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Globalization
Globalization is the
increasing
interconnectedness of
people and places as a
result of advances in
transport,
communication, and
information
technologies that cause
political, economic, and
cultural convergence.
Trade
• The tremendous growth of international trade over
the past several decades has been both a primary
cause and effect of globalization.
• The volume of world trade since 1950 has increased
from $320 billion to $6.8 trillion. This increase in the
trade of manufactured goods exceeds the increase in
the rate of the production of these goods by three
times. As a result, consumers around the world now
enjoy a broader selection of products than ever
before.
• Although increased international trade has spurred
tremendous economic growth across the globe —
raising incomes, creating jobs, reducing prices, and
increasing workers’ earning power — trade can also
bring about certain kinds of economic, political, and
social disruption.
Technology
• Information Technology (IT) is a driving factor in the
process of globalization.
• Improvements in the early 1990s in computer hardware,
software, and telecommunications have caused
widespread improvements in access to information and
economic potential. These advances have facilitated
efficiency gains in all sectors of the economy.
• IT provides the communication network that facilitates the
expansion of products, ideas, and resources among
nations and among people regardless of geographic
location. Creating efficient and effective channels to
exchange information, IT has been the catalyst for global
integration.
Globalization vs. Local Cultures
• The globalization of the production and distribution of goods and
services is a welcome development for many people in that it offers them
access to products that they would not otherwise have.
• However, some are concerned that the changes brought about by
globalization threaten the viability of locally made products and the
people who produce them. For example, the new availability of foreign
foods in a market—often at cheaper prices—can displace local farmers
who have traditionally earned a living by working their small plots of
family-owned land and selling their goods locally.
• Globalization, of course, does more than simply increase the availability
of foreign-made consumer products and disrupt traditional producers. It
is also increasing international trade in cultural products and services,
such as movies, music, and publications. The expansion of trade in
cultural products is increasing the exposure of all societies to foreign
cultures. And the exposure to foreign cultural goods frequently brings
about changes in local cultures, values, and traditions. Although there is
no consensus on the consequences of globalization on national cultures,
many people believe that a people's exposure to foreign culture can
undermine their own cultural identity.
Cultural Impacts of Globalization
1. the development of a new culture of the
globally connected professionals and
especially business elites;
2. the proliferation of pop culture—which
many critics complain is primarily
American; and
3. the diffusion of beliefs and values about
broader issues such as human rights and
other social mores.
Pop Culture
• Critics of globalization charge that the phenomenon,
especially through pop culture, is perpetrating a kind of
cultural genocide on the world—that the largest, most
dominant cultures are becoming larger and more
dominant at the expense of many others. In this view,
globalization is in fact another word for Americanization.
• However, others argue that globalization offers the
potential to enrich the world culturally. To these people,
the notion that the opportunities for cultural exchange
brought about by globalization can help promote
tolerance and diversity is very attractive. Their vision is
the multi-cultural "global village," where ideas and
practices can be freely exchanged and appreciated.
Human Rights
• Other observers have suggested that globalization leads
to effects beyond simply raising awareness and
sympathy for people and events in other nations. There
is also a diffusion of values on issues such as human
rights, democracy, and even on very specific concerns
such as health matters.
• The era of globalization is also the era of the individual.
Revolutionary innovations in technology and
telecommunications have empowered the individual, for
better or worse, to exercise a previously unthinkable
degree of self-expression. The same age that has seen
the advent of the threat of global terror networks is also
the one that has given birth to YouTube.
The IMF & the World Bank
• In July 1944, representatives of the U.S., G.B., France, Russia, and 40
other countries met at Bretton Woods, a resort in New Hampshire, to lay
the foundation for the post-war international financial order. Such a new
system, they hoped, would prevent another worldwide economic cataclysm
like the Great Depression that had destabilized Europe and the U.S. in the
1930s and had contributed to the rise of Fascism and the war.
• Therefore, the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, as the
Bretton Woods conference was officially called, created the International
Monetary Fund (the IMF) and the World Bank to prevent economic crises
and to rebuild economies shattered by the war.
• The IMF would be aimed at stabilizing global financial markets and national
currencies by providing the resources to establish secure monetary policy
and exchange rate regimes, while the World Bank would rebuild Europe by
facilitating investment in reconstruction and development.
• Although intended to benefit the global economy and contribute to world
peace, however, the World Bank and the IMF, collectively referred to as
international financial institutions (IFIs), have become primary targets in
the anti-globalization movement. In many countries, they are resented and
are viewed as imposing Western-style capitalism on developing countries
without regard to the social effects.
Controversy
• Proponents of globalization
argue that it allows poor
countries and their citizens to
develop economically and raise
their standards of living, while
opponents of globalization
claim that the creation of a
loose international free market
has benefited multinational
corporations in the Western
world at the expense of local
enterprises, local cultures, and
common people.
Works Cited
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization
• http://www.globalization101.org/index.html