Professional Documents
Culture Documents
WEEK5LESSONTCW
WEEK5LESSONTCW
A World of Regions
The Global Divides: The North and the South
Understanding Global Stratification
A World of Ideas
Media and Globalization
The Globalization of Religion
Global Citizenship
Global Citizenship
LESSON 1: WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION?
Different scholars have different viewpoints of what globalization is. Some would view
globalization as a positive phenomenon, some would see its detrimental effects on society which
cannot be separated from issues of global economic and cultural imperialism.
OBJECTIVES:
PRE-READING ACTIVITY
Before reading the text below, choose whether to create a poster/collage, compose and perform
a song, or compose poem and deliver spoken poetry which depicts your concept of the world
today. Writing a short paragraph of description of our present world is also an option. Document
your choice and what you did.
READING
Giddens (1990) points out that globalization is the intensification of worldwide social
relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events
occurring many miles and away. In a conference in 2000, Giddens explained, “globalization is not
a single set of processes and does not lead into a single direction. It produces solidarities in some
places and destroys them in others. It has quite different consequences on one side of the world
from the other. In other words, it is a wholly contradictory process. It is not just about
fragmentation. I see it more as a shake-out of institutions in which new forms of unity go along
with new forms of unity go along with new forms of fragmentation.” Wallerstein (1998) believes
that globalization is a reflection of the triumph of a capitalist world economy bonded by a global
division of labour. Khor (1995) in discussing the world politics expressed that globalization has
long been experienced by the Third World called colonization.
One of the most popular definitions of globalization is provided by Steger (2009) which
defined globalization as a set of social processes that appear to transform our present social
condition of weakening nationality into one globality. It is about the unprecedented compression
of time and space as a result of political, economic and cultural change, as well as powerful
technological innovations. Manfred further differentiated globalization, globality and globalism.
While globalization is a process, globality signifies a future social condition characterized by thick
economic, political and cultural interconnections and global flows that make currently existing
political borders and economic barriers irrelevant. On the other hand, globalism means
globalization as an ideology reflecting shared ideas, norms, values accepted as truth. He adds
that there are three kinds of globalism namely:
Economic: ‘The economic dimension of globalization’ explores how the way people have
undertaken economic production has changed. The global economic order emerged after
World War II, when the Bretton Woods Conference laid the foundations for the IMF, World
Bank, and WTO. In the 1980s neoliberalism liberalized financial transactions. However,
this unstable growth led to the Great Financial Crash, where banks traded toxic assets
without regulation. Transnational corporations rival nation-states in economic power, and
have had a profound effect on the structure and function of the global economy. The
Washington Consensus was drafted to reform indebted developing countries, but it has
thus far rarely helped countries develop.
▪ internationalizing of production
▪ globalizing of finance and securities trading
▪ changing international division of labor
▪ vast migratory movements from South to North
▪ competitive environment that accelerates these processes
▪ internationalizing of the state making states into agencies of the globalizing
world
POST READING ACTIVITY
1. Craft your own personal definition of globalization based on how you have experienced it.
Relate your definition to your outputs about depicting the contemporary world.
Holm, Hans-Henrik and Georg Sorensen (1995) “Introduction: What Has Changed?” in Hans-
Henrik Holm and Georg Sorensen, eds., Whose World Order? Uneven Globalization and the
End of the Cold War (Boulder, CO: Westview), 1–17.
Kanter, Rosabeth Moss (1995). World Class: Thriving Locally in the Global Economy (New
York: Simon and Schuster, as cited in J. A. Scholte, “The Globalization of World Politics”, in
J. Baylis and S. Smith (eds.), The Globalization of World Politics, An Introduction to
International Relations. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Khor, Martin (1995). "Address to the International Forum on Globalization," New York City.
Mcgrew, A. (1990). A Global Society: Modernity and its Futures as cited by Brazalote and
Leonardo (2019) The Contemporary World: Outcome-Based Module. Quezon City: C & E
Publishing Inc.
Steger, Manfred. B. (2009). Globalization: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Wallerstein, Immanuel (1974). The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins
of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. New York: Academic Press.
https://gened.fas.harvard.edu/urgent-problems-enduring-questions
LESSON 2: THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
The Global economy alludes to different financial exercises among various nations with
either negative or beneficial outcomes. The idea of a world economy is identified with regular day
to day existence dependent on the interconnected idea of the different countries around the world.
