The Contemporary World Reviewer

1. GLOBALIZATION
- Is the intensification of worldwide social relations which links distant
localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring
many miles away and vice versa.
- Refers to the increasing pace and scope of interconnections
crisscrossing the globe.
- Globalization as a concept refers both to the compression of the world
and the intensification of the consciousness of the world as a whole.
- Is a term used to describe how trade and technology have made the
world into a more connected and interdependent place.
- Is a relatively new concept in the social sciences.
It was first used in 1959.
It was first employed in the 1930.
It entered the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 1951.
The noun appears in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1962.
It was developed in social sciences as a paradigm in 1992.
It was widely used by economists and scientists in the 1960s.
GLOBALIZATION INVOLVES TWIN PROCESSES
-the physical process of
interconnectedness, or ‘compression’,
which implies that the world is getting
smaller.
-the awareness that we as individuals
have of our relationship to the world as a
single place.
-A process has a very long term history
given that it refers to an evolutionary
process of becoming rather than an
actual state of affairs.
DIFFERENT PERIODS OR WAVES OF GLOBALIZATION
FIRST
WAVE - as
old as
human
civilization
SECOND
WAVE - closely
associated with
the Western
European
conquest of
Asia, Latin
America, and
Africa
- the spread of
capitalism to
these areas
THIRD WAVE
- marked by
breakthroughs
in
technological
development
FOURTH WAVE
- Institutions such
as World Bank,
GATT, IMF were
formed
GATT - General
Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade
IMF - The
International
Monetary Fund
FIFTH WAVE
- current period,
characterized by
unprecedented
interdependenc
e among
nations
PERSPECTIVE OF GLOBALIZATION
HYPERGLOBALISTS
- Also known as global optimists
- Insist that globalization is occurring now and Local cultures are
being eradicated due to the increase of international capitalism
- Believe that globalization is a positive action
- Globalization weakens the power of Government
sees globalization as a new epoch/era in human history.
Creating new relationships with nations
World Economy as a single unit
SCEPTICS
- an ongoing form of internationalization.
- insist that their analysis of the nineteenth century demonstrates that
instead of witnessing globalization, the world is going through
‘regionalization’; to organize a country on a regional basis.
- World is not becoming a single market
- Globalization process is separated and regionalized
- Requires a strong nation to facilitate trade and regulate global
economy
TRANSFORMATIONALISTS
- Differs from the other two
- No individual is cause behind globalization
- argue that the flow of culture is not one way, from the west to the
developing world,
- It is a two-way exchange in which Western culture is also influenced,
changed and enriched by cultures in the developing world.
- have made no claims as to the future of globalization, nor do they
vision our current globalization as a version of a ‘globalized’ nineteenth
century.
ASPECTS/FORMS OF GLOBALIZATION
ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION - is a historical process, the result of human
innovation and technological progress. It refers to the increasing integration of
economics around the world, particularly through the movement of goods and
services, and capital across borders.
- It sometimes refers to the movement of people (labor) and knowledge
(technology) across international borders.

2. The phenomenon can thus have several interconnected dimensions,
such as:
● the globalization of trade of goods and services
● the globalization of financial and capital markets
● the globalization of technology and communication
● the globalization of production.
What makes globalization distinct from internalization?
- While the latter is about extension of economic activities of nation state
across borders, the former is ‘functional integration between internationally
dispersed activities’
- Economic globalization is rather a qualitative transformation than just a
quantitative change.
- Is indeed a ‘complex, indeterminate set of processes operating very
unevenly in both time and space’.
POSITIVE & NEGATIVE IMPACT OF ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION
POSITIVE
- Decreases the cost of
manufacturing
- increased production for
businesses in order to meet global
demand
NEGATIVE
- income disparity
- inequality
ACTORS THAT FACILITATE ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION - such as IMF, World Band
and Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development.
- These organizations are critical in developing and pushing for
neoliberal policies among different countries.
- They also help facilitate trade and development discussions among
various states.
MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES - are considered to be the main carriers of
economic globalization.
CENTRAL BANKS - are considered one of the most powerful institutions in
the world economy since they can lead economic development.
GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY - composed of individuals or group of individuals
disadvantaged by the effects of globalization of the world economy
- They protest and seek
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY SYSTEM - ‘refers to the rules, customs,
instruments, facilities, and organizations for affecting international payments’
- Its main task is to facilitate cross-border transaction, especially trade
and investment
INTERNATIONAL TRADING SYSTEMS THE GALLEON TRADE
THE GOLD STANDARD - functioned as a fixed exchange rate regime, with
gold as the only international reserve.
