The Contemporary World Review

John Wayne V. Jacinto, PhD

What is The Contemporary World about?

• Globalization and its impact on individuals, societies and

communities, challenges and responses.
• The course aims to introduce to students the state of the world
today and the new global order.
• To examine the phenomenon of globalization from a variety of
perspectives and its effects on:
• traditional cultures and communities
• Nations and political institutions
• Local, national and regional economies.
Introduction to Globalization
 • Did you experience
globalization? If yes,
please tell us that
experience.
https://www.inc.com/amy-morin/7-thinking-patterns-that-will-that-rob-you-of-mental-strength-
and-what-you-can-do-about-them.html
 Dynamic? Compression
Globality? of time and
space?

Economic Globalism?
interdependence?

0000
Transnationalism? Globalization A product?

Political
Intensification of expansion?
social network?
Cultural
integration?
A process?
 Globalization
Is it a new phenomenon?
• Economic interdependence https://topyaps.com/top-10-most-common-modes-of-transportation

http://www.crystalinks.com/rometransportation.html
http://www.autoloancalculator.org/driving/steam-
automobiles.php

http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat52/sub331/item1182.html

https://www.porttechnology.org/news/cargo_shipping_101_goods_moved_by_ships
https://www.greatlakessteamshipsociety.org/
https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/history-wine-transport-8000-years/
Globalization is a historical process.

• “It started long before the recent years of information

technology, the end of the cold war or even the end of the Second
World War. It has its bases earlier, in the development of
capitalism and industrialism, and in the institutions,
technologies and incentives these systems brought along” (Martell,
as cited in Mazo, 2018).
Brief Historical Periods by Steger (2003)

• The prehistoric period (10,000 BCE-3,500 BCE)

• The premodern period (3,500 BCE-1,500 CE)
• The early modern period (1500-1750)
• The modern period (1750-1970)
• The contemporary period (from 1970)
The prehistoric period
(10,000 BCE-3,500 BCE)

http://www.ecolewuxing.com/art-martial-sport-de-combat/caveman-battle/

http://www.crystalinks.com/migrationhuman.html
 The premodern period
(3,500 BCE-1,500 CE)
The ancient Sumerians of
Mesopotamia were the oldest
civilisation in the world,
beginning in 6500 BCE.
The oracle bone scripts, originally discovered from
Ancient Egyptian writing is known as hieroglyphics relics of the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC – 1046 BC) in
('sacred carvings') and developed at some point prior to Anyang City, Henan Province
the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150 -2613 BCE). https://news.cgtn.com/news/7841444d79637a6333566d54/sha
https://www.ancient.eu/Egyptian_Writing/ re_p.html
The oldest known wheel found in an archaeological excavation is from
Mesopotamia, and dates to around 3500 BC.
https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-technology/revolutionary-invention-
wheel-001713

(Steger, 2003)
 The early modern period
(1500-1750)

http://theconversation.com/the-18th-century-enlightenment-and-the-problem-of-public-misery-57541

Age of Enlightenment

https://www.heartfeltbalancehandmadelife.com/2018/06/leonardo-da-vinci-paintings-
diamonds-of.html

Renaissance
The modern period
(1750-1970)

(Steger, 2003)

http://brewminate.com/a-brief-history-of-economic-networks-in-the-early-modern-and-
modern-worlds/
The contemporary period (from 1970)

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2013))

http://lcbackerblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/kof-index-of-globalization-2013-released.html
 Solid to
Liquid
https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/solid/277130
Why Globalization Became a Popular Idea?

• Global
communications

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/global-
communication.html?sortBy=relevant
Why Globalization Became a Popular Idea?

• Cultural
homogenization
and spread of
capitalism

https://www.e-ir.info/2013/02/01/does-the-development-of-global-communications-inevitably-lead-to-
cultural-homogenization/
Why Globalization Became a Popular Idea?

• Consciousness
of global
problems

https://environment.co/6-ways-to-raise-awareness-about-environmental-issues/
Why Globalization Became a Popular Idea?

• Decline of
the idea of
nation-state

https://www.bard.edu/files/pr/main_news_image.php?id=15725
 Why Globalization Became a Popular Idea?

• Decline of
the idea of
nation-state

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fall-nation-state-thorhildur-jetzek-ph-d-
 Why Globalization Became a Popular Idea?

• Economic
interdependency
and instability
(Martell 2017)

https://www.marketing91.com/economic-interdependence/
 Concepts of Globalization

Internationalization?

Globalization
= Liberalization?

Universalization?

Westernization?
Internationalization

• “Internationalization involves
the growth of transactions and
interdependencies between
countries” (Martell, as cited in
Mazo, 2018).
Source: http://www.thedronevalley.com/services/internationalization/
Liberalization

• Liberalization “refers to the

removal of constraints on
movements of resources
between countries—an open,
borderless world” (Martell,
as cited in Mazo, 2018).
Source: http://www.publishyourarticles.net/knowledge-hub/business-
studies/what-are-the-impact-of-globalization-and-liberalization-on-
business-and-industry/943/
 Universalization

• Universalization “involves the

dispersion of objects and
experiences to all parts of the
earth…” It sometimes refers to
standardization and
homogenization (Martell, as
cited in Mazo, 2018).
Source: https://rundle10.wikispaces.com/Universalization
Westernization

• Westernization “is a particular

type of universalization, of
Western structures such as
capitalism, industrialism,
rationalism, urbanism,
individualism, and democracy, or
put more critically, colonization”
(Martell, as cited in Mazo, 2018).
Source: https://doubleburdenofdisease.wordpress.com/westernization-
blessing-or-curse/
Globality, Globalization, and Globalism

• As a concept, globalization should not be confused with globality

and globalism (Mazo 2018).
 Globality

• “Globality…signif[ies] a future social

condition characterized by the existence of
global economic, political, cultural, and
environmental interconnections and flows
that make many of the currently existing
borders and boundaries irrelevant.” (Steger,
as cited in Mazo, 2018).

