Republic of the Philippines

Surigao del Sur State University

Rosario, Tandag City, Surigao del Sur 8300
Telefax No. 086-214-4221
Website: [Link]
 Chapter 1: DEFINING GLOBALIZATION

 Introduction to Globalization
 Defining Globalization
 Advantages and Disadvantages of Globalization
 Metaphors of Globalization
 Globalization Theories
 Dynamics of Local and Global Culture
 The Globalization of Religion
 Globalization and Regionalization
 Origins and History of Globalization
- Hardwired
- Cycles
- Epoch
- Events
- Broader, More Recent Changes
 Global Demography
 Global Migration
Much has changed since time immemorial. Human beings have encountered many
changes over the last century especially in their social relationships and social
structure.

The reality and omnipresence of globalization makes us see ourselves as part of what we refer
to as the “global age” (Albrow, 1996)

The Internet, for example, allows a person from the Philippines to know what is happening to
the rest of the world simply by browsing Google. The mass media also allows for connections
among people, communities, and countries all over the globe.

Swedish journalist Thomas Larsson (2001) saw globalization as “the process of world shrinkage,
of distances getting shorter, things moving closer. It pertains to the increasing ease with which
somebody on one side of the world can interact, to mutual benefit with somebody on the
other side of the world”.

DEFINING GLOBALIZATION

Globalization – is the growing interdependence of the world’s economies,

cultures, and populations, brought about by cross-border trade in goods and
services, technology, and flows of investment, people, information, and ideas.

The literature on the definitions of globalization revealed that definitions could be

classified as:
 Broad & Inclusive
 Narrow & Exclusive Broad & Inclusive
The one offered by Ohmae in 1992 stated, “…globalization means the onset of the borderless
world…” – (Ohmae, 1992). This is an example of a broad and inclusive type of definition.

If one uses such, it can include a variety of issues that deal with overcoming traditional
boundaries. However, it does not shed light on the implications of globalization due to its
vagueness.

Narrow & Exclusive

“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 accelerated these processes, and the internationalizing of the
state… making states into agencies of the globalizing world” (as cited in RAWOO Netherlands
Development Assistance Research Council, 2000, p. 14)

Narrow and exclusive definitions are better justified but can be limiting, in the sense that their
application adhere to only particular definitions.
 More recent definition
“Globalization is a transplanetary process or a set of processes involving increasing liquidity and
growing multidirectional flows of people, objects, places, and information as well as the
structures they encounter and create that are barriers to, expedite, those flows…” (Ritzer, 2005)

This definition assumes that globalization could bring either or both integration and/or
fragmentation. Although things flow easily in a global world, hindrances or structural blocks are
also present. These blocks could slow down one’s activity in another country or could even limit
the places a person can visit.

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?

THE PERSPPECTIVE OF THE PERSON WHO DEFINES GLOBALIZATION SHAPES ITS

DEFINITION. The overview of definitions implies that globalization is many things
to many different people. For example, if one sees globalization as positive, the
person can say that it is a unifying force. On the other hand, if it is deemed as creating
greater inequalities among nations, globalization is negatively treated.

GLOBALIZATION IS THE DEBATE AND THE DEBATE IS GLOBALIZATION. One

became part and parcel of the other. As Poppi (1997) wrote: “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 itself 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” (as cited in Kumar,
2003, p.95).

GLOBALIZATION IS A 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. What we could expect in the coming years is what has happened over the
past 50 years and that is the fluidity and complexity of globalization as a concept,
which made more debates, discussions, and definitions that agreements on it.

Key Points

Over the course of the next few weeks we are going to be exploring how we are
connected to each other all over the world. The ways that we are connected to the
people who make our products (in China, Taiwan, etc.) is NOT NEW. The reality is that
the world has been connected for a long time.
 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF GLOBALIZATION

Advantages of Globalization
 It improves access to technology, media, education,
consumer goods, and other resources.
 It would help the developing world progress faster
 It could create more employment opportunities.
 It increases the quality of goods and services.
 It attracts foreign capital as well as foreign updated
technology, improving the quality of production.
 It enables greater case and speed of transportation for
goods and people.
 It allows international trade
 It creates political and economic union.