- Participating countries determined the gold content of national
currencies, which in turn defined fixed exchange rates
- Gold was believed to guarantee a non-inflationary, stable economic
environment, a means for accelerating international trade
The origins of the first modern-day IMS dates back to the early nineteenth
century, when the UK adopted gold mono-metallism in 1821.
- 1867 – International Monetary Conference in Paris
- 1872 – Germany
- 1879 – United States – became the international monetary regime by 1880
- 1884 – Italy
- 1897 – Russia
STRENGTHS
- the tendency for trade balance to
be in equilibrium
- created stability; it also helped
nations to restore equilibrium in their
current accounts and provided an
almost unlimited access to world
finance.
WEAKNESS
“…as a deficit nation’s gold reserves
diminished, its general price level
started to decline as well, which
restored its competitiveness on
international markets. The price that
such countries had to pay for the
automatic adjustment mechanism was
the loss of autonomy in monetary policy.
In practice, it also meant that deficit
nations were enforced to initiate serious
deflationary policies. ”

3. BRETTON WOOD SYSTEM - The dramatic consequences of the
beggar-thy-neighbor policies of the inter-war period and the wish to return to
peace and prosperity impelled the allied nations to start negotiations about a
new international monetary regime in the framework of the United Nations
Monetary and Financial Conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire (US)
in July 1944
- Delegates of 44 countries managed to agree on adopting an
adjustable peg system, the gold-exchange standard.
DISSOLUTION OF THE BRETTON WOOD SYSTEM - Stock markets
crashed in 1973-1974 after the United States stopped linking the dollar to gold
STAGFLATION – a phenomenon in which a decline in economic growth and
employment (stagnation) takes place alongside a sharp increase in prices
(inflation)
NEOLIBERALISM - Became the codified strategy of the United States
Treasury Department, the World Bank, the IMF, and eventually, the WTO from
1980s onward.
- It was the term used to describe a modified form of liberalism that
tends to favor free-market trade.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES - Recommended the creation of an international
clearing union, a kind of global bank, along with the introduction of a new unit
of account ‘bancor’
IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) -
responsible for funding postwar reconstruction projects. It was a critical
institution at a time when many of the words’ cities had been destroyed by the
war.
IMF (International Monetary Fund) - the global lender of last resort to
prevent individual countries from spiraling credit crises. If economic growth in
a country slowed down because there was not enough money to stimulate the
economy, the IMF would step in.
GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) - Set of multilateral trade
agreements aimed at the abolition of quotas and the reduction of tariff duties
among the contracting nations.
- was concluded by 23 countries at Geneva, in 1947 (to take effect on
Jan. 1, 1948), it was considered an interim arrangement pending the formation
of a United Nations agency to supersede it.
- When such an agency failed to emerge, GATT was amplified and
further enlarged at several succeeding negotiations
- It subsequently proved to be the most effective instrument of world
trade liberalization, playing a major role in the massive expansion of world
trade in the second half of the 20th century.
Its most important principle was that of trade without discrimination, in which
each member nation opened its markets equally to every other.
THE ROME TREATY (1957) (European Economic Community) - It set up
the European Economic Community (EEC) which brought together 6 countries
(Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) to work
towards integration and economic growth, through trade.
It created a common market based on the free movement of:
- goods
- people
- services
- capital.
It was signed in parallel with a second treaty which set up the European
Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).
- The Treaty of Rome has been amended on a number of occasions,
and today it is called the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
THE UNCTAD (1964) (United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development)
- was established in 1964 as an intergovernmental organization
intended to promote the interests of developing states in world trade
- is part of the United Nations Secretariat dealing with trade, investment,
and development issues
- Its goals are to: "maximize the trade, investment and development
opportunities of developing countries and assist them in their efforts to
integrate into the world economy on an equitable basis".

4. JAMAICA ACCORD (1976)
- An international agreement that ratified the end of the Bretton Woods
System by allowing the managed float of the price of gold with respect to the
U.S. dollar.
- The agreement was concluded in 1976
- A 1978 amendment to the Jamaica Accord allowed for the creation of
Special Drawing Rights.
PLAZA AGREEMENT (1985)
- was a 1985 agreement among the G-5 nations—France, Germany, the
United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan—to manipulate exchange rates
by depreciating the U.S. dollar relative to the Japanese yen and the German
Deutsche mark.
- The intention of the Plaza Accord was to correct trade imbalances
between the U.S. and Germany and the U.S. and Japan, but it only corrected
the trade balance with the former.