Exchange interrelations are noteworthy pointers of the worldwide economy. Thus, the growth of
globalization of the world's economies to a great extent is dependent on the advancement of
science and technology. Notwithstanding the drawbacks, globalization is still changing the world.
Socially, it has encouraged the trading of thoughts and societies, adding to a world view wherein
individuals are progressively open and lenient of each other.
OBJECTIVES:
HELPFUL POINTS
Economic Globalization
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) regards “economic globalization’ as a historical
process representing the result of human innovation and technological progress. It is
characterized by the increasing integration of economies around the world through the movement
of goods, services, and capital across borders. These changes are the products of people,
organizations, institutions, and technologies. As with all other processes of globalization, there is
a qualitative and subjective element to this definition.
According to the United Nations (as cited by Shangquan, 2000), economic globalization
refers to the increasing interdependence of world economies as a result of the growing scale of
cross-border trade of commodities and services, flow of international capital and wide and rapid
spread of technologies. It reflects the continuing expansion and mutual integration of market
frontiers, and is an irreversible trend for the economic development in the whole world at the turn
of the millennium.
International Trade
The conclusion of World War ll signaled the beginning of trade facilitation around the
globe. Economies set rules and guidelines for international trade which led to the formation of
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). These trade rules were developed through
series of rounds or meetings of member ‘economies.
International Trade (IT) is the process and system when goods, commodities, services
cross national economy, and boundaries in exchange for money or goods of another country
(Balaam and Veseth, 2008). Global trade has grown dramatically since the post-cold war era as
a result of increasing demand of goods and services of countries. This global norm is a reflection
of growing practice of internationalizing and globalizing local products and services.
Trade Theories
There are two types of trade theories explaining international trade.
• Descriptive Theory. It deals with the natural order and movement of trade. it describes
the pattern of trade under the idea of laissez faire, a French term which means "leave
alone". It refers to the notion that individuals are the best economic agents to solve the
problems through invisible hand rather than the government ‘policies. Descriptive theory
addresses the questions of which product to trade, how much product to offer and
produce, and which country to trade in the absence of government restrictions.
• Prescriptive Theory. This prescribes whether government, an important economic
institution, should interfere and restrict with the movement of goods and services. This
theory views government to have participation in deciding which countries to alter the
amount, composition and direction of goods. The pressing question describing descriptive
theory is “Should the government control trade?”
• Economic Liberals
David Ricardo and Adam Smith were known critics of late-eighteenth century on the abuses of
mercantilism in England. Their liberal ideas and contribution in understanding global trade are still
relevant until today. For Ricardo, his influential work Law of Comparative Advantage explains that
free trade efficiency is attainable if two countries can produce more goods and trade products
separately. The advantage of this theory in international trade is deriving from the principle of
specialization and division of labor (Nau, 2009). Countries have different resources and talents;
they are better in performing in that economic activity than other economic activities
• Mercantilism
An economic theory emerged from about 1500-1800. This period was the emerging eras of
nations-states and the formation of more central governments. This system flourished due to the
following reasons:
▪ Higher export than import.
▪ Export less high valued product and import less high valued product
▪ The benefits of colonial powers.
• Structuralists
The earliest wave of mercantilism was described as classical imperialism. The drive of European
countries to explore and colonize underdeveloped countries originated from the aggressive
mercantilist behavior of European economies. This idea was extended to the practice of modern
capitalist-imperialist approach by countries and economies that have the immense resource
through the use of hard power over developing and less developed countries.
The Modern World System (MWS) theory deveIoped by Immanuel Wallerstein, explains the
contact of economies between core, semi peripheral, and peripheral countries in the world. The
core states have the absolute advantage over the other through unequal exchange and extraction
of raw materials from periphery and semi-periphery.
Thus, the economic globalization and market integration of the 21 st century are extensions of the
same economic motives of imperial powers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Balaam
and Veseth, 2008)
ACTIVITY
Globalization allows for a worldwide exchange of most of the commodities that we consume.
This activity will allow you to investigate the origin and spread of the products and services sold
in our country. You will also be able to know the countries involved in the production,
distribution, and consumption of the products being sold and consumed in the country. The
following are the steps to accomplish this activity:
2. List down the main ingredients or raw materials in manufacturing the chosen product. Identify
the corresponding country from which each ingredient or raw material came from.