Disadvantages of Globalization
 It benefits the wealthy more than the poor.
 It would encourage disease transfer
Rapid spread of deadly diseases
 It could reduce social safety.
 It negatively affect the environment (Environmental
degradation)
 Results in more imports than exports resulting in growing
trade deficit and balance of payment issue.
 The mix of cultures can lead to racism, xenophobia,
intolerance and loss of national identity.
 Increase in the chances of Civil war within developing
countries and open war between developing countries
as they vie for resources.
 METAPHORS OF GLOBALIZATION

The epochs that preceded today’s globalization paved way for people,
things, information, and places to harden over time. Consequently, they have limited
mobility. The social relationships and objects remained where they are created.

In order for us to better understand the concept of globalization, we will utilize

metaphors. Metaphors make use of one term to help us better understand another
term.

SOLID AND LIQUID

SOLID –
Solidity
 The characteristic of being limited to one place
 It also refers to the persistence of barriers that prevented the free flows.
 Refers to the barriers that prevent or make the movement of things difficult.
 Natural –
ex. Landforms, bodies of water

 Man-made – ex. Great Wall of China, Berlin Wall, Government Rules,

 ex. 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.
This creates limited access of Filipino fishers to the South China Sea.

Obviously, these examples still exist. However, they have the tendency to melt.
This should not be taken literally, like an iceberg melting. Instead, this process involves
how we can describe what is happening in today’s global world. It is becoming
increasingly liquid.

LIQUID –
As a state of matter, liquid takes the shape of its container. Moreover, liquids
are not fixed.

Liquidity
 Refers to the increasing ease of movement of people, things, information, and
places in the contemporary world.
 Difficult to stop. Ex. Videos uploaded on YouTube or Facebook are
unstoppable once they become viral.
Zygmunt Bauman’s ideas were the ones that have much to say about the
characteristics of liquidity. First, today’s liquid phenomena change quickly and their
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.
Another characteristic of liquid phenomena is that their movement is difficult to stop.
The so-called Internet sensations become famous not only in their homeland but also
to the entire world. Finally, the forces (the liquid ones) made political boundaries
more permeable to the flow of people and things.

Important characteristic of Liquid

It “tends to melt whatever stands in its path (especially solid).”
The clearest example is the decline, if not death, of the nation-state.

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

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

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. Clearly, foods are being
globalized.

Another example of flows is global financial crises. As Landler (2008, p. C1) put it: “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. An example
of which is the spread of the effects of American financial crisis on Europe in 2008.
The following are other kinds of flows that can be observed today: poor illegal
migrants flooding many parts of the world, the virtual flow of legal and illegal
information such as blogs and child pornography, respectively, and immigrants
recreating ethnic enclaves in host countries. A concrete example is the Filipino
communities abroad and the Chinese communities in the Philippines.
 GLOBALIZATION THEORIES

It would be helpful to assert that the theories see globalization as a process that
increases either homogeneity or heterogeneity.

HOMOGENEITY – 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.

Homogeneity in culture is often linked to cultural imperialism. This means, a

given culture influences other cultures.
Examples:
 The dominant religion in our country is Christianity, which was brought to us by
the Spaniards.
 Americanization, which was defined by Kuisel (1993) as “the import by non-
Americans of products, images, technologies, practices, and behavior that
are closely associated with America/Americans”

In terms of the economy, there is recognition of the spread of neoliberalism,

capitalism, and the market economy in the world (Antonio, 2007). Global economic
crises are also products of homogeneity in economic globalization.

In political realm, also suffers homogenization if one takes into account the
emerging similar models of governance in the world. Barber (1995) said that
“McWorld” is existing. It means only one political orientation is growing in today’s
societies.
McWorld is a term referring to the spreading of McDonald's restaurants throughout the
world as the result of globalization.

