THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD NOTES

MODULE 1 – APPROACHES AND DEFINITIONS OF GLOBALIZATION

Material 1 – The Essentials of Globalization – by Ritzer

 It can be argued that globalization is the most important change in human history.
 GLOBALIZATION is a transplanetary process or set of processes involving increasing liquidity
and growing multi-directional flows as well as the structures they encounter and create. This
definition does not assume that greater integration is an inevitable component of
globalization. That is, globalization ca bring with it greater integration, but it can also serve to
reduce the level of integration.
 A term that is closely related to Globalization is TRANSNATIONALISM - the processes that
interconnects individuals and social groups across specific geo-political borders. A related
concept is TRANSNATIONALITY – the rise of new communities and formation of new social
identities and relations that cannot be defined as nation states.
 Globalization and transnationalism are often used interchangeably, but transnationalism is
clearly a more delimited process. Transnationalism is limited to interconnections that cross
geo-political borders. Globalization includes such connections but is not restricted to them
and encompasses a far wider range of transplanetary processes (ex. relationships between
people via the internet)

GLOBALIZATION TRANSNATIONALISM
- Globalization include such - A more delimited process than
connections with that of globalization. It is limited to the
Transnationalism, but is not interconnections between geo-
restricted to them. political borders.
- Further, geo-political borders are one - It is most often used in thinking
of the barriers encountered, and about, and research on, immigrants
often, overcome, by globalization. who move from one country to
- It exists in virtually every area of the another. IT IS NOT NECESSARILY
world. GLOBAL.
.

CONCEPTUALIZING GLOBALIZATION

 GLOBALITY – omnipresence of the process of globalization

 METAPHOR – the use of one term to help us better understand another.
 “SOLID” – to describe epochs before the era of globalizations.
 “LIQUID” – describes the global world

 FROM SOLIDS TO LIQUIDS

 Before the current epoch of globalization, it could be argued that one of the things that
characterized people, things, information, places, and much else was their greater SOLIDITY.
 SOLIDITY – having limited mobility. Describes a world in which, BARRIERS EXIST.
 As a result, people either did not go anywhere or they did not venture very far from where
they were born; their social relationships was restricted to those nearby. Objects were
tended to be used where they were produced.
  The solidity of material manifestations of information (ex. stone tablet, newspapers) made
them difficult to move very far away. Since people didn’t move very far, neither did
information.
 Places were not only quite “solid,” but they tend to confront solid natural (mountains, rivers,
oceans) and humanly constructed barriers (walls, gates) that made it difficult for people and
things to exit or enter.
 It was the nation-state that was most likely to create these “solid” barriers. For much of the
20th century, this was epitomized by the Soviet Union (ex. Berlin Wall, in order to keep East
Berliners in and Western Berliners out).
 Solidity is far from dead in the contemporary world. It is very often the case that demands
for new forms of solidity are the result of increased fluidity (ex. US Mexican Border; increase
in Mexican illegal immigrants).

 FLUDITY is more characteristic of today’s world, especially in terms of globalization.

 People were never so solid that they were totally immobile or stuck completely in a given
place, this was especially true of the elite members of society.
 Information could always travel more easily than goods or people (by word of mouth, it
moved even faster as more advanced communication technologies emerged).
 As other technologies developed (ships, automobiles, planes), people, especially those with
resources, were better able to leave places and get to others.
 At an increasing rate over the last few centuries, what once seemed so solid has tended to
“melt” and become increasingly liquid.
 Solid material realities continue (people, newspapers, cargos), but because of a wide range
of technological developments, they can move across the globe far more readily.
 New liquids that are being created are inherent parts of the new world and are radically
transforming. In the process, they are having both constructive and destructive;
opportunities and dangers (Karl Marx).
 LIQUIDITY – increasing ease of movement of people, things, information, and places in the
global age. Liquid phenomena do not easily, or for long, hold their shape. Once they are on
the move, the are difficult to stop.
 The spatial and temporal aspects of globalization are in continuous flux. But time in a liquid
world is more important than space.
 Finally, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, that which is liquid tends to melt whatever stands in its
path (especially solids).
 “FLOWS”
 FLOWS – movement of people, things, information, and places in due, in part, to the
increasing porosity of global barriers.
 Closely related to the idea of liquidity.
 Globalization is increasingly characterized by great flows of increasingly liquid phenomena of
all types, including people, objects, information, decisions, places.

THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD NOTES

MATERIAL 1 – APPROACHES TO TH STUDY OF GLOBALIZATION (STEGER)

 “Globalization” has remained a contested and slippery concept.

 There are many different approaches to the study of globalization.
 Part of the reason why there is so much disagreement to globalization, has to do with the
fact that globalization itself is a fragmented, incomplete, uneven, and contradictory set of
social processes, although they share a common intellectual framework.
 No generally accepted definition of globalization has emerged, except for broad descriptions,
such as “increasing global,” or “inter-connectedness.” A number of researchers object to
those characterizations.
 Frederic Jameson (1998): There seems to be little utility in forcing such a complex set of
social forces as globalization into a single analytic framework.
 Rosenau (2003), defines globalization as fragmegrative dynamics.

Globalization as “Globaloney”

 A small and rapidly decreasing number of scholars contend that existing accounts of
globalization are incorrect, imprecise, or exaggerated.
 The arguments of these globalization critics fall into three broad categories:
1. Representatives of the first group dispute Globalization as a sufficiently precise analytical
concept. – rejectionists
2. The second group points to the limited nature of globalizing processes, emphasizing that the
world is not nearly as integrated as many globalization proponents believe. In their view, the
term ‘globalization’ does not constitute an accurate label for actual state of affairs. – sceptics
3. The third group of critics disputes the novelty of the process while acknowledging the
existence of moderate globalizing tendencies. – modifiers

Rejectionists

 Dismisses the utility of globalization as an analytical concept.

 Besides globalization, another often-cited example for such, analytically impoverished
concepts is nationalism.
 Linda Weiss objects to the term as a big idea resting on slim foundations.
 Ultimately, the task of more careful researchers should be to break the concept of
globalization into smaller, more manageable parts that contain a higher analytical value.
 The author suggests that globalization should be explored as an objective process with more
interpretive studies of the ideological project of globalism.

Sceptics ( tend to question/doubt accepted opinions)

 The second group emphasizes the limited nature of current globalizing processes. They
assert that the concept is misused.
 Hirst and Thompson (2009) claim that the world economy is not a truly global phenomenon,
but once centered on Europe, Eastern Asia, and North America. The majority of economic
activity around the world still remains primarily national in origin and scope. Without a truly
global economic system, they insist there can be no such thing as globalization.
  But there are also remains a number of problems with the Hirst-Thompson Thesis. The
authors set overly high standards for the economy to be counted as “fully globalized.”
 The most serious shortcoming of the Hirst-Thompson theory is that their argument implicitly
assumes that globalization is primarily an economic phenomenon. They portray all other
aspects of globalization as reflections of deeper economic processes.

Modifiers (modify/enhance the idea of globalization)

 The Third and final groups of globalization critics dispute the novelty of the process, implying
that the label ‘globalization’ has often been applied in a historically imprecise manner.
 Gilpin (2000) confirms the existence of globalizing tendencies, but he also insists that many
important aspects of globalization are not novel developments.
 Gilpin notes that the world economy in the late 1990s appeared to be even less integrated
than it was prior to the outbreak of World War I.
 Gilpin also points to two additional factors that seem to support his position: the
globalization of labor was actually much greater prior to World War I and international
migration declines considerably after 1918.
 World-system theorists argue that the modern capitalist economy in which, we live today
has been global since its inception five centuries ago.
 World-system theorists reject the use of the term globalization as referring exclusively to
relatively recent phenomena. Instead, they emphasize that globalizing tendencies have been
proceeding along the continuum of modernization for a long time.
 Any general discussion of globalization should include the caution that cross-regional
transfers of resources, technology, and culture, did not start only in the last few decades.
 However, more recent studies produced by world-system scholars acknowledge that the
pace of globalization has significantly quickened in the last few decades of the century.

Overall, the insistence of globalization critics on a more careful and precise usage of the term forces the
participants in the debate to hone their analytical skills.

