STUDYING THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Why do you need to study the world?

As rational human beings capable of transcending beyond our biology and nature, we
have shaped the way we live in the world with great feats of discovery, development, and
construction. Our objective realities are constructed in a way that the very society that we have
created becomes an entity that assumes a life of its own, capable of influencing and even
controlling one’s agency. In this society, we have created social structures, institutions, and
systems that help us organize our lives and help us make sense of our phenomenology (day to
day experiences). However, a single society with all its institutions, structures, and systems is just
an aspect of the world, although the world is pretty much full of it and all about it. When we talk
about studying the world, what aspect/s of it are we trying to touch on? Are we focusing on
human relations? World-systems? Institutions of economy, politics, education, religion, family,
media? All of these can come as abstractions, yet all of these concepts are present in our
objective and subjective realities. Why do we need to understand these? What’s in it for us?
Claudio and Abinales (2018) posed the question “why do you need to study the world?”
to students in tertiary education. In their attempt to answer the question they posed, the main
thesis centers on the idea that students like you, whether you are aware of it or not, are citizens
of the world. They expounded on these by providing points as to why the study of the world is
relevant (Claudio & Abinales, 2018):
1. Cure parochialism. From close-mindedness to stretched imagination, outlook, and
concern. One’s concern is not only for their immediate context or environment.
2. It can teach you more about yourself. With knowledge about other countries, one can
compare their society’s condition with that of other societies/countries. This comparison
may point out uniqueness and even similarities.
3. You are interacting with the world. As global citizens, being aware of what is happening
with the world is a given. With all the interconnectedness and interdependence, the
events happening outside us might bring a positive or negative impact.
Central to these is the awareness, recognition, and study of globalization as a
phenomenon. And the very idea of globalization is the focus of this course subject—the study
and understanding of what makes up this process and/or phenomenon. The frame of ontology is
making sense of the existence of globalization through themes and issues related to and confront
it, and at the same time, making sense of what is to be a citizen of the world. From this point, the
main question “why do you need to study the world?” is supplemented by “what does it mean
to be a citizen of the world?” (Claudio & Abinales, 2018).

As the main concept in the study of the contemporary world vis-à-vis the ontology (what
it is to exist) as a citizen of the world, globalization is in itself a work-in-progress concept.
Academic circles are yet to come up with an encompassing definition that is not limited to
globalization in the contexts of economy and politics. As we progress through the course, there
are numerous definitions and/or conceptualizations of globalization that will be discussed.
Rather than defining what globalization is, Manfred B. Steger (2013), described the
phenomenon as “the expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across
world-time and across world-space” (as cited in Claudio & Abinales, 2018: 7-8).
 A breakdown of Steger’s (2013) description of globalization together with Claudio & Abinales’ (2018) elucidation.

In addition to this conceptualization, Steger (2014) pointed out that critics of

globalization commit the mistake of conceptualizing the process along economic lines only,
dismissive of globalization’s multidimensional character. This multidimensional character is
described in three processes: globalization as an economic process, globalization as a political
process, and globalization as a cultural process (Steger, 2014: 6).
 Points forwarded in the multidimensional take of globalization as involving three processes: economic, political, and cultural
(Steger, 2014).

In light of the multidimensional character of globalization, anthropologist Arjun

Appadurai (1996) identifies multiple and intersecting dimensions of global cultural flows he calls
‘landscapes’ or ‘scapes’ (Steger, 2014: 13). These five conceptual dimensions are:
1. Ethnoscape. Flows of people. The movement of people for reasons such as work,
recreation, and/or due to displacement. The shift in populations made of tourists,
immigrants, refugees, and exiles. This is, in part, due to the ease and cheaper travel costs
to travel and borders of countries opening up to accommodate and offer opportunities
to people.
 2. Technoscape. Flows of technology. Development and boom of technology that facilitates
cross-border connections and transactions. E.g. the internet, information technology, and
engineering.
3. Finanscape. Flows of money. The flow of global capital. International banking and cash
systems allow this to happen. E.g. credit card systems.
4. Mediascape. Flows of information. The production and dissemination of information
through electronic means. The access of people to modern popular culture. E.g. access to
international entertainment like Hollywood films, K-drama, and anime; media such as
newspapers, magazines, the social network.
5. Ideoscape. Flows of ideas. Ideologies of state, and social movements. E.g. posting of your
views on a certain event or human reality on Facebook; religious missionaries spreading
their doctrines to other regions or countries; environmentalism.

Appadurai’s five landscapes of globalization (Appadurai, 1996; Steger, 2014)

Appadurai’s five ‘landscapes’ present the idea that there are multiple globalizations, and this can
help make sense the dynamics in globalization as a big process with all its multidimensional sub-
processes (Claudio & Abinales, 2018: 10). As Appadurai (1996) put it, “each of these ‘scapes’
contains the building blocks of the new ‘imagined worlds’ that are assembled by the historically
situated imaginations of persons and groups spread around the globe” (as cited in Steger, 2014:
13).
These descriptions should provide students an overview of what to expect in undertaking
a study of the world and globalization. The concepts presented here will be tackled in more detail
in the succeeding lectures.