Defining Globalization

Prepared by:
Rowena N. Gopez, LPT
Defining Globalization
• Much has changed during time immemorial. Human being have encountered
many changes over the last century especially in their social relationships and
social structures of these changes, one can say that globalization is a very
important change, if not “the most important “
(Bauman, 2003)
• It cannot be contained within specific time frame , all people and all situations.
(Al Rhodan, 2006)
• “Globalization is the process of world shrinkage, of distances getting shorter
things moving closer. It pertains to increasing ease with which somebody on one
side of the world internet, to mutual benefit with somebody on the other side of
the world” (p. 9)
(Thomas Larson, 2001)
Defining Globalization

• On the other hand some see it as occurring through with regression,

colonialism, and destabilization. In the mid 1990’s, Martin Knor the former
president of Third World network (TWN) in Malaysia, once regarded
globalization as colonization.
• The task of conceptualizing it reveals a variety of perspectives.
• To understand further the concepts different metaphor will be used.
These metaphors will allow an appreciation of earlier epoch before
globalization and the present globalized world.
The task of Defining
Globalization

Since its first appearance in the Webster’s Dictionary in

1961, many opinions about globalization have
flourished.
Globalization in Literature

Definitions could be classified as either

1. Broad and inclusive
“globalization means the onset of borderless world..” (p. 14) Ohmae in 1992
stated
2. Narrow and exclusive
“The characteristics of global trend include The internationalizing the
production, the new international division of labor, new migratory
movements from South to North, the new competitive environment that
accelerates these processes and the internationalizing of the state… making
states into agencies of the globalizing world” (as cited in RAWOO
Netherland Development Assistance Research Council, 2000 p. 14)
Globalization

• The sheer number and complexity of definitions do not mean that

there is a remarkable improvement in every definition given by scholars.
• According to Kumar (2003), the debate about globalization and what it is
are similar. (This is in relation to what some academics have claimed about
defining globalization – it is a useless task.
Recent definition
Ritzer (2005) “globalization is a transplanetary 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…”
(p. 2)
“ If so why are we going to spend time studying
this concept? How can we appreciate these
definitions? How can these help us understand
globalization?
”
GLOBALIZATION
1. The perspective of a person who defines globalization shapes its
definition.
Ones definition and perspective could determine concrete steps in
addressing the issues of globalization. If one sees globalization as positive,
the person can say that it is a unifying force.
If it is deemed as creating greater inequalities amon g nations,
globalization is negatively treated.
2. According to Cesore Poppi: Globalization is the debate and the debate is
globalization. One become part and parcel of the other.
The meaning of concept is self evident in another it is vague and obscure
as it reaches are wide and constantly shifting.

3. Globalization is reality.
It is changing as human society develops. We should expect it to continue
to happen in the future. The future of globalization is more difficult to
predict.
“ Overall globalization is a concept that is not easy
to define because in reality, globalization has a
shifting nature. It is complex, multifaceted, and can
be influenced by the people who define it.
”
“
attitudes toward globalization depend among
other things, on whether one gains or loses from it.

The globalization of Nothing (Ritzer, 2003)

(p. 190)
”
The fact that we experience globalization should give one interest
of engaging in the study of it.
 Metaphors of Globalization

We utilize metaphors to make use of one term to help us

better understand another term
Metaphors of Globalization

Solid and Liquid

• The epoch that preceded today’s globalization paved way for

people, things, information, and places to harden over time.
Consequently they have limited mobility (Ritzer, 2015)

• The social relationships and objects remained where they were

created.
Solidity- barriers that prevent or make
difficult movement of the things

Solid can either be

1. Natural- Natural solids are landforms and bodies of water.

2. Man-made barriers include the Great Wall of China and Berlin
Wall.
3. Modern man-made solid- An imaginary line such as the nine-dash
line used by the People’s Republic of China is their claim to the
South China Sea
Liquid- as a state of matter, takes the shape of its container; not
fixed; refers to the increasing ease of movement of people, things,
information, and places in the contemporary world
Zygmunt Bauman’s ideas about characteristics of liquidity
1. Today’s liquid phenomena change quickly and their aspects, spatial,
and temporal, are in continuous fluctuation.
Example: In global finance, change in stock market are a matter of
seconds.

