Lesson 2: Theories of Globalization
Introduction
Globalization is usually used as the spread and connectedness of production, communication and
technologies across the world. That spread has involved the interlacing of economic and cultural activity.
Others would also refer globalization with the presence of world-wide organization like united nation,
World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The speed of communication and exchange, the
complexity and size of the networks involved, and the sheer volume of trade, interaction and risk is what
we now label as “globalization.
Theories of Globalization
1. The World System Theory
This theory was proposed by Emmanuel Wallerstien (Goldfrank 2000).
A world-system is multicultural territorial division of labor which
production and exchange of basic goods and raw materials is necessary for
the everyday life of its inhabitants.
He pointed out that some nation-state failed to develop due to
asymmetrical trade in global capitalism making them difficult to
compete and become dependent to rich nation–states. For him globalization
represents the triumph of a capitalist world economy. For a tie, certain
countries become the world hegemon. The key structure of the capitalist
world-system is the division of the world into three great regions, or geographically based and
hierarchically organized tiers: the core, semi-periphery and the periphery. The core countries focus in
higher skill, capital intensive production and the rest of the world
focuses on low-skill, labor-intensive production and extraction of raw materials.
The world system perpetuates dominance by the core and dependency of the periphery. Thus in this
view, globalization also perpetuates inequality global economic system is inherently unfair.
2. Theories of Global Capitalism
a. Leslie Sklair’s transnational Practices (TNP).
According to Sklair (2000) transnational practices operate in three spheres; the economic, political and
the cultural-ideological. These practices originate with non-state actors and cross state borders. The
economic spheres, whose agent is transnational capital-the executives of transnational corporations.
The political spheres, whose agent is a transnational capitalist class-they are the globalizing bureaucrats,
politicians and professionals.
b. William Robinson’s Transnational State Apparatus.
For Robinson (2017), Global capitalism evolved an epochal shift. From world economy to global
economy. World Economy, wherein each country developed a national economy that was linked
to others through trade and finances in an integrated international market. In global economy the
globalization of the production process itself, which breaks down and functionally integrates what were
previously national circuits into new global circuits of production and
accumulation.
Furthermore, this global capitalism involves three planks: (a)
transnational production - integration of every country and much of
humanity into a new globalized system of production, finance, and
services;
(b) transnational capitalists - made up of the owners and managers of transnational capital. Its interests
lie in promoting global, not national, circuits of accumulation; and (c) transnational state - a
supranational political authority (Robinson, 2017).
Robinson (2017) referred The Transnational State (TNS) is a loose network comprised of supranational
political and economic institutions together with national state apparatuses that have been penetrated
and transformed by transnational forces. National states as components of a larger TNS structure now
tend to serve the interests of global over national accumulation processes. The supranational
organizations are staffed by transnational functionaries and whose find their counterparts in
transnational functionaries who staff transformed national states.
3. The Network Society by Manuel Castell
A network society is a society whose social structure is made up of
networks powered by microelectronics-based information and
communication technologies.
Globalization is seen to exercise the technological change in various ways
and processes. This new economy is described as informational which is
knowledge based, production of information is organized on a global scale
and global network interaction is used for productivity. Whereby, internet
usher the constructions of a new symbolic environment which makes
MANUEL CASTEL “virtuality a reality” ( Castell, 2005).
This new symbolic environment is characterized with: SPACE OF FLOWS, in which informational flows
bring physical spaces closer through networks; TIMELESS TIME in which technology is able to manipulate
the natural sequence of events; and REAL VIRTUALITY based on a hypertext reality and global
interconnection which bends space and time relations.
Castell also argues that globalization is a network of production, culture and power that is constantly
shaped by advances in technology, which range from communication technologies to genetic
engineering. This globalization represents a new age of information (2005).
Information has become the key substance of all human activity and is directly integrated into culture,
institutions and experience. The development of new information technology (IT), in particular,
computers and the Internet, representing a new technological paradigm and leading to a new “mode of
development” that Castells terms “informationalism.” Informationalism refers to a technological
paradigm that replaces and subsumes the previous paradigm of industrialism.
Yet, castells (2005) mentioned that it creates digital divide, the division of the world into those areas and
segments of population. Segment that switched on to the new technological system and segment that
switched off or the marginalized. With it, information age does not necessarily mean that the world has
become flat, rather with technological advance Castell argues that it creates a global form of exclusions
and inclusions, fragmentation and integration.
4. Theories of Space, Place and Globalization
a. Time-Space-Distanciation by Anthony Giddens
Giddens defines time-space distanciation as ‘the intensification of worldwide social relations which link
distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away
and vice versa’ – social relations are ‘lifted out’ from local contexts of interaction and restructured
across time and space
b. Global Risk Society by Anthony Giddens
Giddens (2009) provocatively argues that globalization has led to the
creation of a “global risk society.” Human social and economic
activities, especially in modernity, produce various risks such as
pollution, crime, new illnesses, food shortages, market crashes, wars,
etc., and societies have become more responsible for managing these
risks that their activities intentionally or, more often than not,
unintentionally produced.
c. Time-Space-Compression” by David Harvey
Time-space compression is the process whereby time is reorganized in such a
way as to reduce the constraints of space, and vice-versa. It also refers to the
way the acceleration of economic activities leads to the destruction of spatial
barriers and distances.