THE URUGUAY ROUNDS (1986 - 1994)
- was the 8th round of multilateral trade negotiations (MTN) conducted
within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT),
spanning from 1986 to 1994 and embracing 123 countries as "contracting
parties".
- led to the creation of the World Trade Organization, with GATT
remaining as an integral part of the WTO agreements.
- had been to extend GATT trade rules to areas previously exempted as
too difficult to liberalize (agriculture, textiles) and increasingly important new
areas previously not included (trade in services, intellectual property,
investment policy trade distortions)
- came into effect in 1995 with deadlines ending in 2000 (2004 in the
case of developing country contracting parties) under the administrative
direction of the newly created World Trade Organization (WTO).
WTO (1995) - is a global organization made up of 164 member countries that
deals with the rules of trade between nations. Its goal is to ensure that trade
flows as smoothly and predictably as possible.
- was born out of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT),
which was established in 1947.
- If a trade dispute occurs, the WTO works to resolve it.
- replaced GATT as the world's global trading body in 1995, and the
current set of governing rules stems from the Uruguay Round of GATT
negotiations, which took place from 1986 to 1994.
CONCLUSION: International Economic integration is a central tenet of
globalization. It is so crucial to the process that many writers and
commentators confuse this integration for the entirety of globalization. As a
reminder, economics is just one window into the phenomenon of globalization;
it is not the entire thing.
WHAT IS GLOBAL GOVERNANCE?
- is understood as “…the way in which global affairs are managed. As
there is no global government, global governance typically involves a range of
actors including states, as well as regional and international organizations.
- It refers to the political interaction that is required to solve problems
that affect more than one state or region when there is no power to enforce
compliance.
WHAT IS THE ESSENCE OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE?
- Is a coordination of efforts by governments, international organizations,
civil society and other groups of efforts to reduce or manage the threats of
globalization and to promote the benefits of globalization.
WHAT ARE THE REASONS WHICH HAVE PROMOTED THE IDEA OF
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE?
- No single nation has got all the resources to tackle problems plaguing
humanity in this planet like poverty, malnutrition, diseases, climate change,
disaster risk, organized crime, terrorism, etc.
- Globalization with which the world has woven into fabric where internal
policies of one nation can affect the whole world.
FORMS OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
Global governance manifests itself in various forms:
- International agreements (such as the trade rules of the GATT and
GATS) comprise one aspect of global governance
- International organizations such as the World Trade Organization
(WTO), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) comprise
another.

5. Key Issues for Global Governance:
● Global Financial Crisis
● Inequalities in wealth and growth
● Security
● Global Warming
● Gender and Rights of Women
● Environmental Anxieties
Advantages:
● Can help protect human rights
● Aid
● Shelter
● Food Security
● Organizations such as WHO can help contain disease outbreaks
● Can train villagers in sustainable fishing/farming
Disadvantages:
● Can cause more issues if the government in the area of conflict isn't
cooperative
● civilian casualties
● population displacement
● escalation of violence
● can put volunteers at risk
The idea of “Global Governance” has been around for over 20 years.
It recognizes that in a world of accelerated globalization, some global
solutions are necessary.
Global Governance is opposed by those who defend the sovereignty of
states and mistrust, fear large multinational bureaucracies.
CONCLUSION:
Global Governance is the capacity within the international system at any given
moment to provide government-like services and public goods in the absence
of a world government. This kind of governance shifted from the traditional
territorial sovereign state or nation-state to more loose and less stricken
structures warranting international cooperation, movement and response. In
response, several non -state bodies came about, including the United Nations
and the G20+ -all with ultimate goals of international action.
GLOBAL POLITICS
"poorly understood but widespread feeling that the very nature of world
politics is changing"
GLOBALIZATION - describes a process in which the world moves toward an
integrated global society and the significance of national borders decreases.
GLOBAL POLITICS - Since the rise of the Globalization nation, states have
had to react to the growing interconnectedness of economical and
transboundary transactions. The need for this sparked the systems that are
used for world politics today.
- A discipline that studies the Global politics and economics of the world
and the field that is being studied.
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE - Global governance refers to the entirety of
regulations put forward with reference to solving specific denationalized
problems or providing transnational common goods. Examples are Human
rights acts, etc,
SUPRANATIONALIZATION - Supranationalization describes a process in
which international institutions(UN, EU, ASEAN, etc.) develop procedures that
contradict the consensus principle and the principle of nonintervention.
DECENTRALIZATION - the shifting of political authority to decentralized
levels within the nation-state, can be observed.
- The dispersion of functions and powers within a local or regional
authority.
