7.1 Perspectives on globalisation Flashcards
- Key definitions and issues, including globalisation, glocalisation, global culture, and problems with defining globalisation. - Different dimensions of globalisation including cultural, political and economic. - Perspectives on who benefits from globalisation, including the Marxist, feminist, postmodernist, globalist, sceptic and transformationalist perspectives.
Key definitions and issues
Globalisation
“The speed with which connections can be made between people, goods, services, info and ideas.”
However, it’s a multi-faceted concept and hard to define.
Key definitions and issues
What 4 consequences does Scholte (2000) claim globalisation has?
- The internationalisation of cross-border relationships between countries.
- The liberalisation of political/economic relationships, such as ‘removing government-imposed restrictions on movements between countries’.
- The universalisation of cultural forms, such as TV, that spread ‘various objects and experiences to people of all corners of the earth’.
- Modernisation, involving the spread of the social structure of modernity, such as capitalism, scientific rationalism and industrialism, across the world.
Key definitions and issues
Distanciation (Giddens)
This refers to the separation of time and space, so that individuals increasingly interact less face-to-face and more through, for example, the internet or money.
Key definitions and issues
Deterritorialisation
This is where there is no longer a clear relationship between cultural, political and economic activities and specific geographical locations, e.g. King’s Interhigh.
Key definitions and issues
Disembedding
The idea that things are seperated from their original surroundings and contexts, for example, phone transactions replacing coins/notes.
Key definitions and issues
How can the disembedding of people occur?
- Global communication between strangers in different parts of the world is possible and takes place in the ‘cyberspace’ which has no physical existence.
- Physical disembedding - such as, how people define themselves in terms of national/global identities, e.g. British Pakistani.
- Cultural disembedding in relation to the development of hybrid cultures.
Key definitions and issues
Hybrid cultures
Mixing elements of different cultures to produce something new.
Key definitions and issues
Examples of cultural hybridity
- Creole music and language
- Global restaurants
- Films
Key definitions and issues
Creole languages
New languages developed from simplifying and blending different languages that come into contact with a particular population at a specific point in time.
Key definitions and issues
Louisiana creole
Developed in the US as a result of a combo of African and European languages (French and English).
Key definitions and issues
How are global restaurants an example of cultural hybridity?
Global restaurant chains like McDonalds have modified their menus to suit the tastes of different cultures.
For example, the Maharaja Mac in India, which was a Big Mac except with a chicken/veggie patty, was introduced to comply with food restrictions around eating beef.
Key definitions and issues
How are films an example of cultural hybridity?
Martial art films in the US such as ‘Karate Kid’ have adapted traditional Asian cultural elements to suit the tastes of the American viewing public.
Key definitions and issues
Simulacra
A “representation that refers to other representations” according to Baudrillard.
Links closely to the concept of disembedding.
For example, a phone call or an e-mail becomes as real as talking to someone face-to-face, or a credit card as real as banknotes/coins.
Key definitions and issues
When disembedding takes place, what happens to the origins of the original?
They are lost.
The simulation becomes the same status as whatever it is simulating.
Key definitions and issues
Glocalisation
A combination of globalisation and localisation.
When global cultural products, ideas and behaviours are interpreted, adapted and used differently in local settings.
Key definitions and issues
What is glocalisation according to Adamu (2003)?
When “global events and processes interact with local events and processes.”
Key definitions and issues
What does Malone (2002) argue about glocalisation?
Glocalisation is a form of hybridity.
Key definitions and issues
Examples of glocalisation
- A family having strong kind/friendship networks both globally and locally.
- A business operating globally, but with local branches adapting to specific local circumstances.
Key definitions and issues
Mundialisation
A form of glocalisation where more than 1000 cities from around the world have declared themselves to be ‘world citizen cities’.
They are characterised by asserting global rights and responsibilities and are trying to work together to act on global issues.
Key definitions and issues
Appadurai (1990)
Appadurai rejected the idea that globalised, homgenous forms are picked up by individual cultures.
He argued that these are inter-relationships and should be seen as a variety of ‘scapes’.
Key definitions and issues
Scapes
Imagined worlds that cross territorial borders and are connected in a variety of ways.
Local cultural concepts spread across national boundaries, both influencing and being influenced by the ideas and the relationships they encounter.
Key definitions and issues
Types of scapes
- Ethnoscapes - how people of different cultures physically interact.
- Technoscapes - the interaction of different forms of technology and its cultural adaptions and uses.
- Finanscapes - the interplay of financial relationships and their effect on political and social culture.
- Mediascapes - the flow of information across different societies and cultures.
- Ideoscapes - how people interact in terms of the flow of ideas and images.
Key definitions and issues
Marshall McLuhan’s global village
Coined the term ‘global village’, he said that electronic media had metaphorically turned the world into a village where communication was instant and people around the world could become more informed about the lives of others and feel more involved and responsible for these lives.
Different dimensions of globalisation
What are the 3 dimensions of globalisation?
- Cultural
- Political
- Economic
Different dimensions of globalisation
Examples of the cultural dimensions of globalisation
- Global info and communication systems.
- Global patterns of consumerism, such as clothing, diet and tech.
- Cosmopolitan lifestyles.
- Global sport, including events such as the Olympic Games and Football World Cup.
Different dimensions of globalisation
Exmples of the political dimensions of globalisation
- Liberal democracy has been spreading.
- Political ideas such as human rights/gender equality have been spread and accepted globally.
- Some nation states have given up some political power to smaller, more local political structures.
- Some issues are becoming too big for nation states to deal with alone.
Different dimensions of globalisation
Examples of the economic dimensions of globalisation
- Capital mobility is common where companies and investments move into and out of different companies as the ned for profit and economic policy dictate.
- Labour mobility, as people more from place to place for work.
- Information mobility helps the development of a range of global financial and other services.
- The growth of TNCs.
- Use of global commodity chains where goods are assembled all around the world with parts from all around the world.
- Castell’s argues that we are now in a phase of globalised capitalism.
The traditional Marxist approach - who benefits from globalisation?
What did Marx argue about the capitalist system in Britain in the 19th century?
He argued the capitalist system was already operating globally, not just in Britain.
The traditional Marxist approach - who benefits from globalisation?
What did Marx predict about capitalism?
That it would continue to become a global system, with earlier modes of production disappearing.
Also that it would develop beyond national boundaries.
The traditional Marxist approach - who benefits from globalisation?
What did Marx predict a growing division between worldwide?
The bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
The traditional Marxist approach - who benefits from globalisation?
How did Marx claim the proletariat needed to act in order to replace capitalism?
They needed to unite to protect their interests and move towards the socialist system to protect capitalism.