The global flow of media is often characterized as media imperialism. Media

imperialism is a theory based upon an over-concentration of mass media from larger
nations as a significant variable in negatively affecting smaller nations, in which the
national identity of smaller nations is lessened or lost due to media homogeneity
inherent in mass media from the larger countries.

For Ritzer, McDonaldization is the process by which a society takes on the

characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. The process of McDonaldization can be
summarized as the way in which "the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming
to dominate more and more sectors of recent idea about the
worldwide homogenization of cultures due to globalization.
HETEROGENEITY
– pertains to the 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 the 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.

Cultural hybridization - The process by which a cultural element blends into

another culture by modifying the element to fit cultural norms. Hybridization,
however, is not merely the mixing, blending and synthesizing of different elements
that ultimately forms a culturally faceless whole. In the course of hybridization, cultures
often generate new forms and make new connections with one another.

Examples of Cultural Hybridization

 Creole languages, a new language developed from simplifying and blending
different languages that come into contact within particular population, at a specific
point in time. For example, Louisiana Creole which is a combination of African, French,
and English languages.
 Global restaurant chains like Kentucky Fried Chicken or McDonald’s (KFC), modifying
their menus to suit the tastes or mores of different cultures. For example, in India, due
to religious restrictions on eating beef, the Maharaja Mac is a McDonald’s Big
Mac made with a chicken or veggie patty.
 Martial arts films in the United States that adapt traditional Asian cultural elements to
fit the tastes of the viewing public.
 Techno, a type of electronic dance music, began in Detroit in the 1980s and made its
way around the world, from German Techno to Melbourne Bounce.

Glocalization (coined by Roland Robertson in 1992)

 Glocalization is a combination of the words "globalization" and "localization."
The term is used to describe a product or service that is developed and
distributed globally but is also adjusted to accommodate the user or consumer
in a local market.
 The process can be expensive and resource-intensive, but it often pays off for
companies that practice it.
 Often, glocalization campaigns involve culturally friendly media and ad
campaigns to encourage the acceptance of foreign products among a local
audience.
 DYNAMICS OF LOCAL AND GLOBAL CULTURE

3 PERSPECTIVES ON GLOBAL CULTURAL FLOWS

 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.”
– involves barriers that prevent flows that serve to make cultures more alike –
so cultures remain stubbornly different from one another

According to Huntington, after the Cold War, political-economic differences

were overshadowed by new fault lines, which were primarily cultural in nature.
Increasing interaction among different “civilizations” (such as the Sinic, Islamic,
Orthodox, and Western) would lead to intense clashes, especially the
economic conflict between the Western and Sinic civilizations (Huntington,
2004).

This theory has been critiqued for a number of reason, especially on its
portrayal of Muslims as being “prone to violence” (Huntington, 1996).

 Cultural Hybridization – this approach emphasizes the integration of local and

global cultures (Cvetkovich and Kellner, 1997). Globalization is considered to
be a creative process which gives rise to hybrid entities that are not reducible
to either the global or the local. A key concept is “glocalization” or the
interpretation of the global and the local resulting in unique outcomes in
different geographic areas. Another key concept is Arjun Appadurai’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.

 Cultural Convergence – this 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 it 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 scatter on a global
scale. Globalization provided religions a fertile milieu to spread and thrive.

“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
universal Christian church to be given concrete shape as never before” –Scholte (2005)

Information technologies, transportation means, and the media are deemed

important means on which on which religionists rely on the dissemination of their
religious ideas. For instance, countless websites that provide information about
religions have been created. This makes pieces of information and explanations
about different religions ready at the disposal of any person regardless of his or her
geographical location. In addition, the internet allows people to contact each other
worldwide and therefore hold forums and debates that allow religious ideas to
spread.

Furthermore, media also play an important role in the dissemination of 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.

Turner (2007) cited the case of Islamic revivalism in Asia which “is related to the
improvement in transportation that has allowed many Muslims to travel to Mecca, and
turn with reformist idea”.