GLOBAL INTERDEPENDENCE - “refers to a growing sensitivity and
vulnerability between separate units, globalization refers to the merging of
units”
- The relationship and interconnectedness of
national/social/cultural/political units that comprise and influence the global
village in relation to the dependence and independence in a state's economy
and politics.
INTERDEPENDENCE - Made possible by organizations such as:
- European Single Market
- North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
- ASEAN

6. MEASUREMENT - The interconnectedness of societies can be measured by
the rise of transboundary transactions relative to transactions that take place
within a national territory.
- The more transactions that a country outside its borders, the more they
are influenced by interconnectedness.
PEACE AND COOPERATION
- peace through trade
- peace through an international organization
- peace through democracy
TRANSNATIONALIZATION OF GOVERNANCE - refers to a process in which
transnational non state actors develop political regulations and activities
without being formally authorized by states.
CONCLUSION: Societal denationalization over the past two to three decades
has led to a rise in international institutions that in effect may modify the
constitution of world politics.
POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION - is the proliferation/growth of international and
regional organizations composed of states and the spread of non-state
political actors.
MILITARY GLOBALIZATION - is characterized by extensive as well as
intensive networks of military force that operate internationally.
CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION - refers to the spread of one culture across
national borders.
DEFINITIONS
Anthony Giddens - It is the intensification of worldwide social relations which
links distant localities in such ways that local happenings are shaped by
events occurring many miles away and vice versa
Roland Robertson - Globalization as a concept refers both to the
compression of the world and the intensification of the consciousness of the
world as a whole.
David Held - Globalization may be thought of as a process … which
embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and
transactions … generating transcontinental or interregional flows and
networks of activity, interaction, and the exercise of power.
Helen Fisher - Globalization requires taking a broad contextual and long-term
view.
Kofi Annan (Former UN Secretary-General) - It has been said that arguing
against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity
Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai has discussed this in terms of five specific
“scapes” or flows, (composed of different interrelated, yet disjunctive global
cultural flows):
Ethnoscapes - migration of people across cultures and borders,
Technoscapes - cultural interactions due to the promotion of technology
Ideoscapes - the global flow of ideologies
Financescapes - the flux capital across borders
Mediascapes - use of media that shapes the way we understand our
imagined world
There was a time when most regions were economically self - sufficient.
Locally produced foods, fuels and raw materials were generally processed for
local consumption. Trade between different regions was quite limited. Today,
the economies of most countries are so interconnected that they form part of
a single, interdependent global economy.
TYPES OF GLOBALIZATION
ECONOMIC - countries that trade with many others and have few trade
barriers are economically globalized.
SOCIAL - a measure of how easily information and ideas pass between
people in their own country and between different countries that includes
access to the internet and social media networks.
POLITICAL - the amount of political
co-operation there is between countries.

7. CAUSES OF GLOBALIZATION
IMPROVED COMMUNICATION - the development of communication
technologies such as internet, email and mobile phones have been vital to the
growth of globalization because they help MNCs/multinational corporations or
companies to operate throughout the world.
The development of satellite TV channels such as Sky and CNN have also
provided worldwide marketing avenues for the concept and products of
globalization.
IMPROVED TRANSPORTATION - the development of refrigerated and
container transport, bulk shipping and improved air transportation has allowed
the easy mass movement of goods throughout the world, this assists
globalization.
FREE TRADE AGREEMENT - MNCs and rich capitalist countries have
always promoted global free trade as a way of increasing their own wealth and
influence.
- International organizations such as the World Trade Organization and
the IMF(International Monetary Fund) also promote free trade.
GLOBAL BANKING - modern communication technologies allow vast
amounts of capital to flow freely and instantly throughout the world.
- The equivalent of up to 1.3 trillion US Dollars is traded each day
through international stock exchanges in cities such as New York, London and
Tokyo.
THE GROWTH OF MNCs - The rapid growth of big MNCs such as Microsoft,
Mcdonalds and Nike is a cause as well as a consequence of globalization.
- The investment of MNCs in farms, mines and factories across the
world is a major part of globalization.
- Globalization allows MNCs to produce goods and services and to sell
products on a massive scale throughout the world.
CHANGE FOOD SUPPLY - Food supply is no longer tied to the seasons. We
can buy food anywhere in the world at any time of the year.
DIVISION OF LABOR - Because MNCs search for the cheapest locations to
manufacture and assemble components, production processes may be
moved from developed to developing countries where costs are lower.
LESS JOB SECURITY - In the global economy jobs are becoming more
temporary and insecure.
- A survey of American workers showed that people now hold 7 to 10
jobs over their working life.