3. Identify the countries involved in the manufacturing of the chosen product. Indicate the
corresponding service the country does for the product (e.g., Costa Rica planting of coffee
beans).
4. Aside from the Philippines, list other countries where the product is being sold. Cite the kinds
of technology that made the creation of the product possible. Consider communications and
transportation.
5. Write one to three statements about the creation of the product and answer the following
questions:
• How do economic trading institutions influence global economic activity?
• How does it affect the Philippine economy?
• Does the position of rich countries as giants in the economic chain threaten the status of
less developed countries in the global market?
REFERENCES
Balaam, D and Vesseth, M. (2008), Introduction to International Political Economy, 4th ed.
Pearson Prentice Hall, Pearson Education, Inc.
De Ocampo, F., Ramos, B., Llomora, R.,Macaraeg, A., David, M.A. (2018), Introduction to
Contemporary World. St. Andrew Publishing House.
Claudio, L., Abinales, P. (2018), The Contemporary World. C & E Publishing, Inc.,
OBJECTIVES:
HELPFUL POINTS
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization
(WTO)
According to Feet (2003), global trade and finance was greatly affected by the Bretton
Woods system. One of the systems born out of Bretton Woods was the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that was established in 1947 [Goldstein et al., 2007). GATT was a forum
for the meeting of representatives from 23 member countries. It focused on trade goods through
multinational trade agreements conducted in many rounds of negotiation. However, “it was out of
the Uruguay Round (1986-1993) that an agreement was reached to create the World Trade
Organization (WTO)” (Ritzer, 2015).
The WTO headquarters is located in Geneva, Switzerland with 152 member states as of
2008 (Trachtman, 2007). Unlike GATT, WTO is an independent multilateral organization that
became responsible for trade in services, non-tarriff-related barriers to trade, and other broader
areas of trade liberalization, an example cited by Ritzer (2015) was that of the “differences
between nations in relation to regulations on items as manufactured goods or food. A given nation
can be taken to task for such regulations if they are deemed to be an unfair restraint on the trade
in such items”.
ACTIVITY
b. Research the origin and history of the institution you have chosen;
Boughton, J. (2007) Bretton Woods System. In Scholte, J.A & Robertson, R. (eds.) Encyclopedia
of Globalization. New York: MTM Publishing
Claudio, L., Abinales, P. (2018), The Contemporary World. C & E Publishing, Inc., Goldstein,
J.L., Rivers, D.& Tomz, M. (2007). Institutions in international relations: Understanding the
effects of the GATT and the WTO. International Organization.
This lesson will begin with a short narration of some events that occurred 400 years ago
and the challenges that most governments face amid globalization. It will also tackle the different
institutions that govern international relations in order to facilitate connections among nation-
states.
OBJECTIVES:
HELPFUL POINTS
The origins of the present-day concept of Sovereignty can be traced back to the Treaty of
Westphalia, which was a set of agreements signed in 1648 to end the thirty years’ war between
the major continental powers of Europe. The Westphalian system provided stability for the nations
of Europe, until it faced its major challenge by Napoleon Bonaparte. The latter believed in
spreading the principles of the French Revolution - liberty, equality and fraternity to the rest of
Europe. Despite the challenge of Napoleon to the Westphalian system and the eventual collapse
of the Concert of Europe after World War I, present-day international system has traces of this
history.
One of the key aspects of state sovereignty is the government. It is a group of people who
have the ultimate authority to act on behalf of a state. Each state has its own right to self-
determination and that other country should not intervene in the affairs of that state unless there
are extraordinary reasons to do so. Globalization has, in a way reshaped the role and functions
of nation-states as governing bodies in their particular territories.
• First, globalization is seen to impose a forced choice upon nation-states. Either they
conform to the neo-liberal ideas and free-market principles of deregulation,
privatization, and free trade or run the risk of being left behind in terms of development.
Of course, nation-states, in this contemporary age, are forced to submit themselves to
the demands of globally accepted free-market principles.
• Second is the establishment of economic and political integrations. One good example
is the European Union (EU) and the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
EU has a single currency and monetary system, parliament with legislative powers,
with common citizens’ rights to live, work, vote and run for office. The statehood of the
members is not dissolved, what has changed is only how the nation-states function, in
terms of economy and politics, as part of a whole.
• The third effect of globalization is the establishment of international laws and
principles. This is observable in the establishment of the UN that operates as a forum
for nation-states to air their differences and try to resolve them.
