Globalization: An Inexorable Phenomenal Force

Language, individual & society, 2016

Globalization is one of the most important contemporary megatrends. Paradoxically, it is still not fully known. In my talk I will show that “globalization” is an ambiguous term. I want to highlight three aspects of globalization: economic, political and cultural. The assessment of globalization in these aspects is not unambiguous because globalization itself is not isomorphic. Thus in the context of globalization there is a place both: for a clash of civilizations and for their homogenization; for ecological disasters and for extraordinary actions saving the environment; for the triumph of liberalism and free market capitalism and for counter-reactions to them; for the stability of nation states and for the emergence of powerful, private, non-state agents.

Political studies review, 2008

There are four perennial questions that preoccupy globalization theory. For those who write about globalization, there is a constant attempt to discover what globalization is, when it may have started, what benefits and burdens it offers for global cohabitation and whether globalization is ultimately a good thing or a bad thing.The purpose of this article is to review several new works in contemporary globalization theory and to assess what new answers they offer to these questions.Through this examination it will be argued that although these recent works provide significant improvements to former discussions on globalization, they still tend to lack an obvious insight. Namely, they fail to highlight fully the fact that whatever globalization is, it is as important to think normatively about directing its future as it is to understand its past. In other words, globalization is entirely what we make of it, both in how we cognitively come to understand it, but also in how we decide to shape its future.

The usefulness of globalization as an analytical concept has largely been eclipsed by its growing fashionableness. The term's currency has distended its meaning to the point where it has gained the studied ambiguity and diffuseness of an advertiser's slogan. When powerful interests equate globalization with the progression of human freedom even as they work to insulate their institutions from political intervention, there is reason to believe that, as a label for contemporary social changes, globalization obscures more than it illuminates. Perhaps like the similarly popular phrase "peace through commerce," which in today's neoliberal climate really means "commerce through pacification," the meaning of globalization has to be inverted to be made useful. What does globalization mean? Mavbe rather than the growing cohesion of a world order, the word refers to the breakdown of order on a previously unimagined scale. At the very least, in its current uses "globalization" is replete with ambiguities and contradictions that must be disentangled to make the term useful for understanding the contemporary socio-cultural scene.

Key concepts in geography, 2009

2006

Sociological Theory, 2002

I sketch aspects of a critical theory of globalization that will discuss the fundamental transformations in the world economy, politics, and culture in a dialectical framework that distinguishes between progressive and emancipatory features and oppressive and negative attributes. This requires articulations of the contradictions and ambiguities of globalization and the ways that globalization both is imposed from above and yet can be contested and reconfigured from below. I argue that the key to understanding globalization is theorizing it as at once a product of technological revolution and the global restructuring of capitalism in which economic, technological, political, and cultural features are intertwined. From this perspective, one should avoid both technological and economic determinism and all one-sided optics of globalization in favor of a view that theorizes globalization as a highly complex, contradictory, and thus ambiguous set of institutions and social relations, as well as one involving flows of goods, services, ideas, technologies, cultural forms, and people.

From being an economic strategy to being the buzz word of the time, Globalization has grown and emerged in a speed almost as that of a social trend. But as ironic as it may sound, the term is more often than not associated with a diverse array of things making it an extremely contested concept, and essentially so. Academicians perceive globalization in various different ways depicting it as an ideology, a condition, a system of processes, a policy, a market strategy, a predicament and even an age or an era. With such diverse lenses breeds diverse nomenclature and hence, those referring to it as a social condition term it as 'globality', characterized by the existence of global economic, political, cultural and environmental interconnections and flows that make many of the existing territorial boundaries seem futile. Sticking strictly with the etymology of globalization brings forth the idea of it being a set of social processes that are thought to transform the prevailing societal condition into one of globality. Globalization, then, almost explicitly suggests some sort of dynamism best captured by the notion of development or unfolding along discernible patterns. Yet another term is 'Globalism' opted by those who view the concept as that of an ideology of globalization going by the age-old tradition of employing-ism suffix to signify the theories, values and assumptions working behind driving the process. Hence, scholars exploring the dynamics of globalization have rightly come up with characterizing it as a complex, multidimensional and multifaceted concept which, at any cost, cannot be boiled down to a single-simple phenomenon or theme. As Andrew Heywood rightly puts it-"the problem with globalization is that it is not so much an 'it' as a 'them': it is not a single process but a complex of processes, sometimes overlapping and interlocking but also, at times, contradictory and oppositional ones." Perhaps the best way one can try unraveling the complexity, then, is to look at how these scholars have defined globalization in their own ways and consequently work out some attributes that appear persistently even when viewed through varied lenses. "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." ~ Anthony Giddens, "The concept of globalization reflects the sense of an immense enlargement of world communication, as well as of the horizon of a world market, both of which seem far more tangible and immediate than in earlier stages of modernity." ~ Fredric Jameson

The term globalization has become almost a cliché in the present day world with its recurring presence in many contexts. It is referred to and discussed extensively in scholarly work as well as in political discourses and mass media. One may hear reference is frequently made to phrases such as ‘the impact of globalization’ or ‘the disadvantages of globalization’ in the said contexts, and may or may not give much thought to them. However, the frequent use of the term definitely gives one a broad idea as to how globalization has become a phenomenon that merits a deeper understanding and a careful study.

International Journal of Research in Arts and Social Sciences, 2009

Commentators on contemporary issues are divided on the meaning and impact of globalization, which is the process of integrating the world community into a common system either economical or social. Globalization is a hot topic for many of people, especially educated professionals whose work focuses on global thinking and interaction. This is made possible through the increasing linkages among countries and the resultant direct investments, technological development and advancement in telecommunication which have increased global welfare and transformed the world into a global village. Consequently, more and more people are taking an increasingly critical view of this worldwide phenomenon called "globalization; not that they are against constructive cooperation among sovereign nations of the world on common goals but rather they reject its present model. This paper therefore offers a critical commentary on the state of this worldwide phenomenon in its various dimensions. Backed by data, it posits that globalization because of the monstrous proportion it has assumed in the world, is more favourable to the developed nations of the world, and a threat to less developed nations. Ways by which this phenomenon can be made more equitable are also suggested.