2. Their movement is difficult to stop.

Example Videos uploaded on Youtube or Facebook are unstoppable once
they become viral.

3. The forces (the liquid ones) made political boundaries more permeable
to the flow of people and things (Cartier 2001)
Example: The decline if not death of the nation-state.
Liquidity and solidity are in constant interaction.
However, liquidity is the increasing and
proliferating today.
• Therefore, the metaphor that could best describe the
globalization is liquidity.

• Liquids do flow and this idea of flow(Appadurai 1996; Rey and

Ritzer, 2010) will be the focus of the next discussion. The
literature in globalization makes use of the concept of flows.
Flows are the movement of people, things, places,
and information brought by the growing “porosity”
of global limitations (Ritzer, 2015)
• Aside from local dishes, many of us are fond of eating sushi,
ramen, hamburger, and french-fries.

• Another example of flows is global financial crises.”In global

financial system, national borders are porous”. (Landler)
Globalization Theories

• We will analyze globalization culturally, economically and

politically.

• It would be helpful to assert that the theories, see globalization as

a process that increases either homogeneity or heterogeneity.
Homogeneity

• It refer to 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.

• In culture, it is often linked to cultural imperialism. Given culture

influences other culture.
Examples of Homogeneity

1. Christianity in the Philippines brought by Spaniards

2. Americanization- the import by Non-Americans of products,
images, technologies, practices and behavior that are closely
associated with America/Americans (p. 96)
3. Global economic prices are also product of homogeneity in
economic globalization Stigilitz (2002), for instance blame the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its “one size fits all”
4. Barber (1995) said that McWorld is existing. It means only one
political orientation is growing in today’s societies.
• The global flow of media is often characterized as Media
imperialism. TV, music, books, and movies are perceived as
inposed on developing countries by the West (Owen 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.
• Ritzer (2008) claimed that, in general, the contemporary world is
undergoing the process of Mcdonaldization. It is the process by
which Western societies are dominated by the principle of
fastfood restaurants.
Grobalization vs Glocalization

Grobalization is a process wherein nations,

corporations, etc. impose themselves on
geographic areas in order to gain profits, power,
and so on (Ryan, 2007).Ritzer (2007) also espoused
the idea that globalization can also be seen as flow
of “nothing” as opposed to “something,” involving
the spread of non-places, non-things, non-people,
and non-services.
 Heterogeneity pertains to 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 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 in culture is
associated with cultural hybridization. A more specific concept is
“glocalization” coined by Roland Robertson in 1992. To him, as
global forces interact with local factors or a specific geographic
area , the “glocal” is being produced.
• Economic issues are not exempted from heterogeneity. The
commodification of cultures and “glocal” markets are examples of
differentiation happening in many economies around the world.
• The same goes with political institution. Barber (1995) also
provided the alternate of “McWorld”– the “Jihad.” As Ritzer
(2008) mentioned, it refers to political groups that are engaged in
an “intensification of nationalism and that leads to greater
political heterogeneity throughout the world” (p. 576)

• Although homogeneity and heterogeneity give us idea about the

effects of globalization, the picture is not yet complete. The
theories about globalization will be clarified as we look closer at
each of them in the succeeding chapters.
Dynamic of Local and Global Culture

• Global flows of culture tend to move more easily around the globe than
ever before, especially through non-material digital forms. There are
three perspectives on global cultural flows.
1. 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.” According to Huntington, after Cold War,
political economic differences were overshadowed by new fault lines,
which were primarily cultural in nature. This theory has been
critiqued for a number of reasons, especially on its portrayal of Muslim
as being “prone to violence.” (Huntington 1996)
Perspectives on Global Cultural flows

