Welcome
GEC 3 -The Contemporary World
University of Antique
Sibalom, Antique
Course description
• This course introduces students to the contemporary
world by examining the multifaceted phenomenon of
globalization. Using the various disciplines of the social
sciences, it examines the economic, social, political,
technological, and other transformations that have
created an increasing awareness of the
interconnectedness of the people and places around the
globe. To this end, the course provides an overview of
the various debates in global governance, development,
and sustainability. Beyond exposing the student to the
world outside the Philippines, it seeks to inculcate a
sense of global citizenship and global ethical
responsibility.
Finland Sweden
China
USA South Korea
Philippines
Taiwan
USA
Huawei
China Guandong, China
Motorola
China
China
Chapter 1 – Introduction to Globalization
• Globalization, means the fast
movement of money, information, and
products around the world, mostly
driven by big international companies.
• It’s supposed to happen in a neutral
political space — meaning, in theory,
it’s not influenced by any one
country's politics.
Chapter 1 – Introduction to
Globalization…cont…
• But in reality, globalization has deeper and
more troubling effects. It can lead to:
❑ Demonizing certain countries (like those
under embargo);
❑ Deals casually with warlords, or
powerful local leaders in unstable areas;
❑ Weakened national governments
because global companies and
economies are more powerful;
Chapter 1 – Introduction to
Globalization…cont…
❑ The dominance of Western culture — especially
American — and economy, which spreads everywhere,
and the packaging of non-Western cultures as
entertainment or products (like food, movies, or
tourist attractions) for the West.
❑ These means that elements of cultures from places like
Asia, Africa, Latin America, or the Middle East are often
taken out of context and turned into commodities —
things to be sold, consumed, or enjoyed by Western
audiences — without truly understanding or respecting
their original meaning or significance.
❑ While globalization is often presented as just business
and technology, it also brings complex political and
cultural consequences.
Its disregard of borders, national
infrastructures, local bureaucracies,
internet censors, tariffs, laws, and
languages;
• Globalization often ignores people on the margins
of society — the poor, the oppressed, or those living
in remote or less powerful Communities.
• It has a powerful and overwhelming force that
tends to erase differences between cultures,
making everything more the same, mainly to make
products easier to sell.
• This process disrespects diversity, leading to the
disappearance of minority languages and cultures
— the small but important parts of human Heritage.
One day there will be no borders, no boundaries, no flags and
“
no countries and the only passport will be the heart.” ― Carlos
Santan
❑ The most important challenges facing the world in the 21st
century are associated with “globalization”- which is:
✓ the growing interconnectedness of people and places through
converging processes of economic, political, and cultural
change.
✓ distant regions are now increasingly linked together through
commerce, communication, and travel.
Lesson 1: Globalization
In This Lesson
Develop a nuanced definition of globalization in order to begin to understand the processes of
globalization.
View a video and develop their own definition of globalization.
Understand the key features of globalization.
Identify the pros and cons of globalization.
The Meaning of Globalization
• Globalization was first used in 1959. The noun appears in the
Oxford English dictionary in 1962. But three decades passed
before globalization was developed in social sciences as a
paradigm or example.
Globalization is a catchphrase familiar to anyone tuned in to
social media. Every day we hear the term globalization on the
news, read it in the papers, and overhear people talking about
it.
• What does this term mean?
The Meaning of Globalization
There is no definite definition of globalization and the
term is used to denote a variety of ways in which
“nation-states, regions and people, due to advances in
transportation and communication systems, are
becoming more and more closely connected and
interdependent, not only in the economic sense, but
also in the cultural, political, social, technological,
environmental and spatial aspects.”
The Meaning of Globalization
• Shalmali Guttal (2007) defined globalization as
―the process of interaction and integration
among people, companies, and governments
worldwide.
• As a complex and multifaceted phenomenon,
globalization is considered by some as a form of
capitalist expansion which entails the integration
of local and national economies into a global
unregulated market economy.
Globalization as multi-faceted phenomenon
Geographical Economic
Technological Military
Globalization
Political Cultural
Ecological
Other definitions:
• “Globalization as the process of world
shrinkage, of distances getting shorter, things
moving closer. It pertains to the increasing
ease with which somebody on the one side of
the world can interact, to mutual benefit with
somebody on the other side of the world.”
