MODULE: SS02: THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

CHAPTER 2: THEORIES OF GLOBALIZATION

Objectives:
At the end of this module, the learners must have:
 articulated perspectives or theories of globalization;
 integrated theories of globalization in understanding issues and
events in the contemporary world.

Introduction

Globalization is usually used as the spread and connectedness of

production, communication and technologies across the world. That
spread has involved the interlacing of economic and cultural activity.
Others would also refer globalisation with the presence of world-wide
organization like united nation, World Bank and International Monetary
Fund. The speed of communication and exchange, the complexity and
size of the networks involved, and the sheer volume of trade, interaction
and risk is what we now label as “globalization.”

Theories of Globalization

1. The World System Theory

This theory was proposed by Emmanuel Wallerstien (Goldfrank

2000). A world-system is multicultural territorial division of labor which
production and exchange of basic goods and raw materials is necessary for
the everyday life of its inhabitants.

He pointed out that some nation-state failed to develop due to

asymmetrical trade in global capitalism making them difficult to compete
and become dependent to rich nation–states. For him globalization
represents the triumph of a capitalist world economy. For a tie, certain
countries become the world hegemon. The key structure of the capitalist
world-system is the division of the world into three great regions, or
geographically based and hierarchically organized tiers: the core, semi-
periphery and the periphery. The core countries focus in higher skill, capital
intensive production and the rest of the world focuses on low-skill, labor-
intensive production and extraction of raw materials.
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The world system perpetuates dominance by the core and

dependency of the periphery. Thus in this view, globalization also
perpetuates inequality- global economic system is inherently unfair.

2. Theories of Global Capitalism

a. Leslie Sklair’s transnational Practices (TNP).

According to Sklair (2000) transnational practices
operate in three spheres; the economic, political and
the cultural-ideological. These practices originate
with non-state actors and cross state borders. The
economic spheres, whose agent is transnational
capital-the executives of transnational
corporations. The political spheres, whose agent is a
transnational capitalist class-they are the
globalizing bureaucrats, politicians and
professionals. Then the cultural- ideological, whose agent is cultural elites-
the consumerist elites in the media and commercial sectors.

b. William Robinson’s Transnational State

Apparatus. For Robinson (2017), Global
capitalism evolved an epochal shift. From
world economy to global economy. World
Economy, wherein each country developed a
national economy that was linked to others
through trade and finances in an integrated
international market. Global Economy the
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.
Furthermore, this global capitalism involves three planks: (a) transnational
production - integration of every country and much of humanity into a new
globalized system of production, finance, and services; (b) transnational
capitalists - made up of the owners and managers of transnational capital. Its
interests lie in promoting global, not national, circuits of accumulation; and (c)
transnational state - a supranational political authority (Robinson, 2017).
Robinson (2017) referred The Transnational State (TNS) is a loose
network comprised of supranational political and economic institutions
together with national state apparatuses that have been penetrated and
transformed by transnational forces. National states as components of a
larger TNS structure now tend to serve the interests of global over national
accumulation processes. The supranational organizations are staffed by
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transnational functionaries and whose find their counterparts in

transnational functionaries who staff transformed national states.

3. The Network Society by Manuel Castell

A network society is a society whose social structure is made
up of networks powered by microelectronics-based
information and communication technologies.

Globalization is seen to exercise the technological change in

various ways and processes. This new economy is described
as informational which is knowledge based, production of
information is organized on a global scale and global
network interaction is used for productivity. Whereby,
internet usher the constructions of a new symbolic
environment which makes “virtuality a reality” ( Castell,
2005). Emmanuel Wallerstein

This new symbolic environment is characterized with: SPACE

OF FLOWS, in which informational flows bring physical spaces closer
through networks; TIMELESS TIME in which technology is able to
manipulate the natural sequence of events; and REAL VIRTUALITY
based on a hypertext reality and global interconnection which bends
space and time relations.
Castell also argues that globalization is a network of
production, culture and power that is constantly shaped by advances
in technology, which range from communication technologies to
genetic engineering. This globalization represents a new age of
information (2005).
Information has become the key substance of all human
activity and is directly integrated into culture, institutions and
experience. The development of new information technology (IT), in
particular, computers and the Internet, representing a new
technological paradigm and leading to a new “mode of development”
that Castells terms “informationalism.” Informationalism refers to a
technological paradigm that replaces and subsumes the previous
paradigm of industrialism.
Yet, castells (2005) mentioned that it creates digital divide, the
division of the world into those areas and segments of population.
Segment that switched on to the new technological system and
segment that switched off or the marginalized. With it, information
age does not necessarily mean that the world has become flat, rather
with technological advance Castell argues that it creates a global
forms of exclusion and inclusions, fragmentation and integration.
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4. Theories of Space, Place and Globalization

a. Time-Space-Distanciation by Anthony Giddens

Giddens defines time-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
b. Global Risk Society by Anthony Giddens
Giddens (2009) provocatively argues that globalization has
led to the creation of a “global risk society.” Human social and
economic activities, especially in modernity, produce various risks
such as pollution, crime, new illnesses, food shortages, market
crashes, wars, etc., and societies have become more responsible
for managing these risks that their activities intentionally or, more
often than not, unintentionally produced.

c. Time-Space-Compression” by David Harvey

Time-space compression is the process whereby time is

reorganized in such a way as to reduce the constraints of space,
and vice-versa. It also refers to the way the acceleration of
economic activities leads to the destruction of spatial barriers and
distances.

