WK1 INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

1. Why are people interested in globalisation?

- People born in different places, globalisation
- Highly relevant to modern world
- Having an international family/ have overseas/cross-cultural experiences
- Interesting
- Brought up in international school
- Technological and political advances
- Relevant to future career in business
- Relevance to sociology
- Effect of media on a global scale

* Areas and consequences of globalisation

* Reflections of personal experiences

2. Students’ definitions of globalization

- Spread of ideas, diseases, common grounds from different cultures (ideas’ spread
and their consequences -> shared meaning and understanding)
- One dominant culture swallowing other cultures, e.g. Westernization,
Americanization
- Integration of different societies, greater similarity (only some of them though)

*Mechanism of change
- Differences in working practices (e.g. USA vs Hong Kong)
- Impact of internet, media and TV; traveling further distances – technology moving
ideas, people and information across

3. Students’ thoughts of how long globalization has existed

- Quite ancient - People saving, trading, doing exchange - so it is not MODERN
thing
- Before as tribal societies, living as social groups, and encountering strangers was a
very rare event
- Now the speed and ease have both changed, and encountering strangers is much
more common
 EXCHANGE
SIMPLE MODEL OF GLOBALIZATION
And artefacts, trade products etc.
Through media, ideologies, cultures are shared as Westernized. Dysfunction b/w local
and global culture (e.g. incompatible morals) also starts to emerge.

4. A brief history of globalization

- Early exploration, trading & empire (Roman empire, Han dynasty, Silk Road)
- 1500s Kingdom of Portugal (Coastal Africa, South America, Asia)
 People trade/exchange to make money
- 1600s Spain, England, France (1st multi-national: British East India Co.)
- 1800s “first era of globalization” (Collapsed with WW1, and eliminated harmony)
- Economic blogs/links are set up to keep people depending on each other. Thus ,
people are kept in peace using economic tools

5. What is SOCIAL psychology?

- Refers to the scientific study of how we think about, what we feel about, and how
we behave in relation to others.
- Social psychological processes can be studied at different levels:
 Personal (Individual)
 Interpersonal (Relational)
 Intergroup (Collective)

… of globalization?
- Idea of identity – before people as individualistic, sticking with Western values.
Now they we have various cultural identities through globalization (nation/state –
which country you align with?)

6. Personal level
- What is my purpose and role in society?
- Personal identity is unique while social identity refers to belonging to particular
solar groups.
 With globalization, there is the option of many more identities that we may
assimilate
- Global identity is defined by cultural distance
- Self and personal identity being emphasized

7. Interpersonal level
- Stresses interaction with each other (e.g. communication, social influence – ideas
flowing from A to B to make people change)
- Other relations like friendship and romantic relations

8. Collective level
- Ideas of culture, intergroup dynamics – e.g. conflicts, migrating groups

9. Advantages and disadvantages of exposure

Adv: Harmony, having more options and opening possibilities of fitting into other
values, sharing with others on a common ground
Disadv: Stranger as barbarian; conflict between children and parents; change can also
be threatening
E.g.: Roman community and mainstream Euro population living in different ways
(e.g. sending children to schools bringing in threat of social identity)

Refer to WK1 – Arnett G for further info.

COURSE STRUCTURE

Understanding Culture: What is culture and what does it do?

Communication: What is the role of communication in cultural change?
The Self: How is self and identity influenced by globalisation and culture?
Migration: How does culture affect an increasingly moving world?
- What migrants do to the incummate culture, and how they themselves adapt, which
can be daunting or positive
Political and economic systems: Is globalisation homogenizing economic and
political systems/ideologies (e.g. capitalist vs communist)?
Intergroup relations: Do changing migration patterns influence intergroup relations?
- Harmonious vs. increased conflict
- E.g. spread of diseases as associated with migration
Global diseases as social threats: - What are the implications of ideas of immigrants
as disease carriers?
- Role of disease affecting how people talk about other group regarding origins of
diseases, leading to discriminatory behaviours
Collective action - How does globalisation influence collective action?
- People now care about issues that are geographically distant
- Role of technology in collective action
Organizations/ Organizational Change - How do contextual changes influence
organizations and individuals working in organizations?
- Branch in country A and B;
- expatriate workers