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 a non-territorial touchstone of identity. Being a source of identity and
pride, religion has always been promoted by its practitioners so that it could reach
the level of globality and be embraced by as many people as possible. Muslims, for
instance, aspire to establish the Islamic Ummah, a community of believers. By paving
the way for religions to come in contact with each other and providing a context for
their flourishing and thriving, globalization has brought such religions to a circle of
competition and conflict.
 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)

Such conflicts among the world religions exhibit a solid proof confirming the erosion
and the failure of hybridization. Globalization, as stated in the above excerpt, makes
religions more conscious of themselves as being “world religions” reinforcing their
respective specific identities. These identities are strengthened by globalization and
cannot, in any way, intermingle or hybridize. Since religions have distinct internal
structures, their connections to different cultures and their rituals and beliefs
contradict. For instance, Islam and Christianity are mostly incompatible with each
other. These religions cannot be hybridized or homogenized even if they often come
in contact.

Though religion is strengthened and fortified by globalization, it represents a

challenge to globalization’s hybridizing effects. Religion seek to assert its identity in
the light of globalization. As a result. Different religious identities come to the fore and
asset themselves. Such assertions of religious identities constitute a defensive reaction
to globalization. Such constitute a defensive reaction to globalization.

Scholte (2005), in this respect, maintained, “At the same time as being pursued through
global channels, assertions of religious identity have, like nationalist strivings, often also
been partly a defensive reaction to globalization” (p.245)

It has been difficult for religion to cope with values that accompany globalization like
liberalism, consumerism, and rationalism. Such phenomena advocate scientism and
secularism. This, in fact, pushed Scholte to speak of the anti-rationalist faiths. Since he
equated rationalism with globalization and considered religion anti-rationalist, it can
be deduced that religion is anti-globalization.

To quote Scholte (2005):

Transplanetary relations have helped to stimulate and sustain some renewals of anti-
rationalist faith, but global networks have more usually promoted activities involving
rationalist knowledge. Contemporary revivalist movements have largely replayed a long-
term tendency – one that well predates contemporary accelerated globalization –
whereby certain religious circles have from time to time revolted against modern
secularism and scientism. (p.261)
On the other hand, it can be said that the anti-rationalist qualities ascribed to religion
can be the characteristics of fundamentalist and extremist forms of religion. We
cannot consider religion as purely anti-rationalist since many religious people
reconcile reason and faith and make moderate trends within their religions.
Nevertheless, globalization’s strict rationalism manifested in such phenomena as
liberalism and secularism can be incompatible with the norms and the values of
certain religions.

Globalization is also associated with Westernization and Americanization. The

dominance exerted by these two processes, particularly on the less developed
countries, makes religion-related cultures and identities take defensive measures to
protect themselves. Sometimes, extreme forms of resisting other cultural influence are
being done, such as that of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

As Ehteshami (2007) pointed out:

“Globalization is not only seen as a rival of Islamic ways, but also as 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). The imperialist
aspirations of globalization and its incompatibility with Islam make globalization
completely alien to the Muslim realities. Since globalization is cultural construct at its core
and its meaning is the Western discourse, “promoting and engaging with it on the part
of Muslims is like accepting and promoting Western cultural values and their dominance.

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
approve it hybridizing effects. The idea of de-hybridizing effects of religion is
approved also by Samuel Huntington’s clash of civilizations, which maintains that
such dehybridizing upshots spring also from the religious partitioning and clashes.
 GLOBALIZATION AND REGIONALIZATION

The regionalization of the world system and economic activities undermines the
potential benefits coming out from a liberalized global economy. This is because
regional organizations prefer regional partners over the rest. Regional organizations
respond to the states’ attempt to reduce the perceived negative effects of
globalization. Therefore, regionalism is a sort of counter-globalization.

In a 2007 survey, the Financial Times revealed that majority of Europeans consider
that globalization brings negative effects to the societies. Many policy makers and
scholars think that globalization must be regulated and managed. The threats of an
“ungoverned globalization” can be countered what Jacoby and Meunier called
managed globalization; it refers to “all attempts to make globalization more
palatable to citizen.