• 2. 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 global or the
local.
• Glocalization or the interpenetration of the global and local
resulting in unique outcomes in different geographic areas.
(Giulianotti and Robertson, 2007, p. 133). Arjun Appdurai’s
“scapes” in 1996, where global flows involve people, technology,
finance, political images, and media and the disjunctures between
them, which lead to the creation of cultural hybrids.
Perspectives on Global Cultural flows

3. The cultural convergence approach stresses homogeneity

introduced by globalization. Cultures are deemed to be radically
altered by strong flows, while cultural imperialism happen when
one culture imposes itself on and tends to destroys at least parts of
another culture.
Deterritorialization means that it is much more difficult to tie
culture to a specific geographic point of origin.
Globalization of Religion

• Globalization has played a tremendous role in a providing a context for

the current revival and resurgence of religion. Religions have in fact,
spread and scattered on global scale. Ad 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 Muslim and the universal Christian church
to be given concrete shape as never before” (p. 245).
• Information technologies, transportation means, and the media are
deemed important means on which religionist rely on the dissemination
of their religious ideas. For instance, countless websites that provide
information about religions have been created.
Globalization of Religion

• Media also play an important role in dissemination of religious ideas. In

this respect, a lot of television channels, radio stations, and print media
are founded solely for advocating religions. Modern technology,
therefore has helped religions of different forms, such as
fundamentalist, orthodox, or modernist to cross geographical boundaries
and be present everywhere.
• Globalization has also allowed religion or faith to gain considerable
significance and importance as non-territorial touchstone of identity.
Being a source of identity and pride, religion has always been promoted
by its practitioner so that it could reach the level of globality and be
embraced by as many people as possible.
Globalization of Religion

• As Turner (2007 explained):

Globalization transforms the generic “religion” into a world-
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.” (p. 146)
Globalization of Religion

• Such conflicts among the world religion exhibit a solid proof

confirming the erosion and the failure of hybridization.
Globalization makes religion more conscious of themselves as
being “world religions” reinforcing their respective specific
identities.
• Religions have distinct internal structures, their connections to
different cultures and their rituals and beliefs contradict.
Example: Islam and Christianity are mostly incompatible with each
other.
Globalization of Religion

• Religion seeks to assert its identity in the light of globalization. As a

result, different religious identities come to the fore and assert
themselves.
• It has been difficult for religion to cope with values that accompany
globalization like liberalism, consumerism, and rationalism. Such
phenomena advocate scientism and secularism. Scvholte equated
rationalism with globalization and considered religion anti-rationalist, it
can be deduced that religion is anti-globalization.
• We cannot consider religion as purely anti-rationalist since many
religious people reconcile reason and faith and make moderate trends
within religion.
Globalization of Religion

• Globalization is also associated with Westernization and

Americanization. The dominance exerted by two processes,
particularly on the less developed countries, makes religion-
related cultures and identities take defensive measures to protect
themselves.
• As Ehteshami (2007) pointed out, “Globalization is not only seen
as a rival of Islamic ways, but also an alien force divorced from
Muslim realities. Stressing the negative impact of the loose morals
of Western life is a daily feature of airwaves in the Middle East”
(p. 130).
Globalization of Religion

• The challenges of globalization to religion link automatically to

the challenges of religion to globalization. In other words, while
religion takes caution against the norms and the values related to
globalization, it challenges the latter since religion does not
approved also by Samuel Huntington’s clash of civilizations, which
maintains that such dehybridizing upshots spring loss from the
religious partitioning and clashes.
Globalization and Regionalization

• The processes of globalization and regionalization reemerged during the

1980’s and heightened after the end of the Cold War in the 1990’s. At
first, it seems that these two processes are contradicting – the very
nature of globalization is by definition global, while regionalization is
naturally regional.
• The regionalization of the world system and economic activity
undermines the potential benefits coming out from a liberalized global
economy. This is because regional organizations prefer regional partners
over the rest. Regional organizations responds to the states’ attempt to
reduce the perceived negative effects of globalization. Therefore,
regionalism is a sort of counter-globalization.
Globalization and Regionalization