GLOBALIZATION AS AN ECONOMIC PROCESS

 Some of the earliest writings on the topic explore in much detail how the evolution of
international markets and corporations led to an intensified form of global interdependence.
 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. Thus expanding economic activity is
identified as both the primary aspect of globalization and the engine behind its rapid
development.
 The process of financial globalization accelerated dramatically in the late 1980s as capital
and securities markets in Europe and the United States were deregulated.
  Perhaps the two most important aspects of economic globalization relate to the changing
nature of the production process and the liberalization and internationalization of financial
transactions.
 Moreover, scholars emphasize that advances in data processing and information technology
contributed to the explosive growth of tradable financial value.
 The availability of cheap labor, resources, and favorable production conditions in the third
world countries enhanced both mobility and profitability of TNCs.
 While the creation of international financial markets represents a crucial aspect of economic
globalization, many scholars utilizing this approach point to another important economic
development of the last three decades that involves the changing nature of global
production: powerful transnational corporations (TNCs) with subsidiaries in several
countries.
 The availability of cheap labor, resources, and favorable production conditions in the third
world country enhanced both the mobility and profitability of TNCs.

GLOBALIZATION AS A POLITICAL PROCESS

 Most of the debate on political globalization involves the weighing of conflicting evidence
with regard to the fate of the modern nation-state.
 What are the political causes for the massive flows of capital, money, and technology across
territorial boundaries? Do these flows constitute a serious challenge to the power of the
national boundaries? These questions imply that economic globalization might be leading to
the reduced control of national governments over economic policy.
 An influential group of scholars considers political globalization as a process intrinsically
connected to the expansion of markets. In particular, steady advances in computer
technology and communication systems such as the WWW are seen as the primary forces
responsible for this creation.
 Globalization has happened because technological advances have broken down many
physical barriers to worldwide communication.
 politics is rendered powerless in the face of an unstoppable and irreversible technoeconomic
juggernaut that will crush all governmental attempts to reintroduce restrictive policies and
regulations. Politics can only operate within their sphere of influence.
 The role of government will ultimately be reduced to serving as a superconductor for global
capitalism.
 The rise of the borderless world brought on by the irresistible forces of capitalism. The
nation-state has already lost its role as a meaningful unit of participation in the global
economy.
 Jan Aart Scholte (2005), points out that globalization refers to gradual processes of relative
deterritorialization. But this does not mean that nation-states are no longer the main
organizing forces of the world. Equipped with the power to regulate economic activities
within their sphere of influence, states are far from being impotent bystanders to the
workings of global forces. These concrete political decisions are responsible for changing the
international context in the direction of deregulation and privatization.
 A third group of scholars suggests that globalization is fueled by a mixture of political and
technological factors.
  John Gray for example, presents globalization as a long-term technology-driven process
whose contemporary shape has been politically determined by the world’s most powerful
nations.
 A fourth group of scholars approaches globalization from the perspective of global
governance. Some researchers might believe that political globalization might facilitate the
emergence of democratic transnational social forces emerging from a thriving sphere of
‘global civil society.’
 Political scientists such as David Held and Anthony McGrew articulate in their writings the
need for effective global governance structures as a consequence of various forces of
globalization. They portray globalization as diminishing the sovereignty of national
governance, thereby, reducing the relevance of the nation state. They emphasize the idea of
COSMOPOLITAN DEMOCRACY
 A number of academic critics have challenged the idea that political globalization is fueling a
development toward COSMOPOLITAN DEMOCRACY. However, sceptics like Robert Holton do
not explore in sufficient detail the cultural feasibility of global democracy.