DAMAGE TO THE ENVIRONMENT - more trade means more transport which
uses more fuels and causes pollution. Climate change is a serious threat to
our future.
CULTURAL IMPACT - Websites such as YouTube connect people across the
planet. As the world becomes more unified, diverse cultures are being
ignored. MNCs can create a monoculture as they remove local competition
and thereby force local firms to close.
INCREASE IN ANTI-GLOBALIZATION PROTESTS - There is a growing
awareness of the negative impacts of globalization. People have begun to
realize that globalization can be challenged by communities supporting each
other in business and society and through public protest and political
lobbying.
THEORIES OF GLOBALIZATION
GLOBALIZATION IS NOT A SINGLE CONCEPT that can be defined and
encompassed within a set time frame, nor is it a process that can be
defined clearly with a beginning and an end. Furthermore, it cannot be
expounded upon with certainty and be applicable to all people and in all
situations.
- It involves economic integration
- The transfer of policies across borders
- The transmission of knowledge
- Cultural stability
- the reproduction, relations and discourses of power
- It is a global process, a concept, a revolution, and
- An establishment of the global market free from sociopolitical control.”

8. It is a concept that has been defined variously over the years, with some
connotations referring to PROGRESS, DEVELOPMENT and STABILITY,
INTEGRATION and COOPERATION, and others referring to REGRESSION,
COLONIALISM, and DESTABILIZATION.
An individual’s political ideology, geographic location, social status, cultural
background, and ethnic and religious affiliation provide the background that
determines how globalization is interpreted.
In 1995, Martin Khor, President of the Third World Network in Malaysia,
referred to globalization as colonization.
Swedish journalist Thomas Larsson, in his book The Race to the Top: The
Real Story of Globalization (2001), stated that globalization:
“is 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.”
IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN
“Globalization represents the triumph of a capitalist world economy tied
together by a global division of labor.”
THE WORLD-SYSTEM THEORY
- An American sociologist, historical social scientist, and world-systems
analyst, arguably best known for his development of /the general approach in
sociology which led to the emergence of his world-systems approach.
In the 1950s, the dominant theory was modernization theory; its problem
was that some countries were not developing/ modernizing as predicted –
evidence did not fit the theory→hence.. World System Theory developed out
of an attempt to explain the failure of certain states to develop.
- Looking at Latin America, their economies could not compete, global
capitalism forced certain countries into under- development
- Trade is asymmetrical
- Poor countries are dependent on rich states
World-system theory is a macrosociological perspective that seeks to
explain the dynamics of the “capitalist world economy” as a “total social
system”.
In 1976 Wallerstein published The Modern World System I: Capitalist
Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth
Century.
A world-system is a "multicultural territorial division of labor in which the
production and exchange of basic goods and raw materials is necessary for
the everyday life of its inhabitants."
KEY STRUCTURES OF THE CAPITALIST WORLD-SYSTEM
The division of the world into three great regions, or geographically based and
hierarchically organized tiers.
CORE - the powerful and developed centers of the system, originally
comprised of Western Europe and later expanded to include North America
and Japan.
PERIPHERY - those regions that have been forcibly subordinated to the
core through colonialism or other means, and in the formative years of the
capitalist world-system would include Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle
East and Eastern Europe.
SEMI-PERIPHERY - comprised of those states and regions that were
previously in the core and are moving down in this hierarchy, or those that
were previously in the periphery and are moving up. Semi-peripheral states
act as a BUFFER ZONE between core and periphery, and have a mix of the
kinds of activities and institutions that exist on them (Skocpol, 1977).
The powerful and wealthy "core" societies dominate and exploit weak
and poor peripheral societies
CAPITAL ACCUMULATION at a global scale, and necessarily involves the
appropriation and transformation of peripheral surplus.
The world system perpetuates dominance by the core and dependency of the
periphery.

9. GLOBALIZATION PERPETUATES INEQUALITY – the global economic
system is inherently unfair.
International organizations do not influence the fundamental position of core
and periphery because most NGOs and IGOs are created by core countries.
The idea that governments and international institutions can make the system
‘fair’ is an illusion (because they always reflect the interests of capitalists).
HEGEMONIC POWERS maintain a stable balance of power and enforce free
trade as long as it is to their advantage. However, HEGEMONY IS
TEMPORARY due to class struggles and the diffusion of technical
advantages.
Finally, there is a global class struggle. After our current stage, Wallerstein
envisions the emergence of a socialist world-government, which is the
only-alternative world-system that could maintain a high level of
productivity and change the distribution, by integrating the levels of
political and economic decision-making.
