Globalisation: Dimensions and Origins

Contextualising Globalisation, Culture and Lifestyle

Lecture 1
Daniel Turner and Jenny Flinn
Globalisation
“the vague concept that is the buzzword of
our time” (Steger, 2003, p1)
“an awful and ugly word, bound up in
complex processes and aspects of social
change but also theoretical trends and
fashions” (Miles, 2001:143)
But: “the primal force in social change”
(Miles, 2001:144)
So 3 questions…
 What is globalisation?
 Where did it come from?
 Why is it important for study?
Globalisation: Origins
Key factors leading to
‘globalisation’
 Steady advance of travel
technologies
 Expansion of global trade,
international relations and
economic migration
 Invention of ‘time’
 Steady advance of
communication
technology
 Capitalism’s drive for
profit
Locating
globalisation
 ‘processes unfolding for
millennia’ (Steger,
2003:18)
 Spread of Christianity
(Held, 2000)
 Industrial revolution and
British colonialism
(Giddens, 1990)
 Post-industrial
revolution
Understanding Globalisation
• “What really distinguishes globalisation from what has
gone before is the truly global impact of communication
and transport which have increased the speed and volume
of images, symbols, people and goods. No state is
disconnected.” (Held et al, 1999)
• “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” (Giddens, 1991)
• “The compression of the world and the intensification of
consciousness of the world as a whole” (Robertson, 1992)
 ‘borderlessness’ (Urry, 1990)
 Globalisation: Dimensions
Steger (2003) – 4 dimensions of globalisation
 Political: growth of cross-national political organisations
and the increasing interrelatedness of nation states
 Economic: growth of multi-national organisation and
corporations, growth of interdependent economic policy
 Ideological: neo-liberalism dominance(?), triumph of
markets over governments, West versus Islam, hegemony
 Cultural: intensification and expansion of cultural flows
across the globe, the symbolic construction, articulation
and dissemination of meaning, homogenisation versus
hybridization
Globalisation: Significance
Growth of a global ‘politic’ around culture,
sport, health, events and tourism
Issues of identity in a global community
Changes in professional practice and
organisational operations in a global
marketplace and global factory

Globalisation impacts of the Cultural Industries

at levels of production, consumption and
regulation.