5. Theories of Transnationality and Transnationalism
Transnationality refers to the rise of new communities and the formation of new social identities and
relations that cannot be defined through the traditional reference point of nation-states.
TRANSNATIONALISM refers to the multiple ties and interactions linking people or institutions across the
borders of nation states. Transnationalism means living in another country than their country of origin.
It is “a process by which migrants, through their daily life activities create social fields that cross
national boundaries.” Immigrant communities do not de-link themselves from their home country;
instead, they keep and nourish their linkages to their place of origin (Sánchez, 2010).
6. Theories of Global Culture
There are three main bodies of theory regarding the effects of globalization on local culture:
homogenization, hybridization and heterogeneity or polarization. Each of these processes can be
demonstrated in different parts of the world.
• Homogenization is the name given to the process whereby globalization causes one culture to
consume another. Homogenization theories see a global cultural convergence and would tend to
highlight the rise of world beat, world cuisines, world tourism, uniform consumption patterns
and cosmopolitanism (Appadurai). Many use the term Americanization to depict specifically the way
that American culture has been exported to all corners of the globe.
• Hybridization - Cultures are however rarely simply consumed. More often two cultures clash and a
new hybrid culture is formed. Hybridization stresses new and constantly evolving cultural forms and
identities produced by manifold transnational processes and the fusion of distinct cultural processes.
• Polarization or heterogeneity - this condition continued cultural difference and highlight local cultural
autonomy, cultural resistance to homogenization, cultural clashes and polarization, and distinct
subjective experiences of globalization.
7. Global Village by Marshall McLuhan
The late Marshall McLuhan, a media and communication theorist, coined the term “global village” in
1964 to describe the phenomenon of the world’s culture shrinking and expanding at the same time due
to pervasive technological advances that allow for instantaneous sharing of culture.
McLuhan chose the insightful phrase “global village” to highlight his observation that an electronic
nervous system (the media) was rapidly integrating the planet - events in one part of the world could be
experienced from other parts in real-time, which is what human experience was like when
we lived in small villages. Moreover, his insight known as “the medium is the message” suggests
that the qualities of a medium have as much effect as the information it transmits. It is from this that
various medium are used to convey information in best way possible it is.
8. McDonaldization by George Ritzer
Ritzer (1996) claimed that the contemporary world is undergoing process of Mcdonaldization.
McDonaldization theory is defined as “the process whereby the principles of the fast-food restaurant
are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society and the world.” The said theory
follows the Four Main Dimensions such as;
Efficiency - The optimum method of completing a task. It is he rational determination of the best mode
of production. Individuality is not allowed.
Calculability - The assessment of outcomes based on quantifiable rather than subjective criteria. In
other words, quantity over quality. They sell the Big Mac, not the Good Mac.
Predictability - The production process is organized to guarantee uniformity of product and
standardized outcomes. All shopping malls begin to look the same and all highway exits have the same
assortment of businesses.
Control - The substitution of more predictable non-human labor for human labor, either through
automation or the deskilling of the work force.
9. Glocalization by Roland Robertson
The theory of Robertson suggested that the global is only manifested in the local.
GLOCALIZATION means that ideas about home, locality and community have been extensively spread
around the world in recent years, so that the local has been globalized, and the stress upon the
significance of the local or the communal can be viewed as one ingredient of the overall
globalization process.
10. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy” by Arjun Appadurai
For anthropologist Arjun Appadurai (1997), different kinds of globalization occur on multiple and
intersecting dimensions of integration that he calls “scapes.” Appadaurai uses the suffix SCAPE to
connote the idea that these processes have fluid, irregular, variable shapes. Mediascapes are about the
flows of image and communication. Ethnoscapes are concerned with the flows of individuals around the
world. Ideoscapes deal with exchanges of ideas and ideologies. Technoscapes refer to the flows of
technology and skills to create linkages between organizations around the world. Financescapes relate
to the interactions associated with money and capital.
Summary
Various perspectives have described how globalization take part in the world wide social
relation. The world system theory of Emmanuel Wallerstein discussed the regions of globalization; core,
semi-periphery and the periphery which described the opposing scenario of the world. The global
capitalism that examined the transnational production and global economy. Another was the network
society of Manuel Castells, showing the informational change made by technological advancement.
Notable theory was the work of Anthony Giddens, expressing that globalization diminished time and
space. He also cited the risk of globalization in many aspects of the world.
On the aspect of global culture, there are three main bodies of theory regarding the effects of
globalization on local culture: homogenization, hybridization and heterogeneity or polarization.
Moreover the idea of “global village” was introduced by Marshall McLuhan, that technological
advancement was made as culture was shared and spread. Another famous theory was the
McDonaldization theory of George Ritzer, the westernization of the world and the principle of a fastfood
chain process.
Meanwhile Roland Robertson stresses upon the significance of the local or the communal which
can be viewed as one ingredient of the overall globalization process. And finally the theory of Arjun
Appadurai suggested that globalization occurs in different dimensions he calls scapes.
Disclaimer: The article you are reading was taken from the Module for The Contemporary World written by Dr. Evaline L.
Apura This is for ISAT –U use only.
