Module 1: Concepts of Globalization

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 Module 1: Concepts of Globalization

Study Period: September 4-8, 2023

Lesson 1: Definition and Metaphors of Globalization

Intended Learning Outcome:

Define globalization encompassing the economy, politics, and culture.
Analyze the metaphors of Globalization.

Discussion:
Globalization.
A lots of connotation gained in defining the word “globalization”. It may pertain about progress,
development, and integration – a positive –phenomena. It signifies increasing ease with which
somebody on one sides of the world can interact, to mutual benefit with somebody on the other
side of the world. However, Swedish Journalist Thomas Larsson (2001) saw globalization as “the
process of world shrinkage, of distances getting shorter, things moving closer for some see it as
occurring through and with regression, colonialism, and destabilization.

A term that is closely related to globalization is transnationalism, or “processes that interconnect

individuals and social groups across specific geo-political borders.” A related concept is
transnationality, or “the rise of new communities and formation of new social identities and
relations that cannot be defined through the traditional reference point of nation-states”.

Globalization and transnationalism are often used interchangeably, but transnationalism is clearly a
more delimited process than globalization. Transnationalism is limited to interconnections that cross
geo-political borders, especially those associated with two or more nation-states. Globalization
includes such connections, but is not restricted to them and encompasses a far wider range of
transplanetary processes (e.g. direct relationships between people in many places in the world
networking via the Internet). Further, geo-political borders are only one of the barriers encountered,
and often overcome, by globalization.

The literature on the definitions of globalization revealed that definitions could be classified as either
broad and inclusive or narrow and exclusive.
Ohmae (1992). “…globalization means the onset of the borderless world.” An example
of broad and inclusive type of definition. Implicitly, it includes variety of issues that deal
with overcoming traditional boundaries.
Cox. “The characteristics of the globalization trend include the internationalizing of
production, the new international division of labor, new migratory movements from
South to North, the new competitive environment that accelerates these processes,

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 Module 1: Concepts of Globalization

and the internationalizing of the state…making states into agencies of the

globalizing world.”
Ritzer (2015). “Globalization is a transplanetary process or set of processes involving
increasing liquidity and the growing multidirectional flows of people, objects, places,
and information as well as the structures they encounter and create that are barriers
to, or expedite, those flows…” This definition assumes that globalization could bring
either or both integration and/or fragmentation.

No matter how one classifies a definition of globalization, the concept is complex and multifaceted
as the definitions deal with economic, political, or social dimensions. Studying and understanding
globalization considered essential practice that must be enhanced because:
1. Defining globalization is shaped by the perspective of the person who defines
it. The overview of definitions implied that globalization is many things to many
different people. Appudurai (1996) stated that globalization is a word of things that
have different speeds, axes, points of origin and termination, and varied relationships
to institutional structures in different regions, nations or societies.” Then, Al-Rhodan
(2006) wrote that definitions suggest the perspective of the author on the origins and
the geopolitical implications of globalization. It is a starting point that will guide the
rest of any discussions. In effect, one‟s definition and perspective could determine
concrete steps in addressing the issues of globalization.
2. Paraphrase the sociologist Cesare Poppi: globalization is the debate and the
debate is globalization. As Poppi (1997) wrote that the literature stemming from
the debate on globalization has grown in the last decade beyond any individual‟s
capability of extracting a workable definition of the concept. In a sense, the meaning
of the concept is self-evident, in another, it is vague and obscure as its reaches are
wide and constantly shifting. Perhaps, more than any other concept, globalization is
the debate about it.
3. Globalization is reality. It is changing as human society develops. It has happened
before and is still happening today. We should expect it to continue to happen in the
future. The future of globalization is more difficult to predict.
Globalization is a concept that is not easy to define because in reality, defining globalization has a
shifting nature. It is complex, multifaceted, and can be influenced by the people who define it.
Moreover, the issues and concerns involving globalization have a wide range from the individual to
society; from small communities to nations and states; and from the benefits we can gain from it to
the costs it could carry. In his article, “The Globalization of Nothing”, George Ritzer (2003) said,
“attitudes toward globalization depend, among other things, on; whether one gains or losses. from
it.”

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 Module 1: Concepts of Globalization

Metaphors of Globalization.
Metaphors make use of one term to help us better understand another term. It is designed to give
you a better and a more vivid sense of the global age and how it differs from prior epochs.

Solid and Liquid

Solidity refers to barriers that prevent or make difficult the movement of things. Solids can be
either be natural or man-made. Example of natural solids are landforms and bodies of water.

Prior to the current epoch of globalization (and to most observers there was a previous global
epoch), it could be argued that one of the things that characterized people, things, information,
places, and much else was their greater solidity. That is, all of them tended to be hard or to harden
(metaphorically, figuratively, not literally, of course) over time and therefore, among other things, to
remain largely in place (and having limited mobility).

As a result, people either did not go anywhere or they did not venture very far from where they were
born and raised; their social relationships were restricted to those who were nearby. Much the same
could be said of most objects (tools, food, and so on) which tended to be used where they were
produced. The solidity of most material manifestations of information – stone tablets, newspapers,
magazines, books, and so on – also made them at least somewhat difficult to move very far.

Places were not only quite solid and immoveable, but they tended to confront solid natural
(mountains, rivers, oceans) and humanly constructed (walls, gates) barriers that made it difficult for
people and things to exit or to enter.

