological Dimension of Globalization

During the early 1990s, the emphasis of globalization was dominated by the economic and
technological features of globalization. Later, the role of incorporating markets and new information
know-hows became part of understanding the process of globalization. This section incorporates the
ideological aspect of globalization and the
roles and purposes of political ideologies. It also integrates ideas on the six central claims of market
globalism.

Political Ideologies and the Global Imaginary

 According to Steger (2014), “ideology” is a structure of broadly shared ideas or philosophies,
patterned beliefs, guiding norms, values, and ideals recognized as fact by some collections of people.
Every ideology is organized around core claims which differentiates it from other contrasting ideologies.

The concept “ideology” was first introduced by Antoine Destutt de Tracy in the 18 th century. For
this Enlightenment thinker, the term means a positivistic “science of ideas” using the empirical tools
borrowed from the natural sciences. According to Paul Ricoeur (1986), the first functional level of
ideology (Ideology as Distortion) refers to the construction of contorted descriptions of social truth. This
process obscures the difference between things as they are perceived in theory and things as they are
viewed in reality.

Political Ideologies and the “Social Imaginary”

According to Charles Taylor (2004), “social imaginaries” are neither theories nor ideologies, but
are implied “background understandings” of a group’s shared customs. The social imaginary explains
how a group of people fit as one and their expectations of every member within the community.

Each ideology organized its core concepts based on liberty, progress, race, class, rationality,
tradition, community, welfare, security, and others. The ideologies of liberalism, conservatism, socialism,
communism, and Nazism/fascism are all “nationalist” in character and are promoted by the elites within
the group which are evident in their political goals through the concept of “national imaginary”.

The Core Claims of Market Globalism

With the downfall of Soviet-style command economy in Eastern Europe, power elites from the
global north (i.e., corporate managers, CEOs of multinational corporations, corporate lobbyists, high-
ranking military officials, remarkable journalists, public-relations experts, scholars writing to a large
public audience, state administrators and leading politicians) introduced their idea of market globalism.
For them, market globalism means an advocacy that advances the deregulation of markets, trade
liberalization, the privatization of government-owned and controlled corporations, and the upkeep of the
global “War on Terror” spearheaded by US (Steger, 2014).

Claim 1: Globalization is about the Liberalization and Global Integration of Markets

This claim is buttressed in the neo-liberal philosophy of the laissez faire self-regulating market
economy as the foundation for a global market economy. According to Steger (2014), the focal roles of
the free market in order to foster more societal integration and material advancement are only possible in
a democratic society that values and protects individual rights and freedoms.

Claim 2: Globalization is Inevitable and Irreversible

This claim contends that globalization promotes the expansion of unalterable market forces
motivated by technological improvements that facilitate the unavoidable worldwide integration of state
economies. Nation-states, political parties, and civil society organizations have no option but to adapt to
the inevitable forces of globalization.

Claim 3: Nobody is in Charge of Globalization

This argues that globalization is manifested through a “self-regulating market”. According to

Hormats (1998), what is attractive with globalization is that nobody is in control of the process. Thus it is
not regulated by any individual, any nation-state, or any organization. In addition, Friedman (1999)
contends that the international market is an Electronic Herd of anonymous stock, bond and money traders
and transnational foreign investors, integrated by global screens and networks.

Claim 4: Globalization Benefits Everyone (... in the Long Run)

The benefits for all relate to material aspects such as “economic growth” and “prosperity”. These
benefits were according to the participating heads of state of the 1996 G-7 Summit in Lyons, France,
consisting of the world's seven most influential highly-developed countries that issued a joint Economic
Communique (1996) that exemplified the implications of this claim.

Claim 5: Globalization Furthers the Spread of Democracy in the World

This claim links the concepts on globalization and market with that of democracy which provides
individuals with economic choices. According to Freeden (1996), globalists treat freedom, free markets,
free trade and democracy as identical concepts.

Claim 6: Globalization Requires a War on Terror

The neo-conservatives who are committed to the American values of freedom, security, and free
markets added this sixth claim of market globalism. According to Kaplan (2003), you need to possess
both military and economic supremacy in order to spread your ideas worldwide. This claim integrates
idea of market globalism with militaristic and nationalistic ideas linked with the American-headed global
“War on Terror”.

As asserted by Barnett (2004), the globe is divided into three diverse regions:

The Functioning Core or Core. This is categorized by global network connectivity, financial
transactions, liberal media, cooperative security, nations having stable democratic governments, practice
of transparency, increasing standards of living, and more deaths by suicide than by killings.

The Non-Integrating Gap or Gap. This refers to regions where globalization is thinning or if not,
absent. These regions are plagued by authoritarian political regimes, government regulated markets, mass
killings, prevalent poverty and diseases, and the breeding ground of global terrorists.
Seam States. These states lie along the Gap's bloody borders.