Living in the Modern World

Unit 1- Defining Globalization

The speed of light does not merely transform the world. It becomes the
world. Globalization is the speed of light.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this unit, the students are expected to:

1. Familiarize with the principles and central ideas of important globalization theories
that they may likely encounter in the social science discipline.
2. Demystify the concept of globalization and help them see the application of global
structures and processes in their everyday activities.

Pre-Test

I-True or False: Write T on the space provided if the statement is stating a fact, and F if
not.
_____ 1. Globalization is many things to many people.
_____ 2. Globalization is changing as society is changing.
_____ 3. Globalization is complex, multifaceted, and cannot be influenced by the people
the people who defined it.
_____ 4. A concrete example of flow is the Filipino communities abroad and the Chinese
communities in the Philippines.
_____ 5. Liquidity and solidity are in constant interaction. However, solidity is the one
increasing and proliferating today.
_____ 6. Heterogeneity refers to the increasing sameness in the world as inputs, econo-
mic factors, and political orientations.
_____ 7. The global flow of media is often characterized as media imperialism.
_____ 8. Glocalization is a process wherein nations, corporations impose themselves on
geographical areas in order to gain profits, power, and so on.
_____ 9. The cultural hybridization approach emphasizes the integration of local and
Global cultures.
_____10. Globalization transforms the generic “religion” into a world-system of compe-
ting and conflicting religions.

II- Explanation-Essay: Give your thought on the questions given.

A. How has globalization improved people’s lives?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

B. How would your life be different if globalization hadn’t happened?

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

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Living in the Modern World

CONTENT

Unit 1- DEFINING GLOBALIZATION

 The onset of the borderless world.

 Is a trans planetary process or a 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.
 It is a world of things that have different speeds, axes, points of origin and termination,
and varied relationships to institutional structures in different regions, nations, and
societies.
 Globalization is the debate and the debate is globalization.
 Globalization is a reality. It is changing as human society develops.
 Globalization has a shifting nature. It is complex, multifaceted, and can be influenced by
the people who define it.

METAPHORS OF GLOBALIZATION
Solid and Liquid
Solidity- refers to barriers that prevent or make difficult the movement of things.
Furthermore, solids can either be natural or man-made. Examples of natural solids are land-
Forms and bodies of water. Man-made barriers include the Great Wall of China and the Berlin
Wall. An imaginary line such as the nine-dash line used by the People’s Republic of China in
their claim to the South China Sea is an example of modern man-made solid. This creates
limited access of Filipino fishers to the South China Sea.

Liquidity- refers to the increasing ease of movement of people, things, information, and
places in the contemporary world.
Characteristics of liquidity
 Today’s liquid phenomena change quickly and their aspects, spatial and
temporal, are in continuous fluctuation.
 Liquidity’s movement is difficult to stop.
 The forces (the liquid ones) made political boundaries more permeable to the
flow of people and things.

Liquidity and solidity are in constant interaction. However, liquidity is the one increasing
and proliferating today. Therefore, the metaphor that could best describe globalization is
liquidity.

Flows
Flows are the movement of people, things, places, and information brought by the
growing “porosity” of global limitations.
Examples of Flows:
1. 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.

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Living in the Modern World

2. Global financial crises. “In global financial system, national borders are porous.” This
means that financial crisis in a given country can bring ramifications to other regions
of the world. An example of which is the spread of the effects of American financial
crisis on Europe in 2008.

Kinds of Flows that can be observed today:

1. Poor illegal migrants flooding many parts of the world.
2. The virtual flow of legal and illegal information such as blogs and child pornography.
3. Migrants recreating ethnic enclaves in host countries.

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because
we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

Learning Activities

A. Discuss
1. What do you think is the importance of defining globalization?

2. Do you agree with the idea that the contemporary world is characterized by high liquidity?
Why or why not?

B. Activity
We discussed the different definitions of globalization. In this global age that we live in,
globalization gained various views from many authors and scholars. In turn, these diverse
definitions can affect how one can appreciate globalization as a process. Furthermore, we
analyzed globalization through conceptual metaphors such as solids, liquids, and flows.

In this activity, you see the actual application of globalization on the different aspects of
Daily life such as politics, music, sports, film, celebrity, and disaster.

1. In your group, enumerate at least three of the most recent songs you have listened.
Sing/ perform them in class, then identify the nationality of the writer and/or artist for each
music.
2. How did you access to these music? Did you purchase them online or listen to them
online or listen to them through or listen to them through YouTube, Spotify, and other music
channels?
3. Using a visual representation, make a generalization of the advantages of globalization

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Living in the Modern World

in our modern times.