• In 2007 survey, the Financial Times revealed that majority of Europeans

consider globalization brings negative effects to their societies (as cited
in Jacoby and Meunier, 2010). The threats of an “ungoverned
globalization” can be countered what Jacoby and Meunier called
Managed globalization; it refer to “all attempts to make globalization
more palatable to citizens” (p. 1).
• Regionalization in one part of the world encourages regionalization
elsewhere– whether by imitation, like the success of the European Single
Market, or by “defensive” reaction, such as Mercosur’s establishment as
response to the creation of NAFTA. According to this, regionalization and
the development of interregionalism would indeed be global in nature.
 Regional Development in one part of the world have
affected and fueled regionalization everywhere else in a
sort of contagion or domino effect.

• The argument concerning the relationship between regionalization and

globalization is perfectly summarized in this claim:
• The age of economic globalization has also been the age of
regionalization, and much of the analysis of the new regionalism has
been devoted to the links between the two tendencies. Thus,
regionalism is seen as critical part of the political economy of
globalization and strategies that states ( and other actors) have adopted
in the face of globalization… The emergence of regionalism needs to be
understood within the global restructuring of power and production. The
many worlds are very closely intertwined with the character and fate of
the one. The core driving force is global even if the manifestation is
regional. (Hurell, 2007, p. 4 )
Globalization and Regionalization

• Region, according to Mansfield and Milner (1999) is a group of

countries in the same geographically specified area.
• Hurell (2007) defined regionalization as the societal integration
and the often undirected process of social and economic
interaction. (p. 4).
• Regionalization is different from regionalism, which is “the formal
process of intergovernmental collaboration between two or more
states” Ravenhill, 2008, p. 174).
• One of the reason behind regionalism is the concern for the
security, which is to ensure peace and stability.
Globalization and Regionalization

• Huntington (1996), on the contrary, believed that culture and

identity guide regionalization. For him culture and identity are
civilizations. He identified nine major civilizations: Western, Latin
American, African, Islamic, Sinic, Hindu, Orthodox, Buddhist, and
Japanese. If we follow Huntington’s idea of the “ clash of
civilizations,” one could argue that the potential for such clash
can be strong in Asia because many of those civilizations are, at
the least, can be found in the region.
• Economic motivations are arguably the main motivation behind
the contemporary regionalization.
Origins and History of Globalization

• This book generally adheres to the perspective that the major points of
the beginnings of globalization started after the Second World War.
Nevertheless, it would mean no harm to look at the five different
perspectives regarding the origins of globalization.

• Hardwired
• According to Nayan Chanda (2007), it is because of our basic human
need to make our lives better that made globalization possible. The
beginning of globalization from our ancestors in Africa who walked
out from the said continent in the late Ice Age. This long journey
finally led them to all-known continent today, roughly after 50000
years.
 Chanda (2007) mentioned that commerce, religion, politics, and
warfare are the “urges” of people toward a better life. These are
respectively connected to four aspects of globalization and they can
be traced all throughout history ; trade, missionary work,
adventures and conquest.
• Cycles
For some, globalization is a long-term cyclical process and thus
finding its origin will be a daunting task. What is important is the
cycles that globalization has gone through (Scholte, 2005).
Subscribing to this view will suggest adherence to the idea that
other global ages have appeared. There is also the notion to
suspect that this point of globalization will soon disappear and
reappear.
Epoch

• Ritzer (2005) cited Therborn’s (2000) six great epoch of globalization.

These are also called “waves” and each has its own origin. Todays
globalization is not unique if this is the case. The difference of this view
from the second view (cycles) is that it does not treat epoch as
returning. The following are the sequential occurrence of the epochs:
1. Globalization of religion (fourth to seventh centuries)
2. European colonial conquests (late fifteenth century)
3. Intra-European wars (late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries)
4. Heyday of European imperialism (mid-nineteenth century to 1918)
5. Post-World War period
6. Post-Cold War period
Events