GLOBALIZATION AS A CULTURAL PROCESS

 One major strength of Held and McGrew’s approach lies in viewing globalization not as one-
dimensional phenomenon, but as a multidimensional process involving diverse domains of
activity and interaction, including the cultural sphere.
 A number of prominent scholars have emphasized the centrality of culture to contemporary
debates on globalization. As John Tomlinson puts it, “Globalization lies at the heart of
modern culture; cultural practices lie at the heart of globalization.”
 EQ: Does globalization increase cultural homogeneity, or does it lead to greater diversity and
heterogeneity? – Simply, does globalization make people more alike or more different? And
second, how does the dominant culture of consumerism impact the natural environment?
 Tomlinson (1999) defines cultural globalization as a densely growing network of complex
cultural interconnections and interdependencies that characterize normal social life. He
emphasizes that global cultural flows are directed by powerful international media
corporations that utilize new communication technologies to shape societies and identities.
This makes images and ideas be easily transmitted from one place to another easily.
 Culture no longer remains tied to fixed localities, such as town and nation, but acquires new
meanings that reflect dominant themes in a global context.
 A number of scholars argue that these processes have facilitated the rise of an increasingly
homogenized global culture underwritten by an Anglo-American value system. Cultural
Imperialism are overwhelming more vulnerable cultures.
 The American sociologist Goerge Ritzer (1993), for example coined the term
Mcdonaldization to describe the wide-ranging process by which, the principles of the fast-
food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of the American society, as
well as the rest of the world. In the long run, Mcdonaldization leads to the eclipse of cultural
diversity and the dehumanization of social relation.
 The American political theories, Benjamin R. Barber (1996) warns his readers against Cultural
Imperialism of what he calls ‘McWorld’ – a soulless consumer capitalism that is rapidly
transforming the world’s diverse population into a blandly uniform market.
  JIHAD – the parochial impulse to reject and repel Western Homogenization forces wherever
they can be found.
 Jihad and McWorld are dialectically interlocked in a bitter cultural struggle for popular
allegiance.
 Several influential academics offer contrary assessments that link globalization to new forms
of cultural diversity. Roland Robertson (1995) has famously argued that global cultural often
reinvigorates local cultural niches.
 Robertson predicts a pluralization (holding more than one position) of the world as localities
produce a variety of unique cultural responses to global forces. The result is not increasing
cultural homogenization, but ‘glocalization’.
 GLOCALIZATION – A complex interaction of the global and local characterized by cultural
borrowing. These interactions lead to a complex mixture of both homogenizing and
heterogenizing impulses.
 The process of cultural mixing are often referred to as ‘hybridization’ or ‘creolization’, which
is reflected in music, film, fashion, language, and other forms of symbolic expression.
 Scholars like Pieterse, Hannerz, and Robertson seek to expand the concept of globalization
by portraying it as a multidimensional field. In their view, globalization is both a material and
mental condition, constituted by complex, often contradictory interactions of global, local,
and individual aspects of social life.
 Appadurai identifies five conceptual dimensions or ‘landscapes’ that are constituted by
global cultural flows:
1. Ethnoscapes – shifting populations made up of tourists, immigrants, refugees, and exiles.
2. Technoscapes – development of technologies that facilitate the rise of TNCs.
3. Finanscapes – Flows of global capital
4. Mediascapes – electronic capabilities to produce and disseminate information.
5. Ideoscapes – Ideologies of states and social movements.

Cultural Globalization and Consumerism

 Cultures steeped in Taoist, Buddhist, and various animist religions often emphasize the
interdependence of all living beings – a perspective that calls for a delicate balance between
human wants and ecological needs.
 Nature is not considered a mere ‘resource’ to be used instrumentally and fulfill human
desires.
 The two most ominous ecological problems connected to the global spread of consumer
culture are human-induced global climate change, such as global warming, and the
worldwide destruction of biodiversity.
 An interesting crossover among economic, political, and ecological dimensions of
globalization is the use of market based policy instruments to manage environmental
problems. Initiatives such as carbon ‘taxes’, trading, and biodiversity ‘banks’ have emerged in
policy discussions at national and global levels about approaches to global warming, species
extinction, and overpopulation.

CONCLUSION
  The paper studied the main academic approaches the study of globalization by linking them
to the lively ongoing debate on the subject.
 Overall, there exists a variety of approaches to the subject, but no scholarly agreement on a
single conceptual framework for the study a globalization.
 It is virtually impossible for globalization scholars to interpret the public discourse on the
subject apart from their own ideological and political framework.
*global south refers to economically less developed countries

READING MATERIAL 2 – DEFINITIONS OF GLOBALIZATION

 Globalization cannot be expounded upon with certainty and be applicable to all people in all
situations.
 It involves an establishment of the global market free from political control.
 The debate of globalization stems largely from defining this concept.
 Martin Khor referred to globalization as colonization.

“Globalization is the process of world shrinkage, of distances getting shorter, things moving closer. It pertains to the
increasing ease with which, somebody on one side of the world can interact, to mutual benefit, with somebody on
the other side of the world.” – Thomas Larsson

 Review the definitions that are available in an attempt to truly understand this concept.
 In reviewing current definitions, it I at once apparent that some are rather narrow and exclusive, while
others are broad and inclusive. Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses.

EXAMPLE OF GENERAL DEFINITION: Globalization means the onset of the borderless world.

EXAMPLE OF A SPECIFIC DEFINITION: The characteristics of globalization trend include the internationalizing of
production, the new international division of labor, new migratory movements from South to North, the new
competitive environment that accelerates these processes, and the internationalizing of the state…. Making states
into agencies of globalizing.