Above all, solidity describes a world in which barriers exist and are erected to prevent the free
movement of all sorts of things. It was the nation-state that was most likely to create these “solid”
barriers. Man-made barriers include the Great Wall of China and the Berlin Wall. Imaginary lines
such as the Nine-Dash Line being used by the People‟s Republic of China in their claim to the West
Philippine Sea is an example of modern man-made solid. This created limited access of Filipino
fishermen to the West Philippine Sea. However, they have the tendency to melt.

Thus, solidity is far from dead in the contemporary world. It is very often the case that
demands for new forms of solidity are the result of increased fluidity. However, a strong case can,
and will, be made that it is fluidity that is more characteristic of today‟s world, especially in terms of
globalization.

People were never so solid that they were totally immobile or stuck completely in a given place, and
this was especially true of the elite members of any society. Elites were (and are) better able to move
about and that ability increased with advances in transportation technology. Commodities, especially
those created for elites, also could almost always be moved and they grew more moveable as
technologies advanced.

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Information could always travel more easily than goods or people (it could be spread by word of
mouth over great distances even if the originator of the information could not move very far; it
moved even faster as more advanced communication technologies emerged [telegraph, telephone,
the Internet]).And as other technologies developed (ships, automobiles, airplanes), people, especially
those with the resources, were better able to leave places and get to others.

Liquid as a state of matter, takes the shape of its container. Liquids are not fixed. It refers to the
increasing ease of movement of people, things, information, and places in the contemporary world.
Bauman‟s concepts about the characteristics of liquidity:
1. Today‟s liquid phenomena change quickly and its aspects, spatial, and
temporal, are in continuous fluctuation. This means that space and time are
crucial elements of globalization. In global finance, for instance, changes in the stock
market are a matter of seconds.
2. Liquid phenomena is that their movement is difficult to stop. For example, the
videos being uploaded on YouTube or Facebook are to halt once they become viral.
The so-called internet sensations become famous not just in their homeland but to
the entire world as well.
3. The forces (the liquid ones) made political boundaries more permeable to the
flow of people and things (Cartier 2001)
Ritzer (2015) regarded the liquid tends to melt whatever stands in its path (especially
solids)” The clearest example is decline, if not death of the nation-state.
Solid material realities (people, cargo, newspapers) continue to exist, but because of a wide range of
technological developments (in transportation, communication, the Internet, and so on) they can
move across the globe far more readily. Everywhere we turn, more things, including ourselves, are
becoming increasingly liquefied. Furthermore, as the process continues, those liquids, as is the case
in the natural world (e.g. ice to water to water vapor), tend to turn into gases of various types.
To continue the imagery farther than Marx took it, they were ultimately transformed into gases that
diffused in the atmosphere. However, while Marx was describing a largely destructive process, the
point here is that the new liquids and gases that are being created are inherent parts of the new
world and are radically transforming it. In the process, they are having both constructive and
destructive effects.
Thus, the perspective on globalization presented here, is that it involves, above all else, increasing
liquidity (and gaseousness). Liquidity refers to the increasing ease of movement of people, things,
information, and places in the global age. Gaseousness is the hyper-mobility of people, things,
information, and places in the global age.
This is exemplified in many areas such as foreign trade, investment, and global financial transactions,
the globalization of transactions and interactions on the Internet, and the difficulty in halting the
global flow of drugs, pornography, the activities of organized crime, and illegal immigrants.

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Flows
Flows are the movement of people, things, places, and information brought by the growing
“porosity” of global limitation. Closely related to the idea of liquidity, and integral to it, is another
key concept in thinking about globalization, the idea of flows; after all liquids flow easily, far more
easily than solids.
Because so much of the world has “melted‟‟ or is in the process of „„melting‟‟ and has become
liquefied, globalization is increasingly characterized by great flows of increasingly liquid
phenomena of all types, including people, objects, information, decisions, places, and so on.
Undoubtedly because of their immateriality, ideas, images, and information, both legal and illegal,
flow everywhere through interpersonal contact and the media, especially now via the Internet.
Think of the different foreign cuisines being patronized and consumed by the Filipinos. Aside from
local dishes, many of us are fond of eating sushi, ramen, hamburger, and French fries – foods
introduced to us by foreign cultures. Foods are being globalized. Another example of flows are
global financial crises. In global financial system, national borders are porous. This means that a
financial crisis in a given country can bring ramifications to other regions of the world.

TYPES OF FLOWS
1. Multi-directional Flows. Globalization is not a one-way process as concepts like
Westernization and Americanization seem to imply. While all sorts of things do flow
out of the West and the United States to every part of the world, many more flow
into the West and the US from everywhere (e.g. Japanese automobiles, Chinese T-
shirts, I-phones manufactured in China, and so on). Furthermore, all sorts of things
flow in every conceivable direction among all other points in the world.
2. Interconnected Flows. The fact is that global flows do not occur in isolation from
one another; many different flows interconnect at various points and times. Take the
example of the global fish industry. That industry is now dominated by the flows of
huge industrial ships and the massive amount of frozen fish that they produce and
which is distributed throughout the world. In addition, these huge industrial ships are
putting many small fishers out of business and some are using their boats for other
kind of flows (e.g. transporting illegal immigrants from Africa to Europe).
3. Conflicting Flows. Transplanetary processes not only can complement one
another, but often also conflict with one another (and with much else).In fact, it is
usually these conflicting flows that attract the greatest attention.
4. Reverse flows. In some cases, processes flowing in one direction act back on their
source (and much else).This is what Ulrich Beck has called the boomerang effect. In
Beck‟s work the boomerang effect takes the form of, for example, pollution that is
„„exported‟‟ to other parts of the world but then returns to affect the point of origin.

-End of Module 1, Lesson 1-

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