It is important, however, to consider the gradual development on inter-regional

relations such as the Association of South East Asian Nation (ASEAN), the European
Union (EU), or the South American trade bloc, Mercosur. In fact, as sort of “contagion
effect” (Held et al., 2005, p77) has spread during the past years. Regionalization in
one part of the world encourages regionalization elsewhere - whether by imitation,
like the success of European Single Market, or by “defensive” reaction, such as
Mercosur’s establishment as a response to the creation of NAFTA. According to this,
regionalization and the development of inter-regionalism would indeed be global in
nature. As Held et al. (2005) claimed “the new regionalism is not a barrier to political
globalization but, on the contrary, entirely compatible with it-if not an indirect
encouragement” (p.77).

Hurrell (2007) captured this debate in his “one (global) world/many (regional)
worlds have affected and fueled regionalization everywhere else in sort of contagion
or domino effects. This fact, along with increasing development in inter-regional
cooperation, shows that the regionalization process is global in nature. Therefore,
regionalization is intimately linked to globalization since it is part of it and it builds on
it.
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 link between the two
tendencies. Thus, regionalism is seen as critical part of political economy of globalization
and the 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 the 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 “goes back to when human first put on boat into the sea”
(Sweeney, 2005, p.203).

We can understand globalization as “the increased flows of goods, services,

capital, people, and information across borders” (Jacoby& Meunier, 2010, p.1).

But as we have learned from the previous discussions, there are many controversies
about varying definitions of the term. Defining region and regionalism is complicated.

Nevertheless, region, according to Mansfield and Milner (1999) is “group of

countries in the same geographically specified area” (p.2).

Hurrell (2007) defined regionalization as the “social integration and the often
undirected process of social and economic interaction (p.4).

In the addition, regionalization’s is different from regionalism, which is more

states” (Ravenhill, 2008, p. 174).

The motivation for the recent regionalization in Asia, as well as other regions in the
world, cannot be isolated from one another. It is a complex mixture of factors. One of the
reasons behind regionalism is the concern for security, which is to ensure peace and stability.
Confidence building can be enhanced through economic cooperation within a region. The
ASEAN and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are regional organizations that
seek strong security in Asia through cooperation.

Huntington (1996), on the contrary, believed that culture and identity guide
regionalization. As he put it, “In the Post-Cold War world, states increasingly
defined there interests in civilizational terms” (p.30). For him, culture and identity
are civilizations. He identified nine major civilizations: Western, Latin American,
African, Islamic, Sinic, Hindu, Orthodox, Buddhist, and Japanese. He argued that
international organizations like the EU or Mercosur share a common culture and
identity and are far more successful than NAFTA, whose members states belong
to different civilizations, if we follow Huntington’s idea of the “clash of
civilizations,” one could argue that the potential such clash can be strong in Asia
because many of those civilizations are, at the least, can be found in the region.

Nevertheless, economic motivations are arguably the main motivation behind contemporary
regionalization. By entering in regional organizations, Asian states main regain some control
over flows of capital and enhance their bargaining power against transnational corporations
(TNCs) (De Martino and Grabel, 2003). Aside from this, domestic companies may benefits from
belonging to a regional market big enough to allow them scale economies while still being
protected from global competition. In other words, regional organizations allow national
companies the opportunity to succeed in a protected but big enough market in a way that
they would otherwise fail if exposed to global competition.

Finally, no-state actors, such as the TNCs, act as driving force toward regionalism.
These TNCs, whose host countries are not part of a given regional trade argument, find
themselves in a disadvantaged commercial situation with respect to competing companies
belonging to the regional organization in question. Given this situation, Ravenhill (2008) said
that disadvantaged TNCs will lobby their national governments sign similar trade agreements
in order to end their disadvantaged commercial situation.
 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF GLOBALIZATION

The previous discussions answer the question “What is globalization?” The next
question “Where did it start?” is not easy to answer as well because there are different
views about this. This book generally adheres to perspective that the major point 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. Therefore, one can trace
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
continents today, roughly after 50,000 years.
Chanda (2007) mentioned that commerce, religion, politics, and warfare are
the “urges” of people towards a better life. These are respectively connected to four
aspect of globalization and they can be traced all throughout history: trade
missionary work, adventures, and conquest.