"GLOBALIZATION" refers to some assertedly new, chronologically recent,
process in which states are said to be no longer primary units of
decision-making, but are now, only now, finding themselves located in a
structure in which something called the "world market," a somewhat mystical
and surely reified entity, dictates the rule."
Wallerstein has also been uncomfortable with the notion that globalization is
inevitable. He believes that the political dominance of core states is the
linchpin for the world-system, and hence the instability of the 1970s
and 1980s might herald the unraveling of the world-system.
Immanuel Wallerstein argues that the modern world system emerged as
early as the 1500s through a series of economic transitions and now connects
all countries through a single division of labor.
THEORIES OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM
LESLIE SKLAIR
THE TRANSNATIONAL PRACTICES (TNP)
- The concept of globalization propounded here rejects both
state-centrism (realism) and globalism (the end of the state).
- The transnational conception of globalization postulates the existence
of a global system.
- Its basic units of analysis are transnational practices (TNP), practices
that cross-state boundaries but do not originate with state agencies or actors.
TNPs operate in THREE SPHERES
ECONOMIC - agent is transnational capital
POLITICAL - agent is a transnational capital class (TCC)
CULTURAL-IDEOLOGICAL- agents are cultural elites.
The whole world is the GLOBAL SYSTEM.
Transnational practices (TNPs) which originate with non- state actors and
cross-state borders.
His theory involves the idea of the TCC as a new class that brings together
several social groups who see their own interests in an expanding global
capitalist system:
- the executives of transnational corporations;
- ‘globalizing bureaucrats, politicians, and professionals’, and
- ‘consumerist elites’ in the media and the commercial sector (Sklair
2000).
WILLIAM ROBINSON - GLOBAL CAPITALISM
Global capitalism involving three planks:
- TRANSNATIONAL PRODUCTION
- TRANSNATIONAL CAPITALISTS
- TRANSNATIONAL STATE
EPOCHAL SHIFT has taken the place with the transition from a world
economy to a global economy.

10. WORLD ECONOMY - Each country developed a national economy that was
linked to others through trade and finances in an integrated international
market.
GLOBAL ECONOMY - 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.
Transnational class formation takes place around these globalized
circuits. Like Sklair, Robinson analyzes the rise of a Transnational
Capitalist Class (TCC) as the class group that manages these globalized
circuits.
EMERGENT TRANSNATIONAL STATE (TNS) APPARATUS
- However, in distinction to Sklair, for whom state structures play no
role in the global system, Robinson theorizes an emergent transnational state
(TNS) apparatus.
This Transnational State (TNS) is a loose network of supranational political
and economic institutions together with national state apparatuses that have
been penetrated and transformed by transnational forces.
SUPRANATIONALISM - refers to a large amount of power given to an
authority which in theory is placed higher than the state.
These ‘transnational state cadres’ act as midwives of capitalist globalization.
ANTONIO NEGRI AND MICHAEL HARDT
EMPIRE OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM
Empire is the form of sovereignty that exists under conditions of globalization.
Hardt and Negri are responding to the debate over whether global capitalism
has caused sovereignty to decline by arguing that while the nation-state’s
sovereignty is indeed declining this does not mean that sovereignty per
se is declining.
Rather sovereignty has been re-scaled from the level of the nation state to
the level of the global. State institutions continue to exist.
MANUEL CASTELLS
THE NETWORK SOCIETY - is a society whose social structure is made of
networks powered by microelectronics-based information and communication
technologies.
He is a Spanish sociologist especially associated with research on the
information society, communication and globalization.
We today live in “network society” whose “social structure is made of
networks powered by microelectronics-based information and communication
technologies.”
“It is not the logic of capitalist development but that of technological change
that is seen to exercise underlying causal determination in the myriad of
processes referred to as globalization”
(M. Castels).
This new economy is:
- INFORMATIONAL, knowledge-based
- GLOBAL, in that production is organized on global scale
- NETWORKED, in that productivity is generated through global
networks of interaction.
INTERNET - constructs a new symbolic environment, global in its reach,
which makes “virtuality a reality”.
Castells argues that globalization is a network of production, culture, and
power that is constantly shaped by advances in technology, which range from
communications technologies to genetic engineering.
Globalization represents a new ‘age of information’.
INFORMATION - has become the key substance of all human activity and is
directly integrated into culture, institutions and experience.
INFORMATIONALISM - refers to a technological paradigm that replaces and
subsumes the previous paradigm of industrialism (Castells 1996).

11. - is connected with the information revolution that begins after World
War II, covering developments associated with computer science and its
various expressions in electronics and telecommunication networks.
