CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Evolution of Societies
 Hunting and gathering; nomadic societies
 Pastoral: domestication of animals
 Horticultural: planting, but dependent on human labor
 Agrarian (through agricultural revolution – invention of plow) – cultivation of larger areas of land,
higher crop yields, building of permanent homes in a single location, tows develop and then cities, job-
specialization-skills and crafts
 Industrial- Industrial revolution – use of steam engine to power machines, rise of the machines, mass
production, and production line
 Post-Industrial – services, which depends on intelligent designers and users of technology
 Contemporary Society – setting characterized by technological innovation and increasing human
interaction and globalization.

Globalization
 Attributed to Theodore Levitt (Harvard Business School Marketing professor) – Harvard Business
Review in 1983
 Main Arguments
o Two vectors shape the world (technology and globalization)
o Technology is powerful force that drives the world toward a converging commonality
o Almost everyone everywhere wants all the same things they have heard about, seen,
or experienced via new technologies. (Ethnic Markets)
 1930 – Oxford dictionary
 1951 – Merriam- Webster dictionary
 1962 – Global Village – Marshal McLuhan – impact of mass media on society
 1989- Collapse of Berlin wall ending the divide between communist Soviet bloc and western
democratic, capitalist bloc.

Early Beginnings of Globalization

 Adam Smith (1723-1790)
o Scottish economist and Philosopher
o Key them in his book, Wealth of Nation
o Economic Development – underlying principle in the integration of markets over time
o Division of labor enable output to expand, search for specializations expands trade; brings
communities from disparate parts of world together
o Discovery of Native Americans by European traders enabled a new division of labor between
two continents
 Andre Gunder Frank (1929-2015)
o German American historical economist and sociologist
o Globalization can be traced back to the growth of trade and market integration between
Sumer and Indus civilizations of 3rd BC
o Hellenistic Age- trade between China and Europe- increase in global market convergence
 Antony Gerald Hopkins (1938- present)
o British Historian specializing in Global history
o Exchange of not only trade but also ideas and knowledge during periods of pre-modern
globalization
 Fall of Berlin Wall and end of Cold War (1989)
o Collapse of communism
o Prices were liberalized etc. resulting to people to be able to work for themselves, get a normal
job, do business, travel and etc.
Some Definitions of Globalization
 “The act of globalizing“; from the noun “global“ meaning “pertaining to or involving the whole world“,
“worldwide“; “universal“ -- Oxford English Dictionary.
 The process by which the whole world becomes a single market. This means that goods and services,
capital, and labor are traded on a worldwide basis, and information and the results of research flow
readily between countries – Oxford Dictionary of Economics.
 The present worldwide drive toward a globalized economic system dominated by supranational
corporate trade and banking institutions that are not accountable to democratic processes or national
governments-- International Forum on Globalization.
 The growing integration of economies and societies around the world... -- The World Bank.
 The process by which the experience of everyday life, marked by the diffusion of commodities and
ideas, is becoming standardized around the world – Encyclopedia Britannica.
 A historical stage of accelerated expansion of market capitalism, like the one experienced in the 19th
century with the industrial revolution. It is a fundamental transformation in societies because of the
recent technological revolution which has led to a recombining of the economic and social forces on a
new territorial dimension -- World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General, Pascal Lamy
 Generally refers to an increasing interaction across national boundaries that affects many aspects of
life: economic, social, cultural and political -- United Nations Poverty and Development Division.
 Globalization, or the increased interconnectedness and interdependence of people and countries, is
generally understood to include two interrelated elements: the opening of borders to increasingly fast
flows of goods, services, finance, people and ideas across international borders; and the changes in
institutional and policy regimes at the international and national levels that facilitate or promote such
flows --World Health Organization.

Working Definition of Globalization in Class

 The process of the intensification of economic, political, social and cultural relations across
international boundaries. It is principally aimed at the transcendental homogenization of political and
socio-economic theory across the globe. (fafowora, 1998).

Theories of Globalization
 Liberalism
o Freedom; free enterprise
o Market led extension of modernization
o Result of Natural human desires for economic welfare and political liberty
o Not contained in one country – different parts of the world
o Seen in technological advances, suitable legal and institutional arrangement to enable market
and liberal democracy to spread on a trans world scale
 Political Realism
o State Power/ Balance of Power
o Pursuit of National Interest, Conflict between states
o Inherently acquisitive and self-serving
o “Dominant state can bring stability to world order”
o Hegemon (influence instead of control) maintains and defines international rules and
institutions that both advance own interest and contain conflicts
 Hegemon: US or G7/G8
o Globalizations is considered antithetical to territorial states
 Marxism
o Government is in control
o Principally concerned with modes of production, social exploitation through unjust distribution,
social emancipation through the transcendence of capitalism.
o Globalization happens because trans-world connectivity enhances opportunities of profit-
making and surplus accumulation
o Reject both liberalist and political realist
o “liberal talk of freedom and democracy make up a legitimizing ideology for exploitative global
capitalist class relations
 Constructivism
o Through symbols and images
o Of how we see/view the world
o The way people have mentally constructed the social world with particular symbols, language,
images and interpretation
o Patterns of production and governance are second order structures that derive from deeper
cultural and socio-psychological forces
 Postmodernism
o Significance of structural power in the construction of identities, norms and knowledge
o Changing modern policies and functions into more developed ones.
 Feminism
o Emphasis on social construction of masculinity and femininity.
o Biological sex is held to mould the overall social order and shape significantly the course of
history, presently globality.
o Concerned with the status of women in particular with thei structural subordination to men
 Because of how women are marginalized, silences and violated in global communication
 Trans-formationalism
o Fluidity
o Process which embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and
transactions, expressed in transcontinental or interregional flows and networks of activity,
interaction and power.