Cycle

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 (Shcolte, 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.

Epochs

In geochronology, an epoch is a subdivision of the geologic timescale that is

longer than an age but shorter than a period. Ritzer (2015) cited Therborn’s (2000) six
great epochs of globalization. These are also called “waves” and each has its own
origin. Today’s 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 epochs as returning.
The following are the sequential occurrence of the epochs.
1. Globalization of religion (fourth to seventh century)
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 II period
6. Post-Cold War Period

Events

Specific events are also considered as part of the fourth view in explaining the origin
of globalization. If this is the case, then several points can be treated as the start of
globalization.

Gibbon (1998), for example, argued that Roman conquests centuries before
Christ were its origin. In an issue of the magazine the Economist (2006, January
12), it considered the rampage of the armies of Genghis Khan into Eastern
Europe in the thirteenth century.

Rosenthal (2007) gave premium to voyages of discovery – Christopher

Columbus’ discovery of America in1942, Vasco da Gama in Cape of Good
Hope in 1498, and Ferdinand Magellan’s completed circumnavigation of the
globe in 1522.

The recent years could be regarded as the beginnings of globalization with

reference to specific technological advances in transportation and
communication.

Some examples include:

 the first transatlantic telephone cable (1956),
 the first transatlantic television broadcasts (1962),
 the founding of the of the modern internet in 1988
 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York (2001)

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 comprised the fifth view. These broad changes happened in the
last half of the twentieth century. Scholars today point to these three notable
changes as the origin of globalization that we know today. They are as follows:

1. The emergence of the United States as the global power (post-World War II)

Through its dominant military and economic power after WWII, the United
States was able to outrun Germany and Japan in terms of industry. Both Axis
powers and Allies fall behind economically as compared to the new global
power. Because of this, the United States soon began to progress in different
aspects like in diplomacy, media, film (as in the Hollywood), and many more.

2. The emergence of multinational corporations (MNCs)

Before MNCs came into being, their roots were from their countries of origin
during the 18th to early 19th centuries. The United States, Germany, and Great
Britain has 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 the United
States but in the twentieth century, they exported more automobiles and
opened factories to other countries.

3. The demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War

More recent than the first two would be the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. This
event led to the opening of the major parts of the world for this 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). Moreover, China is also globalizing I terms of other aspects
such as their hosting of the Olympics in 2008.
 GLOBAL DEMOGRAPHY

Demographic transition is a singular historical period during which mortality and

fertility rates decline from high to low levels in a particular country or region. The broad
outlines of the transition are similar in countries around the world, but the pace and
timing of the transition have varied considerably.

The transition started in mid- or late 1700s in Europe. During that time, death rates and
fertility began to decline. High to low fertility happened 200 years in France and 100
years in the United States. In other parts of the world, the transition began later. It was
only in the twentieth century that mortality decline in Africa and Asia, with the
exemption of Japan.

According to Maddison (2001), life expectancy in India was only 24 years in the
early twentieth century while the same life expectancy occurred in China in 1929
until 1931.

Fertility decline in Asia did not begin until the 1950s and so on. In the case of
Japan, it was until the 1930s that “total fertility rate did not drop below five birth
per woman” (Shigeyuki et al., 2002, p. 250)

This resulted in rapid population growth after the Second World War, affecting the
age structure of Asia and the developing world. Specifically, the baby boom in the
developing world was caused by the decline of infant and child mortality rates/ the
West, on the other hand, experienced baby boom that resulted from rising birth rates.