 Kumar argues that “ the debate about what to do about Globalization is very much a debate about
what globalization is.
 This paper found agreement with George Ritzer, who in his article “The Globalization of Nothing,”
wrote: attitudes toward globalization depend, among other things, on whether one gains or loses
from it.
 Due to the complexity of the concept, research projects, articles, and discussions usually remain
focused on a single aspect of globalization in order to be able to provide some concrete solutions and
recommendations.

AUTHOR’S PROPOSED DEFINITION:

 Globalization is a process (not something static) that encompasses the causes, course-direction, and
consequences-results/effects of transnational (processes happening beyond borders, political and economic) and
transcultural (happening among different culture/nations/nationalities) integration of human and non-human
activities.

 Globalization is NOT an endpoint to be discussed and then forgotten. Rather, it is a process, a current
that has been impacting communities, cultures, and economies for hundreds of years.
 HUMAN ACTIVITIES encompass the linguistic, cultural, economic, and political aspects of human life
that are a part of the human and social sphere.
 It is also important to note NON-HUMAN activities, such as the spread of bacteria and non-human
diseases, as well as natural disasters.
 Globalization is an activity that influences us in a number of ways BOTH TO OUR BENEFIT, and ALSO
TO OUR DETRIMENT.
 The abundance of definitions is clearly an indication of the varying opinions that have developed
regarding this concept.
 67 of 114 definitions presented in the paper make some reference to the economic dimension. This
indicates that the notions of globalization tend to lead toward the economic roots.
 The paper argues that the perspective of the person who defines globalization shapes any definition
thereof. Globalization is many things to different people.
 As globalization exists at different times and means different things to different facets of society and
the international system, it can NEVER BE FULLY DEFINED to the satisfaction of all who are impacted
by its implications.

CONCLUSION

 The matter of defining globalization can be deemed useless because of its shifting nature, its
ambiguity, its influence from the perspective from which one views it.

*refer to definitions of globalization.

GOAL OF ARTICLES: To show to use that the field of globalization study is a field that is not characterized by
unity and consensus.

The idea of it being a reality is something being debated, there are scientists who think that there really is
globalization. “Klaruhin ninyo.”

Globalization is not something new, it has happened before.

Steger shows different approaches since globalization is not just something economic. Globalization is only
political, cultural, and environmental.

Most definitions are biased towards economics.

For some people who live in societies who benefit from globalization is something positive.

But for some people who live in countries who don’t benefit from globalization, there definition is something
critical of globalization.

IDEOLOGY – a system of beliefs used by people to justify a particular order or situation. We all adhere to a
specific ideology.

“We cannot study something if we cannot understand/define it” but at least we have something to begin with.
 Some definitions are too specific to the point that they forget about other aspects of globalization. But some
tried to be very broad to catch all possible dimensions of globalizations.

But how we understand globalization reflects where we are coming from.

The world is becoming borderless as political boundaries are being less strict. But the world is becoming
borderless because of social media.

My definition:

Globalization is the flow of people, objects, and information from one nation state to another as a result of
technological advancements.

MODULE 2 – HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION

GLOBALIZATION: THE RISE OF NETWORKS

 People have been exchanging goods and services for a millenia. The pace of global connectivity has
greatly increased due to economic and technological advancements.
 1 billion people are coming online every five years.
 Globalization fostered by information revolution.

