Globalization is a word used to describe the integration of regional economies, cultures, society through a global network of communication, transportation and trade. The word globalization, though a widely-used term that comes with many different definitions, when used within an economic context, it is identified by the United Nations ESCWA as the reduction and removal of barriers between national borders in order to facilitate the flow of goods, capital, services and labor. [1] Author Thomas L. Friedman, refers to the impact of globalization as the “flattening” of the world, argues that the world has been changed permanently due to globalized trade, outsourcing and political forces, for better or for worse. [2] We all see globalization continuously growing and making an impact on the world, however, what we don’t realize is that globalization is only part of something bigger; Naom Chomsky refers to globalization as only a part of international integration. [3]
Globalization has a range of aspects that affects the world and these affects takes place in areas such as, financial, economical, social, political, industrial, technological and cultural. Many believe globalization is promoting ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic diversity within nation-states. [4] Some of the positive effects that have taken place due to globalization. In the development of third world nations, globalization has been seen as a positive force that helps countries out of poverty. Geographic diversification has adjusted overall portfolio risks for long-term global investors. The end of United States and European economic dominance in the world while the emerging economies of the BRIC countries has been predicted to be larger than that of the current G7. One other important positive effect globalization has had in the world is the democratizing of communication. According to the book written by James Curran and Myung-Jin Park, De-Westernizing Media Studies, new media crossing national frontiers are giving people access to information and ideas that those in authority, in national society, have sought to suppress. [5] One of the biggest changes we have seen today is the development of the internet. Exchanging of information via the internet is playing a major role in the democratization of many countries. [6]
While there are positive effects, there are also the negative sides to globalization. Even though globalization and the liberation of trade have been popular amongst many, there are still significant oppositions internationally over the increase in inequality and the degradation of the environment. The negative effect has been seen in textile industry and the agriculture industry of United States. With the rise of the BRIC countries and its low labor costs, places like Midwestern United States have lost its competitive edge.
In the book, De-Westernizing Media Studies, Curren and Park discuss two distinctively different views between that of cultural theorists and political economists. According to the cultural globalization literature, the state and nation tend to be associated with hierarchy, monolithic structures, historically contingent identities, repressed cultures, spatial competition, and war. [5] Thus cultural globalization is regarded in a more positive light because it refers to the diminishing of the nation. While on the other hand, the political economy literature has a less schooled approach, with on strand attacking the corrupting legacy of nationalism as the worm inside the apple of social democracy, and disputing liberal notions of state as illusory. [5] Political economists still mainly believe that the nation is where democracy is organized. Nevertheless, the two notions do agree on one thing, the “nation” is in dire trouble. [5] While Anthony Giddens simply states that the “era of the nation state is over.”[7]
[1] Annual Review of Developments in Globalization and Regional Integration in the Countries of the ESCWA Region. Rep. no. 02-0789. New York: United Nations, 2002. Print.
[2] Friedman, Thomas L. The World Is Flat: a Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. Print.
[3] Chomsky, Noam. What Is Globalization? YouTube. 26 Mar. 2007. Web. 05 Jan. 2011
[4] Robins, Kevin. Programming for People: from Cultural Rights to Cultural Responsibilities : United Nations World Television Forum, New York, 19-21 November 1997. New Castle: Centre for Urban and Reginal Development Studies, University of Newcaastle and European Broadcasting Union, 1997. Print.
[5] Curran, James, and Myung-Jin Park. De-Westernizing Media Studies. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.
[6] Buzgalin,Iagin. Towards The Theory of Alter Globalism Ghost of Alter Globalization. Russia. 2009. Print.
[7] Giddens, Anthony. Comment: the 1999 Reith lecture, New World without End. Observer. 1999. Print.
You speak at the end about the death of the nation. I was wondering how you see globalization shaping the world in the future. What is next for the world if nations disappear? I'm curious what your perspective is on a singular global economy if thats what you believe may be the ultimate end point for globalization. Also, you speak about the loss of the competative edge in the midwest. Would a global economy or larger economic unions solve the lack of competitive advantage, or has America's heartland lost any hope?
ReplyDeleteI believe that there is good and bad to the notion of "the death of the nation". I personally believe that If the world were to become a singular global economy, it wouldn't necessarily be a pleasant place to live. Without competition we are left without variety and without variety (regardless products or even within politics) we would become a world under Marxist beliefs. A unified world, a communist world.
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