Globalization: A Contested Concept

GLOBALIZATIO

N
A CONTESTED
CONCEPT
GLOBALIZATION
◈ Earliest appearance of the term
‘globalization’ in the English language
can be traced back to the 1940s
MANY PEOPLE STILL
HAVE TROUBLE
◈ ‘globalization’ exploded into the ‘Roaring
Nineties’ RECOGNIZING
◈ Twenty years later, one can track millions
of references to globalization in both
GLOBALIZATION FOR
virtual and printed space.
WHAT IT IS:
The myriad forms of connectivity and
◈ appeared as the spectre of
flows linking the local (and national) to
‘Americanization’ haunting the rest of the the global—as well as the west to the
world east, and the north to the south.

2
THE GLOBAL-LOCAL
NEXUS
GLOCALIZATION

◈ The global-local dynamics are rather

obvious here: national teams playing in
South African stadiums in front of a
mixture of local and global spectators as
well as virtual global audiences watching
the games on TVs and other digital
devices.
◈ The official World Cup match-ball, too,

represents an impressive example of the
glocal dynamics constituting globalization. 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP:
SOUTH AFRICA
3
Supplied by Adidas, a
gigantic TNC headquartered Using a latex bladder
in Germany made in India and a
thermoplastic rubber
The football was given the produced in Taiwan.
name ‘Jabulani’ which means
‘celebrate’ in the Zulu(Africa)
These plastics, in turn,
language
were generated from
petroleum imported
Manufactured in China from the Middle East
and Norway,
and carried on mostly

South Korean built
ships.
Globalization cannot be confined to macro-dynamics

isolated from concrete settings but as complex
connections and flows linking the global to the local
and vice versa. 4
TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF
GLOBALIZATION
◈ ‘Globalization’ has been variously
used in both the popular press and
academic literature to describe a
process, a condition, a system, a
force, and an age.
CIRCULAR
DEFINITIONS
◈ The often repeated truism that THAT EXPLAIN
globalization (the process) leads to LITTLE
more globalization (the condition)
does not allow us to draw
meaningful analytical distinctions
between causes and effects.
5
TERMS TO BE ADOPTED…
GLOBALI GLOBAL
TY IMAGINARY
Used to signify a social condition It is a concept referring to
characterized by tight global economic, people’s growing
political, cultural, and environmental consciousness of global
interconnections and flows that make connectivity
most of the currently existing borders
and boundaries irrelevant. The thickening of the global
consciousness destabilizes
and unsettles the
conventional nation-state
within which people imagine
their communal existence.
6
GLOBALI GLOBAL
TY • IMAGINARY
Globalization constitutes a
• The term globalization applies to a set of social processes
set of social processes that appear to enveloped by the rising global
transform our present social imaginary that propel us
condition of conventional towards the condition of
nationality into one of globality. globality may eliminate the
danger of circular
• Different social manifestations of definitions
globality: based primarily on values
of individualism, competition, and • But it gives us only one
laissez-faire capitalism, while defining characteristic of the
another might draw on more process: movement towards
communal and cooperative norms more intense forms of
connectivity and
integration
THE GLOBALIZATION SCHOLARS AND
THE ELEPHANT
• Globalization is an uneven process,
meaning that people living in various parts
of the world are affected very differently.
NM
T IRO
• The ancient Buddhist parable of the RELIGION
ID
EN NV
blind scholars and their encounter with
EO
E
E
LO
the elephant which they did not know what
TUR
GY
ECONOMI
POL L
it looked like, they resolved to obtain a ITIC CU
mental picture, and thus the knowledge S
they desired, by touching the animal.
CS
• Many global studies experts argue that
economic processes lie at the core of
globalization and Others privilege
political, cultural, or ideological
aspects, and even environmental 8
processes
INFLUENTIAL DEFINITIONS OF
GLOBALIZATION
Globalization can thus be Globalization may be thought Globalization as a concept
defined as the intensification of as a process (or set of refers both to the compression
of worldwide social relations processes) which embodies a of the world and the
which link distant localities in transformation in the spatial intensification of
such a way that local organization of social consciousness of the world as
happenings are shaped by relations and transactions— a whole.
events occurring many miles assessed in terms of their
away and vice versa. extensity, intensity, velocity (Roland Robertson, Emeritus
Professor of Sociology, University
and impact-generating
of
(Anthony Giddens, Former Director transcontinental or Aberdeen, Scotland)
of the London School of interregional flows and
Economics) networks of activity,
interaction, and the exercise of
power.
(David Held, Professor of Politics and 9
International
Relations, Durham University)
“
But such a general definition of globalization
tells us little about its remaining qualities. In
order to overcome this deficiency, it behoves us
to identify additional qualities that make
globalization different from other sets of social
processes.
10
FOUR QUALITIES AT THE CORE OF
GLOBALIZATION
1 3
involves both the creation of new involves the intensification and
social networks and the multiplication acceleration of social exchanges and
of existing connections that cut across activities
traditional political, economic, e.g. World Wide Web, Facebook, Twitter
cultural, and geographical boundaries
e.g. conventional TV coverage
2 4
do not occur merely on an objective,
reflected in the expansion and the material level but they also involve
stretching of social relations, the subjective plane of human
activities, and connections consciousness
e.g. identical shopping malls
11
VERY SHORT DEFINITION OF GLOBALIZATION:
GLOBALIZATI
ON
Globalization refers to the expansion and intensification of social relations
and consciousness across world-time and world-space.
12

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GLOBALIZATIO

◈ The global-local dynamics are rather

◈ The official World Cup match-ball, too,

and carried on mostly

Globalization cannot be confined to macro-dynamics

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