• Gibbon (1998), argued that Roman conquest centuries before

Christ were its origin. Christopher Columbus’s discovery of
America in 1942, Vasco de Gama in Cape of Good Hope in 1522.
• The recent years could also be regarded as the beginnings of
globalization with reference to specific technological advances in
transportation and communication. Example: 1st telephone cable
(1956)
• Certainly, with this view, more and more specific events will
characterize not just the origins of globalization but also more of
its history.
Broader, More Recent Changes

• Recent changes compromises the fifth view. It happened in the

last half of the twentieth century.
• Three notable changes as the origin of globalization that we know
today.
1. The emergence of the US as the global power (post-World War II)
2. The emergence of multinational corporations (MNCs)
3. The demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War
The emergence of the US as the global power
(post-World War II)

• Through its dominant military and economic power after World

War II, the US was able to outrun Germany and Japan in terms of
industry. Both axis powers and Allies fall behind economically as
compared to the global power. Because of this, the United States
soon began to progress in different aspects like in diplomacy,
media, film ( as in Hollywood ), and many more.
The emergence of multinational corporations
(MNCs)

• The US, Germany, and Great Britain had in their homeland great
corporations which the world knows today. However they did not
remain there as far as their production and market are concerned.

• For example, Ford and General Motors originated in US but in 20th

century, they exported more automobiles and opened factories to
other countries.
The demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the
Cold War

• The fall of Soviet Union in 1991 that led to opening of the major
parts of the world for the first time since the early twentieth
century. Many Global processes –immigration, tourism, media,
diplomacy, and MNCs – spread throughout the planet. This paved
way for the so-called “free” world. China, even though the
government remains communist, is on its way to becoming a major
force in global capitalism (Fishman, 2006). China is also
globalizing in terms of other aspects such as their hosting of the
Olympics in 2008.
Global Demography
• The nuances of the movements of people around the world can be
seen through the categories of migrants – “vagabonds” and
“tourists” (Bauman, 1998). Vagabonds are on the move “ because
they have to be” (Ritzer, 2015,p. 179) they are not fairing well in
their home countries and are forced to move in the hope that
their circumstances will improve. Tourists. On the other hand, are
on the move because they want to be and because they can afford
it.
• Refugees are vagabonds forced to flee their home countries due
to safety concerns (Haddad, 2003). Asylum seekers are refugees
who seek to remain in the country to which flee. According to
Kritz (2008), those who migrate to find work are involved in
migration labor.
Labor Migration

• It mainly involves the flow of less-skilled and unskilled workers, as

well as illegal immigrants who live on the margins of the host
society (Landler, 2007).
• Migration is traditionally governed either by “push” factors such as
political persecution, economic depression, war, and famine in the
home country or by “pull” factors such as a favorable immigration
policy, a labor shortage, and a similarity of language and culture
in the country of destination (Ritzer, 2015). Global factors, which
facilitate easy access to information about the country of
destination, also exert a significant influence.
Labor Migration

• Many countries face issues of illegal migration. The US faces a

major influx of illegal immigrants from Mexico and other Central
American states (Thompson, 2008). A fence is being constructed
on the US-Mexico border to control this flow of people (Fletcher
and Weisman, 2006). However, its efficacy is questioned and it is
thought that it will only lead illegal immigration to adapt
dangerous method to gain entry. In addition tighter borders have
also had the effect of “locking in “ people who might otherwise
have left the country (Fears, 2006). Other countries with similar
concerns abouv illegal immigration include Great Britain,
Switzerland , and Greece as well as countries.
Global Migration

• According to Malkin (2007), the Philippines is one leaders when I comes

to the flow of remittances (14.7 billion dollars), next to India (24.5
billion dollars) and China (21.1 billion).

• The term “diaspora” has been increasingly used to describe migrant

communities. Of particular interest is Paul Gilroy’s (1993)
conceptualization of the diaspora as transnational process, which
involves dialogue to both imagined and real locales. Diasporization and
globalization are closely interconnected and the expansion of the latter
will lead to an increase in the former (Dufoix, 2007). Today, there exists
“virtual diasporas” (Laguerre, 2002) which utilize technology such as the
internet to maintain the community network.