Thomas Larsson, Swedish Journalist
• “Globalization as Colonization”
Martin Khor, former President of Third World Network in
Malaysia
Globalization is ―the geographic dispersion of
industrial and service activities, for example
research and development, sourcing of inputs,
production and distribution, and the cross-border
networking of companies through joint ventures
and the sharing of assets.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development
• [Globalization] is ―the word used to describe 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, and
information.
Peterson Institute for International Economics
• [Globalization] is ―the ability to produce any good or service
anywhere in the world, using raw materials, components, capital
and technology from anywhere, sell the resulting output
anywhere and place the profits anywhere.
Peter Jay
• [Globalization] is ―the increased interconnectedness and
interdependence of peoples and countries, is generally
understood to include two inter-related elements: the
opening of international borders to increasingly fast flows of
goods, services, finance, people and ideas; and the changes in
institutions and policies at national and international levels
that facilitate or promote such flows. Globalization has the
potential for both positive and negative effects on
development and health.
World Health Organization
• [Globalization] is ―the inexorable integration of
markets, nation-states, and technologies to a degree
never witnessed before – in a way that is enabling
individuals, corporations and nation-states to reach
around the world farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper
than ever before and in a way that is enabling the
world to reach into individuals, corporations, and
nation-states farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than
ever before.
Thomas Friedman
• [Globalization] is ―the process of greater
interdependence among countries and their citizens. It
consists of increased integration of product and
resource markets across nations via trade,
immigration, and foreign investment – that is, via
international flows of goods and services, of people,
and of investment such as culture and the
environment. Simply put, globalization is political,
technological, and cultural, as well as economic.
Robert J. Carbaugh
• [Globalization] is ―… a process in which geographic
distance becomes less a factor in the establishment
and sustenance of border-crossing, long distance
economic, political, and socioeconomic relations.
People become aware of this fact. Networks of
relations and dependencies therefore become
potentially border-crossing and worldwide. This
potential internationalization of relations and
dependencies causes fear, resistance, actions, and
reactions.
Rudd Lubber
• [Globalization] can thus be defined “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.” This is a dialectical process because such
local happenings may move in an obverse direction
from the very distanciated relations that shape them.
Local transformation is as much part of globalization
as the lateral extension of social connections across
time and space.
Anthony Giddens
Globalization: A Working Definition
• Globalization is the expansion and intensification of social
relations and consciousness across world-time and across
world-space. Manfred Steger
“Expansion refers to ― both the creation of new social
networks and the multiplication of existing connections that cut
across traditional political, economic, cultural, and geographic
boundaries.”
❑Example: Social media – Establish new global connections
between people.
Globalization: A Working Definition
• International groups of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
are networks that connect a more specific group (social workers
and activists) from different corners of the globe.
• Intensification refers to the expansion, stretching, and
acceleration of these networks.
Example: London and New York have strong financial market
connection and with the advent of electronic trading, the volume of
that trade increases rapidly since traders can now trade more at
higher speeds. Thus, the connection is accelerating.
BUT
It is not only in financial matters that you can find these
connections. In 2012, when the monsoon rains flooded
much of Bangkok, the Honda plant making some of the
critical car parts temporarily ceased production. This had
a strong negative effect on Honda-USA which relied
heavily on the parts being imported from Thailand. Not
only was it unable to reach the sales targets but the
ability of the service centers nationwide to assist Honda
owners also suffered. As a result, the Japanese car
company‘s global profits also fell.
World-time/Across world-space
• Relates to how people perceive time and space.
People begin to feel that the world has become a
smaller place and distance has collapsed from
thousands of miles to just a mouse-click away.
Example: E-mail, cable-TV, internet
Globalization vs. Globalism
• GLOBALIZATION represents the many processes that
allow for the expansion and intensification of global
connections;
• GLOBALISM is a widespread belief among powerful
people that the global integration of economic
markets is beneficial for everyone, since it spreads
freedom and democracy across the world.