GLOBALIZATION: A CHANGING CONTEXT

 Before the advent of industrial technologies, the formation of global relationships was highly costly.
Thus the privilege of global interaction was only a tiny minority of any society
o ex. Women of the Roman empire could wear fine silk garments from China, but the vast majority
lived out their lives with their local environment.
o The formation of global interactions was only limited to the upper classes, to the nobility.
o Forms of traditional societies were organized around local level interactions (within their locality
only).
 With the advent of industrial technologies such as the steam engine and telephone, people can
communicate/travel to places far from their indigenous localities. It sustained expansion and physical
connectivity beyond the local.
o RAILROAD – a prominent invention during the Industrial Revolution. It provided mobility beyond
local community.
o Expanded the geographic mentality of the people (national culture was fostered).
 Econ. Globalization went hand in hand with the rise of the nation-state as transportation technologies
enabled people to experience a wider geographic area as if it was one national culture that was
fostered.
 Unlike nowadays, the nation state was the primary macro scale system of organization in the world.
The nation state regulates everything. The nation state is designed to have authority of a geographic
area.
o However, technologies, such as transportation technologies, connect people that go beyond
the paradigm of the nation-state.
o Nowadays, the economy has greater influence than the modern nation state.
  The global connections these technology enable, start local and travel globally, with limited reference
to the national level.
 Starting in the late 80s, a new economic and political ideology arose, promoting the idea of the free
market. PRIVATIZATION AND REDUCTION OF TRADE BARRIERS ENABLED GLOBAL FREE MARKET.
o RESULT: Mass increase in global economic exchange.
 Given these realities, pressing questions have been emerging:
o “How can we manage the global economy?”
o “How to regulate and manage the global level activities given that the management of the world
remained in the nation states?”
 Financial crisis, pandemics (COVID-19) offshore tax havens, illegal migration, and other environmental
issues such as global warming, air pollution, or overfishing are directly linked the to lack of GLOBAL
GOVERNANCE.
 Global institutions built in the framework of the nation state such as the World Bank, WTO and UN are
ultimately an incomplete solution to global governance as they are undemocratic (inability of global
institutions).
o We need to recognize that the current nation state cannot manage the current context of the
global economy. How do we go beyond the national level agenda?
o WE NEED A CENTRALIZED GLOBAL GOVERNANCE. BUT IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE A
CENTRALIZED GLOBAL GOVERNANCE?
 Networks are emerging for managing human activities as an alternative to the industrial framework.
o More and more resources are flowing through information based network organizations.
o These networks have cross-boundary connectivity.
o These networks coordinate human activities and affairs, but there is uncertainty about the
outcomes of this modality.
 MARKET SYSTEM: A new logic of commercial exchange has risen. These new market systems are at the
heart of globalization.
o Economies around the world are no longer governed by the nation state, and more by the
rules of economics, and flow of financial capital. Economies are controlled by the logic of the
market.

GLOBALIZATION: THE MARKET LOGIC (1. GLOBALIZATION POWERED BY THE FREE MARKET)

 Markets have always been there, but before, have traditionally operated within the confines of their
cultural, social, and political institutions of their society. Resources have been consumed by their
families. Markets play a limited role in terms of decision making before the industrial period.
 Before the rise of market systems, political entities governed and made decisions for the ordering of
societies. Nonetheless, the current situation is that the market system governs and makes decisions
for the ordering of the society.
 MODERN ERA: The rise of capitalism and market system, particularly since the industrial revolution.
o WITH URBANIZATION, MASS PRODUCTION AND SPECIALIZATION OF LABOR – the mass of
people became dependent on the capitalist market system for their everyday livelihood.
 MARKET SYSTEM TAKES ON A NEW ROLE: it becomes an end themselves, instead of a means to an
end that is controlled by the political elite. They take part in decision-making in relation to the
allocation of resources.
 ECONOMY BINDS PEOPLE through interdependence. Market system needs independence from
political control. Though this was challenged by planned economies such as USSR, it came to
dominate.
o The downfall of the USSR and the fall of the Berlin Wall was a manifestation of the need for
the market system to be independent of social, cultural and political control.
 o An ideology that promotes the free market is the rationale of capitalism and the market
system.
 Frederick Hayek – prices produced by supply and demand alone could be an accurate and sufficient
signal of information to achieve the optimal allocation of resources within the society. Although the
state is needed for basic support, Hayek saw the MARKET as an optimal self-sustaining system and
enabling it required converting it to private property.
 NEOLIBERAL PARADIGM/NEOLIBERALISM – logic of the market system. It came to encompass a set of
ideas about human nature, economics and social organization. More of an ideology than an economic
theory. Associated with free market capitalism.
o NEOLIBERALISM – free market ideology based on individual liberty and limited government
and the view that human beings are rational actors
o public provision started to retreat, and private production via the market started to expand.
o NEOLIBERALISM had a clear agenda to shift power from democratic systems of governance
and move it to the market. This was done through PRIVATIZATION and DEREGULATION OF
NATIONAL ECONOMIES. AND SHIFTING OF POWER INTO THE EXECUTIVE AND
INTERNATIONAL BODIES NOT CONTROLLED THROUGH DEMOCRATIC PROCEDURES.
- The shift of power from democratic institutions to the corporate world.
- The shift of power from political institutions to the market or private enterprise.
o Note that neoliberalism justifies privatization and deregulation of national economies:

- DEREGULATION OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS –moved investments throughout the world; pinnacle of

neoliberal economic globalization
- Encouraging Foreign Direct Investment
- Establishment of a Single Value System
 HYPERGLOBALIZATION – started with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Countries around the world then
began to industrialize their economies.
 Expansion of telecommunication networks.