5. 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 refers to the multiple ties and

interactions linking people or institutions across the borders of
nation states. Transnationalism means living in another country
than their country of origin. It is “a process by which migrants,
through their daily life activities create social fields that cross
national boundaries.” Immigrant communities do not de-link
themselves from their home country; instead, they keep and nourish
their linkages to their place of origin (Sánchez, 2010).
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6. Theories of Global Culture

There are three main bodies of theory regarding the effects of

globalization on local culture: homogenization, hybridization and
heterogeneity or polarization. Each of these processes can be
demonstrated in different parts of the world.
• Homogenization is the name given to the process whereby
globalization causes one culture to consume another.
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 (Appadurai). Many use the term
Americanization to depict specifically the way that American
culture has been exported to all corners of the globe.
• Hybridization - Cultures are however rarely simply consumed.
More often two cultures clash and a new hybrid culture is
formed. Hybridization stresses new and constantly evolving
cultural forms and identities produced by manifold
transnational processes and the fusion of distinct cultural
processes.
• Polarization or heterogeneity - this condition continued
cultural difference and highlight local cultural autonomy,
cultural resistance to homogenization, cultural clashes and
polarization, and distinct subjective experiences of
globalization.

7. Global Village by Marshall McLuhan

The late Marshall McLuhan, a media and communication

theorist, 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.
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.
Moreover, his insight known as “the medium is the message”
suggests that the qualities of a medium have as much effect as the
information it transmits. It is from this that various medium are used
to convey information in best way possible it is.
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8. McDonaldization by George Ritzer

Ritzer (1996) claimed that the contemporary world is
undergoing process of Mcdonaldization. McDonaldization 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.” The said theory follows the Four Main
Dimensions such as;
Efficiency - The optimum method of completing a task. It is
he rational determination of the best mode of production.
Individuality is not allowed.
Calculability - The assessment of outcomes based on
quantifiable rather than subjective criteria. In other words, quantity
over quality. They sell the Big Mac, not the Good Mac.
Predictability - The production process is organized to
guarantee uniformity of product and standardized outcomes. All
shopping malls begin to look the same and all highway exits have the
same assortment of businesses.
Control - The substitution of more predictable non-human
labor for human labor, either through automation or the deskilling
of the work force.

9. Glocalization by Roland Robertson

The theory of Robertson suggested that the global is only

manifested in the local. GLOCALIZATION 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.

10. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global

Cultural Economy” by Arjun Appadurai
For anthropologist Arjun Appadurai (1997), different kinds of
globalization occur on multiple and intersecting dimensions of
integration that he calls “scapes.” Appadaurai uses the suffix SCAPE
to connote the idea that these processes have fluid, irregular, variable
shapes. Mediascapes are about the flows of image and
communication. Ethnoscapes are concerned with the flows of
individuals around the world. Ideoscapes deal with exchanges of
ideas and ideologies. Technoscapes refer to the flows of technology
and skills to create linkages between organizations around the world.
Financescapes relate to the interactions associated with money and
capital.
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Summary

Various perspectives have described how globalization take part

in the world wide social relation. The world system theory of Emmanuel
Wallerstein discussed the regions of globalization; core, semi-periphery
and the periphery which described the opposing scenario of the world.
The global capitalism that examined the transnational production and
global economy. Another was the network society of Manuel Castells,
showing the informational change made by technological advancement.
Notable theory was the work of Anthony Giddens, expressing that
globalization diminished time and space. He also cited the risk of
globalization in many aspects of the world.
On the aspect of global culture, there are three main bodies of
theory regarding the effects of globalization on local culture:
homogenization, hybridization and heterogeneity or polarization.
Moreover the idea of “global village” was introduced by Marshall
McLuhan, that technological advancement was made as culture was
shared and spread. Another famous theory was the McDonaldization
theory of George Ritzer, the westernization of the world and the principle
of a fast- food chain process.
Meanwhile Roland Robertson stresses upon the significance of the
local or the communal which can be viewed as one ingredient of the
overall globalization process. And finally the theory of Arjun Appadurai
suggested that globalization occurs in different dimensions he calls
scapes.

Video Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQIVIYCZ4ec
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo6W4kDv0cA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTRTF85ozZM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzD87hG-h7k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdO5L5uSBP4

References:

Aldama, Prince Kennex. Chapter 2 of the book: "The

Contemporary World," pp. 12-13.
Aldama, K. (2018). The Contemporary World.Manila,
Philippines: Rex Book Store.