Converging Currents of Globalization
Significant component of globalization is the economic
reorganization of the world. The characteristics of this new world
arrangement are: (as agreed by most scholars)
1. Global communication systems that link all regions of the
planet instantaneously and global transportation systems
capable of moving goods quickly by air, sea, and land;
2. Transnational conglomerate corporate strategies that have
created global corporations more economically powerful than
many nation-states;
3. International financial institutions that make possible 24-hour
trading with new and more flexible forms of monetary flow;
Converging Currents of Globalization
4. Global agreements that promote free trade;
5. Market economies that have replaced state-controlled
economies, and privatized firms and services, like water
delivery, formerly operated by governments;
6. An abundance of planetary goods and services that have
arisen to fulfill consumer demand (real or imaginary);
7. An army of international workers, managers, executives
who give this powerful economic force, a human
dimension.
(Rowntree, Lewis, Price & Wyckoff, 2008)
Factors That Have Contributed to Globalization
• There are a variety of factors which have contributed to the
process of globalization. Some of the most important
globalization drivers are numbered below.
1. The price of transporting goods has fallen significantly, enabling
good to be imported and exported more cheaply due to
containerization and bulk shipping;
2. The development of the internet to organize trade on a global
scale;
3. TNCs have taken advantage of the reduction or lowering of
trade barriers;
Factors That Have Contributed to Globalization
4. The desire of TNCs to profit from lower unit labor costs
and other favorable production factors abroad has
encouraged countries to regulate their tax systems to
draw in foreign direct investment (FDI);
5. Transnational and multinational companies have
invested significantly in expanding internationally;
6. The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union;
7. The opening of China to world trade.
Advocates and Critics of Globalization
• Globalization is one of the most controversial issues of our times.
Supporters generally believe that it brings in greater economic
efficiency that will eventually result in bring prosperity for the
entire world.
• Critics think that it will largely benefit those who are already
rich, leaving most of the world poorer than before.
• Economic globalization is generally applauded by corporate
leaders and economists. But opposition to economic
globalization is widespread in the labor and environmental
movements for it has promoted exploitation of workers, children,
farmers, and the environment.
Globalization
Advantages Disadvantages
• Productivity increases faster • Millions of workers have lost
when countries produce goods their jobs because of imports or
and services in which they have shifts in production abroad.
a comparative advantage. Living Most find new jobs that pay less.
standards can increase more
rapidly.
Global competition and cheap • Millions of workers fear of
imports keep a constraint on getting laid off, especially at
those firms in import-competing
prices, so inflation is less likely industries
to disrupt economic growth.
Globalization (cont…)
Advantages Disadvantages
• An open economy promotes • Workers face demands of wage
technological development and concessions from their
innovation, with fresh ideas employers, which often threaten
from abroad. to export jobs abroad if wage
• Jobs in export industries tend to concessions are not accepted.
pay about 15 percent more than • Besides blue-collar jobs, service
jobs in import - competing and white - collar jobs are
industries. increasingly vulnerable to
operations being sent overseas.
Globalization (cont..)
Advantages Disadvantages
• Unfettered capital movements • Workers can lose their
provide workers access to competitiveness when
foreign investment and maintain companies build state-of-the-art
low interest rates factories in low wage countries,
making them as productive as
those in the developed
countries.
(Business Week ―Backlash Behind the Anxiety over Globalization, 2000)
• A number of experts argue that both the anti-globalization and
the pro-globalization stances are exaggerated.
• Those in the middle ground tend to argue that economic
globalization is indeed unavoidable. They point out that even the
anti-globalization movement is made possible by the Internet and
is, therefore, itself an expression of globalization.
• Further contend that globalization can be managed, at both the
national and international levels, to reduce economic inequalities
and protect the natural environment.
• Such scholars stress the need for strong yet efficient governments
and international institutions (such as the UN, World Bank, and
IMF), along with networks of watchdog environmental, labor, and
human rights groups.
(Rowntree, Lewis, Price & Wyckoff, 2008
Enrichment videos
• Crash Course World History #41: Globalization I - The Upside
hosted by John Green
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SnR-e0S6Ic
• Crash Course World History #42: Globalization II – Good or
Bad? hosted by John Green
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_iwrt7D5OA
Assignment:
1. Discuss the history of globalization? (10pts)
2. Give one theory of Globalization, and explain why did
you choose it. (10pts)
3. Why globalization considered as an ideology? Give
the reasons and explain your answer.(10pts)