INDUSTRIALISM - was marked by a revolution in materials engineering
triggered by the Industrial Revolution.
DISTINCT FEATURES OF THE NEW SYMBOLIC ENVIRONMENT
SPACE OF FLOWS - information flows bring physical spaces closer through
networks
TIMELESS TIME - technology is able to manipulate the natural sequence of
event
REAL VIRTUALITY - based on a hypertext reality and global interconnection
which bends space and time relations.
What is the culture of a global network society?
Castells’ argues that “all societies are cultural constructs”. Therefore
within a global network society there should be an identifiable culture.
“The culture of the global network society is a culture of protocols of
communication enabling communication between different cultures on the
basis, not necessarily of shared values, but of sharing the value of
communication.”
CORE CONCEPTS
SPACE OF FLOWS AND TIMELESS TIME - The space of flows and timeless
time become ‘the material foundations of a new culture’ (1996)
CENTRAL THEME
(GLOBAL NETWORK SOCIETY)
The division of the world into those areas and segments of population
- switched on to the new technological system
- and those switched off or marginalized
SPACE OF FLOWS - This is the domain of networks – of capital, of
information, of business alliances, etc.
- He argues that “While organizations are located in places, . . . the
organizational logic is placeless, being fundamentally dependent on the space
of flows that characterizes information networks” (Castells in Nyíri, 2004, p.
23).
TIMELESS TIME - would appear where the consecutive activities that
characterize linear time were interrupted by the cross connections between
activities that come with our network society.
- Where the hypertext of the World-Wide-Web (WWW) enables us to
visit several very diverse documents at the same time, timeless time makes it
possible to be in several places at the same time and to participate in more
than one activity in one place. This may lead to a dramatic increase of
activities and a coagulation of linear time
REAL VIRTUALITY - There is no separation between reality and symbolic
representation.
- a state of existence and culture based on energy flows and timeless
time, reinforced by the global economy, social structures, new forms of life and
the diffusion of urban spaces.
THEORIES OF SPACE, PLACE AND GLOBALIZATION
ANTHONY GIDDENS
‘TIME-SPACE DISTANCIATION’
He defines ‘times-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 (1990: 64).
GLOBAL RISK SOCIETY
In Runaway World, Giddens provocatively argues that globalization has led to
the creation of a “global risk society.”
Human social and economic activities produce various risks such as pollution,
crime, new illnesses, food shortages, market crashes, wars, etc.,

12. DAVID HARVEY
TIME-SPACE COMPRESSION
The Condition of Postmodernity (1990), argues that globalization represents a
new burst of ‘time-space compression’ produced by the very dynamics of
capitalist development.
TIME-SPACE COMPRESSION - the process whereby time is reorganized in
such a way as to reduce the constraints of space, and vice-versa.
Harvey coined the term “time–space compression” to refer to the way the
acceleration of economic activities leads to the destruction of spatial barriers
and distances. Harvey argues that capital moves at a pace faster than ever
before, as the production, circulation, and exchange of capital happens at
ever-increasing speeds, particularly with the aid of advanced communication
and transportation technologies.
SASKIA SASSEN - THE GLOBAL CITY (1991)
- Sassen’s study is grounded in a larger body of literature on ‘world
cities’ that view world-class cities as sites of major production, finances or
coordination of the world economy within an international division of labor.
- Sassen proposes that a new spatial order is emerging under
globalization based on a network of global cities and led by New York,
London and Tokyo. These global cities are sites of specialized services
for transnationally mobile capital that is so central to the global economy.
Global cities linked to one another become ‘command posts’ of an
increasingly complex and globally fragmented production system.
FOUR KEY FUNCTIONS OF THE GLOBAL CITY
- they are highly concentrated command posts in the organization of the
world economy;
- they are key locations for finances and for specialized service firms
providing ‘producer services’, which are professional and corporate
services inputs for the leading global firms such as finances, insurance,
real estate, accounting, advertising, engineering and architectural design;
- they are sites for the production and innovation of these producer services
and also headquarters for producer-service firms;
- they are markets for the products and innovations produced in these cities.
In her book, Globalization and Its Discontents, Sassen became one of the first
scholars to argue that the international spread of the notion of human rights
could override distinctions of nationality and citizenship. Under a global human
rights regime, she argues, law must treat people as persons-qua-persons first,
and citizens only second.
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 - denotes a range of social, cultural and political
practices and states brought about by the sheer increase in social connectivity
across borders.
- as defined by Basch et al (1994) is “a process by which migrants,
through their daily life activities create social fields that cross national
boundaries”
AS A CONDITION, it means living in another country than their country of
origin.