• The fourth effect is the rise of transnational activism (TNA). Such happens when
activist groups of nation-states connect with their counterparts in other states. For
example, an advocacy-based organization in the Philippines may connect itself with
and get support from other human rights groups in Europe to pressure the Philippine
government to realign its stance and actions in upholding human rights.
There are several international organizations that governments of countries around the world and
individuals participate in. In order to facilitate connections among nation-states, intergovernmental
organizations (IGOs) were established. Their aim is to foster strong economic, political, cultural,
educational, and technical intergovernmental relationships. There are also nongovernmental
organizations promoting social and economic growth. Let us look at them one by one.
ACTIVITY
Write a position paper on the Philippines’ territorial and economic relations with China. After
conducting extensive research on the topic, the position paper should be easy to write.
Brazalote, T., Leonardo, R. (2018) The Contemporary World. C & E Publishing, Inc., ©2019
Claudio, L., Abinales, P. (2018), The Contemporary World. C & E Publishing, Inc. Goldstein, J.L.,
Rivers
United Nations. (2011). Basic facts about the United Nations. New York, USA: United Nations
Department of Public Information. Retrieved from
http://munkiconference.weebly.com/uploads/1/5/4/2/15422056/basic-facts-about-the-
un.pdf on May 13, 2020
Lesson 5: CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
The world has no global government and global authority. There are however, political
and economic bodies operating worldwide that not all people are aware of. Thus what the world
has is the idea of global governance. This term refers to domestic institutions and governments
on how large-scale problems and public-policy issues are being resolved on a global level. It
involves a range of actors including states, national and regional bodies that have the eagerness
and commitment to deal with a particular challenge. This lesson will focus primarily on the United
Nations (UN) as the most prominent intergovernmental organization today as well as the
challenges of the twenty-first century governance.
OBJECTIVES:
KEY POINTS
Today, global governance makes world affairs systematic, secured and formulaic. Weiss
& Thakur (2014) describe global governance as the totality of norms, laws, policies, and bodies
that define, comprise, and facilitate transnational relations between citizens, states, cultures,
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. Rules and norms put everything in order.
Though global governance is rule-based, it has no central authority. However, there are systems
for international relationships that bind the states, people and society together. Since the United
Nations (UN) has the most number of members among the established global systems, this
section discusses its organs, roles and functions.
• General Assembly is the central deliberative and the only organ where all member-states
have equal representation in discussion and consideration, and policymaking
• Security Council is the organ which has the commitment to preserve peace and security.
• Economic and Social Council is the main organ for cooperation, policy reviews, policy
dialogue, and advice on social, economic and environmental issues.
• Trusteeship Council is the organ tasked to administer international oversight for 11 trust
territories and to make sure that adequate procedures are taken for independence and
self-government.
• International Court of Justice is UN’s prime judicial organ.
• Secretariat is the organ tasked to execute the daily activities as assigned by the other
organs.
The Millennium Development Goals was set to promote sustainable development. In 2015,
this was changed into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals are the
blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. This collection of 17 global goals
covers social and economic issues including poverty, hunger, health, education, global warming,
gender equality, water sanitation, energy urbanization, environment and social justice.
Weiss and Thakur (2014), in their article titles, The United Nations Meets the Twenty-first
Century: Confronting the Challenges of Global Governance, identify challenges confronting UN
based on knowledge, norms, policy, institutions and compliance:
Despite the establishment of global norms and international laws that nation-states should
follow, the nation-states are still relevant for there will be no intergovernmental organization
without them. Also, international and multinational agreements are designed by the states and
propelled by the initiatives that they undertake. To conclude, contemporary global governance
defines political scope of globalization. Cooperation among nation-states is the only way to reform
and advance the roles and functions of interstate relationships despite real challenges being faced
by United Nations.
POST READING ACTIVITY
Create a creative and colorful poster that depicts the participation of the Philippines in the global
community. Then write at least five sentences to explain your poster. You may use a long-sized
bond paper, a recycled paper or calendar for this activity.
REFERENCES
Brazalote, T., Leonardo, R. (2018) The Contemporary World Outcome Based Module. C & E
Publishing, Inc., 2019
Weiss, T., Thakur, R. (2014) The United Nations Meets the Twenty-First Century: Confronting the
Challenges of Global Governance. The SAGE Handbook of Globalization
UN Logo: www.wikimedia.com