GLOBALIZATION THEORIES

Homogeinity refers to the increasing sameness in the world as cultural inputs, economic factors,
and political orientations of societies expand to create common practices, same economies, and similar
forms of government. Homogeinity in culture is often linked to cultural imperialism. This means, a given
culture influences other cultures.
Global economic crises are also products of homogeneity in economic globalization. Stiglitz
(2002), for instance, blamed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its “one-size-fits all” approach
which treats every country in the world as the same. In the end, rich countries become advantageous in
the world economy at the expense of poor countries, which leads to increased inequality among
nations. The political realm also suffers homogenization if one takes into account the emerging similar
models of governance in the world. Barbers (1995) said that “McWorld” is existing. It means only one
political orientation is growing in today’s society.
The global flow of media is often characterized as media imperialism. TV, music, book, and
Movies are perceived as imposed on developing countries by the West (Cowen, 2002). Media
imperialism undermines the existence of alternative global media originating from developing countries,
such as the Al Jazeera (Bielsa, 2008) and the Bollywood (Larkin, 2003), as well as the influence
Of the local and regional media. The Internet can be seen as an arena for alternative media. Cultural
imperialism denies the agency of viewers, but people around the world often interpret the same
medium (e.g., a movie) in significantly different ways. Global media are dominated by a small number of
large corporations. As McChesney (1999) put it, this is being “extended from old media to new media”
such as Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Apple’s iTunes. As a result, in the long run, the
internet could end by being less diverse and competitive.
Ritzer (2008) claimed that, in general, the contemporary world is underdoing the process of
McDonaldization. It is the process by which Western societies are dominated by the principles of fast
food restaurants. McDonaldization involves the global spread of rational systems such as efficiency,
calculability, predictability, and control. Ritzer also pointed out that this process is “extended to the
businesses, sectors, and geographic areas.
Globalization, in contrast to glocalization, is a process wherein nations, corporations, etc.
impose themselves on geographic areas in order to gain profits, and so on. Ritzer (2007) also espoused
the idea that globalization can also be seen as a flow of “nothing” as opposed to “something,” involving
the spread of non-places, non-things, non-people, and non-services.
On the other, heterogeneity pertains to the creation of various cultural practices, new
economies, and political groups because the interaction of elements from difference societies in the
world. Heterogeneity refers to the differences because of either lasting differences or of the hybrids or
combinations of cultures that can be produced through the different trans planetary processes.

“Think globally, act locally, think tribally, act universally.” – John Naisbitt

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Dynamics of Local and Global Culture

Global flows of culture tend to move more easily around the global than ever before, especially
through non-material digital forms. There are three perspectives on global cultural flows. These are
differentialism, hybridization, and convergence.

Cultural differentialism 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.”
The cultural hybridization approach emphasizes the integration of local and global cultures
(Cvetkovich and Kellner, 1997). Globalization is considered to be a creative process which give rise to
hybrid entities that are not reducible to either the global or the local. A key concept is “glocalization
and” or the interpretation of the global and local resulting in unique outcomes in different geographic
areas. Another key concept is Arjun Apparudai’s “scapes” in 1996, where global flows involve people,
and media, and the disjunctures between them, which lead to the creation of cultural hybrids.
The cultural convergence approach stresses homogeneity 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. One important critique of
cultural imperialism is John Tomlinson’s idea of “deterritorialization” of culture. Deterritorialization
means that is much more difficult to tie culture to a specific geographic point of origin.

The Globalization of Religion

Globalization has played a tremendous role in providing a context for the current revival and the
resurgence of religion. Today, most religions are not relegated to the countries where they began.
Religions have, in fact, spread and scattered on a global scale. Globalization provided religions a fertile
milieu to spread and thrive. As Scholte (2005) made clear: “Accelerated globalization of recent times has
enabled co-religionists across the planet to have
greater direct contact with one another. Global communications, global organizations, global finance,
and the like have allowed ideas of the Muslims and the universal Christian church to be given concrete
shape as never before.
Information technologies, transportations means, and the media are deemed important means
on which religionists rely on the dissemination of their religious ideas. In this respect, a lot of television
channels, radio stations, and print media are founded solely for advocating religions. Modern
transportation has also contributed considerably to the emergence, revivalism, and fortification of
religion. Modern technology, therefore, has helped religions of different forms, such as fundamentalist,
orthodox, or modernist to cross geographical boundaries and be present everywhere.

As Turner (2007) explained:

Globalization transforms the generic “religion” into a world system-system of competing and
conflicting religions. This process of institutional specialization has transformed local, diverse
and fragmented cultural practices into recognizable systems of religion. Globalization has,
therefore, had the paradoxical effect of making religions more self-conscious of themselves
as being “world religions.”

Process Questions

1. Discuss about “one world religion.” Its possibility or non-possibility of being created.
2. Can religions be hybridized or homogenized? Discuss.
3. What is “ecumenism?” How is it similar or different to “one world religion order”?

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