Many social scientists agree that “transnationalism broadly refers to multiple
ties and interactions linking people or institutions across the borders of nation
states”
THEORIES OF GLOBAL CULTURE
Tomlinson 1999; Nederveen Pieterse 2004
Three main bodies of theory regarding the effects of globalization on local
culture:
- HOMOGENIZATION
- HYBRIDIZATION
- HETEROGENEITY OR POLARIZATION
Each of these processes can be demonstrated in different parts of the world.
HOMOGENIZATION - the name given to the process whereby globalization
causes one culture to consume another.

13. 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.
Many use the term Americanization to depict specifically the way that
American culture has been exported to all corners of the globe
HYBRIDIZATION - stresses new and constantly evolving cultural forms and
identities produced by manifold transnational processes and the fusion of
distinct cultural processes.
- Cultures are however rarely simply consumed. More often two cultures
clash and a new hybrid culture is formed.
POLARIZATION - Sometimes globalization can have the effect of intensifying
a local culture.
HETEROGENEITY - approaches see continued cultural difference and
highlight local cultural autonomy, cultural resistance to homogenization,
cultural clashes and polarization, and distinct subjective experiences of
globalization.
MARSHALL MCLUHAN
THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our
central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and
time as far as our planet is concerned.
- Marshall McLuhan, Understanding
Media, 1964.
His insights were revolutionary at the time, and fundamentally changed how
everyone has thought about media, technology, and communications ever
since. 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.
He 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
(Johnson 192).
McLuhan's second best known insight is summarized in the expression "the
medium is the message", which means that the qualities of a medium have
as much effect as the information it transmits.
ROLAND ROBERTSON
HOMOGENIZATION PERSPECTIVE
McDONALDIZATION - The 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” (Ritzer, 1993:19).
McDonaldization is the idea of a worldwide homogenization of cultures
through the effects of multinational corporations. The process involves a
formal consistency and logic transferred through corporate rules and
regulations.
The McDonaldization model refers to the principles of efficiency, calculability,
predictability, and control. In fact, the McDonald formula is a success for the
reason that it is efficient, quick and inexpensive, predictable and effective in
controlling both labor and its customers.
GLOCALIZATION - suggests that the global is only manifest in the local.
- 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 (Robertson 1995).
HOMOGENIZATION THEORY - sees a global cultural convergence and
would tend to highlight the rise of world beat, world cuisines, world tourism,
uniform consumption patterns and cosmopolitanism (Appadurai).
In his best known work 'Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural
Economy' Appadurai lays out his meta theory of disjuncture. For him the
‘new global cultural economy has to be seen as a complex, overlapping,
disjunctive order’.

14. MODULE 2 QUIZ
TRUE - The essence of global governance is a coordination of efforts by
governments, international organizations, civil society and other groups of
efforts to reduce/manage the threats of globalization and to promote the
benefits of globalization
TRUE - the lowering of trade and investment barriers allows firms to base
production at the optimal location for that activity
TRUE - international monetary system or regime refers to the rules , customs ,
instruments , authorities , and organizations for affecting international
payments
TRUE - International economic integration is a central tenet of globalization
TRUE - one of the effects of globalization on nation State is the establishment
of economic and political integration
TRUE - globalization began when prehistoric tribes settled and were unable to
out muscle wandering tribes
GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS AND TRADE - is an international
treaty that committed signatories to lowering barriers to the free flow of goods
across national borders and is the predecessor to the world trade organization
FALSE - The WTO replace GATT as an international organization but the
general agreement still exist as the wto's umbrella treaty for trade in goods ,
updated as a result of the room treaty negotiations
FALSE - after world war 2 , the advanced nations of the west committed
themselves to increasing barrier to the free flow of goods services and capital
between nations
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY SYSTEM - what organization was a century
to stabilize currency and eliminate destructive trade policies
the example of worker exploitation country can use workers from another
country to produce items in bulk AT LOWER LABOR COST
What was the economic impact of globalization?
- globalization has had and continues to have a tremendous influence
on corporations and government conduct globally it lowers the cost of
production , allowing businesses to charge their customers less for
their products . it favors the nation's revenue , loans and investments ,
access to global capital , and the standard living and working
conditions for workers
What is global governance and why is it important?
- Global governance refers to the political interaction that is required to
solve problems that affect more than one state or region when there is
no power to enforce compliance. It is important because it is opposed
to those who defend the sovereignty of states and mistrust.
BRETTON WOODS CONFERENCE - the world bank was set up following
which events