1. Globalization as Cultural Process
1.1. The centrality of culture to contemporary debates on globalization.
1.1.1. ‘Globalization lies at the heart of modern culture; cultural practices lie at the heart of globalization.’ The thematic landscape traversed by scholars of cultural globalization is vast, and the questions they raise are too numerous to be completely fleshed out in this short survey.
1.1.2. Central questions
1.1.2.1. Does globalization increase cultural homogeneity, or does it lead to greater diversity and heterogeneity? Or, to put the matter into less academic terms, does globalization make people more alike or more different?
1.1.2.1.1. Defines cultural globalization as a ‘densely growing network of complex cultural interconnections and inter- dependencies that characterize modern social life’. He emphasizes that global cultural flows are directed by powerful international media corporations that utilize new communication technologies to shape societies and identities.
1.1.2.2. How does the dominant culture of consumerism impact the natural environment?
1.1.2.2.1. As well as obvious social and economic problems, consumerism is destroying our environment. As the demand for goods increases, the need to produce these goods also increases. This leads to more pollutant emissions, increased land-use and deforestation, and accelerated climate change [
2. Sceptics
2.1. Economic globalization
2.1.1. World economy is not a truly global phenomenon, but one centered on Europe, eastern Asia, and North America.
2.1.2. The majority of economic activity around the world still remains primarily national in origin and scope. Presenting recent data on trade, foreign direct investment, and financial flows, the authors warn against drawing global conclusions from increased levels of economic interaction in advanced industrial countries.
2.1.3. Exaggerated accounts of an iron logic of economic globalization’ tend to produce disempowering political effects.
2.2. Problems with the Hirst–Thompson thesis.
2.2.1. overly high standards for the economy in order to be counted as ‘fully globalized’.
2.2.2. Most serious short-coming of the Hirst–Thompson thesis lies in its attempt to counteract neo-liberal economic determinism with a good dose of Marxist economic determinism.
2.2.3. It would therefore be entirely possible to argue for the significance of globalization even if it can be shown that increased transnational economic activity appears to be limited to advanced industrial countries.
3. Modifiers
3.1. Robert Gilpin
3.1.1. The world economy in the late 1990s appeared to be even less integrated in a number of important respects than it was prior to the outbreak of World War I.
3.1.1.1. 2 factors that support his position
3.1.1.1.1. Globalization of labour was actually much greater prior to World War
3.1.1.1.2. International migration declined considerably after 1918.
3.2. World System theory
3.2.1. Immanuel Wallerstein (1979) and Andre Gunder Frank (1998),. World-system theorists argue that the modern capitalist economy in which we live today has been global since its inception five centuries ago
3.2.2. For a Gramscian neo-Marxist perspective, see Rupert and Smith (2002). World-system theorists reject, therefore, the use of the term ‘globalization’ as referring exclusively to relatively recent phenomena. Instead, they emphasize that globalizing tendencies have been proceeding along the continuum of modernization for a long time.
3.2.3. More recent studies produced by world-system scholars (Amin, 1996; Carroll et al., 1996; Robinson, 2004) acknowledge that the pace of globalization has significantly quickened in the last few decades of the twentieth century.
4. Globalization as Economic Process
4.1. How the evolution of international markets and corporations led to an intensified form of global interdependence.
4.1.1. Economic accounts of globalization convey the notion that the essence of the phenomenon involves ‘the increasing linkage of national economies through trade, financial flows, and foreign direct investment by multinational firms.
4.1.2. Thus expanding economic activity is identified as both the primary aspect of globalization and the engine behind its rapid development.
5. Globalization as ‘Globaloney’
5.1. Three broad categories
5.1.1. First group dispute the usefulness of globalization as a sufficiently precise analytical concept.
5.1.2. Second group point to the limited nature of globalizing processes, emphasizing that the world is not nearly as integrated as many globalization proponents believe.
5.1.3. Third group of critics disputes the novelty of the process while acknowledging the existence of moderate globalizing tendencies.
6. Rejectionists
6.1. Scholars arguments
6.1.1. Craig Calhoun
6.1.1.1. Nationalism and its corollary terms have proved notoriously hard concepts to define because ‘nationalisms are extremely varied phenomena and any definition will legitimate some claims and delegitimate others.
6.1.2. Robert Holton's
6.1.2.1. Abandon all general theoretical analyses in favor of middle-range approaches that seek to provide specific explanations of particulars.
6.1.3. Susan Strange
6.1.3.1. Globalization a prime example of such a vacuous term, suggesting that it has been used in academic discourse to refer to anything from the Internet to a hamburger.
6.1.4. Clark and Linda Weiss
6.1.4.1. A big idea resting on slim foundations’.
6.2. Improvement point in two different directions.
6.2.1. The first is to challenge the academic community to provide additional examples of how the term ‘globalization’ obscures more than it enlightens.
6.2.2. The second avenue for improvement involves my own suggestion to complement the social-scientific enterprise of exploring globalization as an objective process with more interpretive studies of the ideological project of globalism.
7. Globalization as Political Process
7.1. System
7.1.1. National Government
7.1.2. Govermental
7.1.3. Intergovernmental Organization
7.2. Technology
7.2.1. Steady advances in computer technology and communication systems such as the World Wide Web are seen as the primary forces responsible for the creation of a single global market.
7.2.2. ‘Globalization has happened because technological advances have broken down many physical barriers to worldwide communication which used to limit how much connected or cooperative activity of any kind could happen over long distances.