A remarkable effect of the demographic transition, as Shigeyuki et al., 2002 stated, is

“The enormous gap in life expectancy that emerged between Japan and the
West on the one hand and the rest of the world on the other” (p.251)

By 1820, the life expectancy at birth of Japan and the West was 12 years greater than
that of other countries. It increased by 20 years by 1900. Although there was an
improvement in life expectancy all throughout the world in 1900-1950, the gap had
reached 22 years. In 1999, the gap declined to 14 years. These differences in time of
transition affected the global population. During the nineteenth century, Europe and
West had an increased in share in the world’s population, from 22.0 percent to 33.0
percent, while Asia and Oceania’s contribution dropped from 69.0 percent to 56.7
percent. India and China suffered from economic stagnation and decline during that
time.
There was a reverse in global population shares during the twentieth century as
Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania had high levels of population growth rates.
According to Shigeyuki et al., (2002)

Population growth shows a more remarkable shift: “Between 1929 and 1980, 69.3
percent of the world’s population growth occurred in Europe and Western
offshoots. Between 1950 and 200, however, only 11.7 percent occurred in that
region” (p. 252)

The United Nations projected that population growth will be shifted toward Africa. It
is estimated that by 2150, the regions’ share to the world population will be almost 20
percent, relatively much greater than its share in 1820 (seven percent) and in 1900
(six percent). Also in 2150, there will be a projected increase of two billion if we
combine the populations of Asia, Latin America, and Oceania.

In terms of the age structure, the overall trend in Japan and the West was downward
until 1950. Their dependency ratio was close to 0.5. It only increased, although
temporary, when the baby boom after the Second World War occurred. Japan’s
dependency ratio, however, increased between 1888 and 1920. Its dependency
ratio was higher than the West between 1920 and the early 1950s. It dropped in 1970
and later since its precipitous decline in childbearing during the 1950s and low fertility
rates in recent years.

The developing countries like India and the Philippines had higher dependency ratios
than the West in 1900. A great increase in dependency ratio was caused by the
decline in infant and child mortality and high levels of fertility, with its peak around
1970.

Dependency ratios started to disappear because there is a decline in global birth

rate. Furthermore, the gap in fertility between the West and the less developed
countries became smaller by the twenty-first century. Over the next 50 years, the
cases of dependency ratios of these two areas in the world will be reversed (Shigeyuki
et al., 2002). The aging of populations will cause a rise in dependency ratio, starting
in the West.
 GLOBAL MIGRATION

The nuance of the movements of people around the world can be seen through
the categories of migrants – “vagabonds” and “tourists” (Bauman, 1998)

Vagabond are on the move “because they have to be” (Ritzer, 2015, p. 179) –
they are not faring well in their home countries and are forced to move in their
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 area vagabonds forced to flee their home countries due to safety
concerns (Haddad, 2003. Asylum seekers are refuges who seek to remain in the
country to which they flee.

According to Kritz (2008), those who migrate to find work are involved in labor
migration. Labor migration is driven by “push” factors (e.g., lack of employment
opportunities in home countries), as well as “pull” factors (work available
elsewhere).

0
Labor migration 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)

Unlike other global flows, labor migration still faces many restrictions. Many of these
barriers are related to the Westphalian conception of the nation-state and are
intimately associated with it.
Shamir (2005) discussed that the state may seek to control migration because it
involves the loss of part of the workforce. An influx of migrants can lead to
conflicts with local residents.

Concerns about terrorism also affect the desire of the state to restrict population
flows (Moses, 2006)

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 favourable 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.
Many countries face issues of illegal migration.

The United States 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
immigrants to adopt more dangerous methods 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 about illegal immigration include Great Britain,
Switzerland, and Greece as well as countries in Asia.

A strong case can be made on the backlash against illegal immigrants (Economist,
2008, January 3, “Keep the Borders Open”). In the North, such immigrants constitute
a younger workforce that does not work which locals may not perform, and they are
consumers who contribute to growth. They also send remittances back to family
members in the country of origin, which improves the lives of the recipients, reduces
poverty rates, and increases the level of education as well as the foreign reserves of
the home country (Economist 2007, November 1). Banks are often unwilling or unable
to handle the type (small amounts of money) and volume of remittances. As a result,
specialized organizations play a major role in the transmission of remittances.
According to Malkin (2007), the Philippines is one of the leaders when it comes
to the flow of remittances ($14.7 billion), next to India ($24.5 billion) 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 a
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.