GLOBALIZATION: 4 PLATFORM ECONOMY (2. GLOBALIZATION POWERED BY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AFTER

THE FINANCIAL CRISIS)

 HYPERGLOBALIZATION – based on neoliberal economic theory, it was marked by the reduction of

trade barriers, privatization of trade assets, expansion of global financial market, expansions global
supply chains, and formation of global cities network.
 However, the financial crisis in the past two decades made us question neoliberalism (1997 and 2008
financial crisis).
o The well accepted truths of free market became open for questioning as Multinational
organizations came to have less influence.
o “Were the financial crises signs of the end of globalization?”
o The financial crises fueled the re-emergence of nationalist sentiments (deglobalization)
 The globalization of today is no longer driven by increasing exchange of goods, but instead, is driven
by the exchange of information and services.
o After the financial crisis, the underlying information technology started to mature.
o Everything started to shift in the realm of information and technology.
o The production of information and knowledge can happen without large investments of
capital.
 WEB 2.0 – people can read from the internet and write to it. Allowed people to interact through
collaborative platforms.
  PLATFORM ECONOMY – merging of social networks and collaborative platforms of WEB 2.0. Mediated
through information networks. Less capital intensive. Anyone who is connected to the internet can
participate in the platform economy.
o Nowadays, we are witnessing a platform economy where there is a convergence between the
market system and the information network.
o Platforms rapidly scaled to become major actors in the economy.
o The platform economy is an information network economy. Anyone who is connected to the
internet can participate.
 The control of global activities and exchanges shifted from the nation state to the market system and
then to information networks.
 This new model of globalization is less capital intensive
o With information networks, transaction costs dropped
 After the platform revolution, the central of this process of change will be happening in the internet as
technology and economic development start to become one.

GLOBALIZATION: EMPIRE OF NETWORKS

 Societies start to become aware of living in a globally interconnected context.

 The liberal economic order and democratic systems were stalling as they have failed to keep pace with
rapidly expanding social networks that now occupied peoples time and attention.
 The level of inequality brought about by globalization became unbearable for many societies. The
impact of climate change and multiple forms of environmental degradation started to become a
reality.
o We are not sure about the consequences of the current digital mode of operation or the
system of networks.
o Do globalization and financialization contribute to more inequality?
o With these networks that altered structure, where are we going?
o Are we all accompanying these rapid IT developments in terms of our social and political
organizations?
 At the heart of globalization is the formation of some kind of global organization.
o Economic organization and information networks are about to truly become one.
 The internet had gone from a public utility to being operated by a small number of large platforms
owned by private for-profit companies.
o The internet became privately owned by data centers. This resulted to the huge
concentration of power in the hands of the technology companies.
o There are 400 hyperscale data centers in the world, half reside in the United States.
o The reality is that the internet is centralized and controlled by only a handful of people.
o The current move is a decentralized web – it removes the internets dependence on
centralized systems.
 CLOUD COMPUTING – made the platforms of the second generation internet.
 DECENTRALIZED WEB – decentralize economic activity and shift operations to global information
based networks. This allowed people to connect with each other in peer-to-peer networks to conduct
transactions directly and securely without the centralized platform.
 The DECENTRALIZED WEB removes the internet’s dependency upon centralized systems to enable
trust, security, value exchange, and computing resources. It creates networks for people to interact,
create or exchange value directly peer to peer.
 There are new forms of economies (microeconomies), such as token market economies.
 o The decentralized economies work through a TOKEN SYSTEM where each network creates a
token that represents the underlying value that is being created and exchanged within that
economy.
o TOKEN MARKET ECONOMIES can now be built for any resources that needs managing
(people investing in bitcoin)
 GLOBAL COLLABORATION can potentially enable very rapid economic development for any society by
having a shared and trusted global computing network.
 The world of today is ruled by the market and finance
 The world of tomorrow is ruled by networks. But who will rule that world? It could be us.

MODULE 2 READING 2 – FOUNDATIONS OF GLOBALIZATION (CHIRICO)