Source: https://www.globality.com/en-us/
Globalism

• Globalism is a political belief system—an ideology that justifies

cultural, social, economic, and political globalization.
• As an ideology, globalism has six (6) core claims. (Steger as cited
in Mazo, 2018)
Globalism: Claim # 1

• “Globalization is about the liberalization and global integration

of markets.” (Steger, as cited in Mazo, 2018)
• “The driving idea behind globalization is free-market capitalism—
the more you let market forces rule and the more you open your
economy to free trade and competition, the more efficient you
economy will be.” (Thomas Friedman in Steger, , as cited in Mazo,
2018)
Globalism: Claim # 2

• “Globalization is inevitable and irreversible.” (Steger, as cited in

Mazo, 2018)
• If globalization is inevitable, we have to embrace it. It’s not a
matter of embracing or not embracing it; it’s a matter of
embracing it now or later.
Globalism: Claim # 3

• “Nobody is in charge of globalization” (Steger, as cited in Mazo,

2018)
• ‘self-regulating market’
• The great beauty of globalization is that it is not controlled by an
individual, any government, any institution’. (Robert Hormats in
Steger, as cited in Mazo, 2018)
Globalism: Claim # 4

• “Globalization benefits everyone” (Steger, as cited in Mazo,

2018)
• “Free trade and free markets have proven their ability to lift
whole societies out of poverty—so the United States will work with
individual nations, entire regions, and the entire global trading
community to build a world that trades in freedom and therefore
grows in prosperity.” (President Bush in Steger, as cited in Mazo,
2018)
Globalism: Claim # 5

• “Globalization furthers the spread of democracy in the world

(Steger, as cited in Mazo, 2018)
• “Indeed, a careful discourse analysis of relevant texts reveals that
globalists tend to treat freedom, free markets, free trade and
democracy as synonymous terms.” (Steger, as cited in Mazo, 2018)
Globalism: Claim # 6

• “Globalization requires a global war on terror.” (Steger, as cited

in Mazo, 2018)
The Elephant of Globalization

Source: http://digiciv-mixtiffani.blogspot.com/2012/02/elephants-and-globalization.html
Globalization as an Economic Process

• “Economic accounts of
globalization convey the notion
that the essence of the
phenomenon involves ‘the
increasing linkage of national
economies through trade,
financial flows, and foreign
direct investment … by
multinational firms’ (Gilpin in
Steger, as cited in Mazo, 2018). Bangladesh Garment Workers
The garment industry in Bangladesh makes clothes that
are then shipped out across the world.
Globalization as an Economic Process

• Aspects of Economic
Globalization
• free trade
• production process
• liberalization and
internationalization of financial
transactions (Steger, as cited in
Mazo, 2018)
Globalization as a Political Process

• “No longer functioning

along the lines of
discrete territorial
units, the political order
of the future will be one
of regional economies
linked together in an
almost seamless global
web that operates
according to free-market
principles.” (Steger, as
cited in Mazo, 2018)

https://euinasean.eu/cooperation/economic-cooperation/
Globalization as a Political Process

• For Jan Aart Scholte,

“Globalization refers to
gradual processes of
‘relative
deterritorialization’ that
facilitate the growth of
‘supraterritorial’
relations between
people.” (Steger , as
cited in Mazo, 2018)

https://euinasean.eu/cooperation/economic-cooperation/
 Globalization as a Cultural Process

• “Globalization lies at the heart of

modern culture; cultural practices
lie at the heart of globalization.”
(John Tomlinson in Steger , as cited
in Mazo, 2018)
• Questions:
• Does globalization increase cultural
homogeneity, or does it lead to
greater diversity and heterogeneity?
• How does the dominant culture of
consumerism impact the natural
environment? (Steger 2014, 11)

https://revisesociology.com/2017/05/25/cultural-globalization-definition-examples/
Other Definitions of Globalization

• Globalization can thus be defined as the intensification of

worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a
way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many
miles away and vice versa. Anthony Giddens in Steger, 2003)
• Globalization as a concept refers both to the compression of the
world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a
whole. Roland Robertson in Steger, 2003)
Globalization for Steger (2003)

• Globalization refers to a multidimensional set of social

processes that create, multiply, stretch, and intensify worldwide
social interdependencies and exchanges while at the same time
fostering in people a growing awareness of deepening connections
between the local and the distant.
References

• Martell, L. (2017), The Sociology of Globalization, Second Edition, 2017

http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/60649/3/globalisation%20book%20intro%202016%20%282
%29.pdf
• Mazo, R. (2018). Introduction to Globalization (PowerPoint Presentation).
• Steger, Manfred (2003). Globalization: A very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford
Press.
• Steger, Manfred (2005). Ideologies of globalization, Journal of Political
Ideologies, 10:1, 11-30, DOI:10.1080/1356931052000310263
• Steger, Manfred (2014). Approaches in the Study of Globalization. In The Sage
Handbook of Globalization. Eds: Manfred Steger, Paul Battersby & Joseph
Siracusa. London: Sage Publications Ltd.