MODULE 1

INTRODUCTION
TO
GLOBALIZATION
Does the picture
speak of realities in
your place? Why or
why not?

What do you think

the picture implies?
Does it outweigh the
disadvantages over
its advantages?
 Connect
SHOULD FREE TRADE AND FREE
MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE BE
WITHOUT LIMITS? IS A BORDERLESS
WORLD REALLY POSSIBLE?
LESSON 1: DEFINING GLOBALIZATION

Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
identify the underlying philosophies of the varying definitions of
globalization;
differentiate the competing conceptions of globalization;
agree on a working definition of globalization for the course; and
analyze the various contemporary drivers of globalization.
 Words to Go By:
 Globalization
  – refers to the existence of free exchange of goods, services, culture, and
even people, between and among countries.
- The expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across world-time
and world-space (Steger).
 Contemporary World- the circumstances and ideas of the present age; “in modern times
like these” – an era representing more or less definite period of present times or popularly
known, “the signs of the times” economically, politically and socio-culturally.
 Social Movement – People, organizations and even institutions advocating a positive
social change through a variety of means and approaches.
 Expansion – refers to “both the creation of new social networks and the multiplication of
existing connections that cut across traditional political, cultural and geographic
boundaries.
 Intensification – refers to the expansion, stretching, and acceleration of social networks.
ASSIGNED READING MATERIALS
Introduce Textbook: Manfred Stegger, Paul Batersby, and
Joseph M. Siracusa, eds. 2014. The SAGE Handbook of
Globalization. Two vols. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Chapter 1 of textbook: The Contemporary World. Lisandro
Claudio and Patricio Abinales. 2018. C&E Publishing, Inc.
Chapter 1 of textbook: Journeys Through Our Contemporary
World. San Juan, David Michael. Vibal Publishing House.
DISCUSSION
The concept of globalization is one of the most popular subjects of
contemporary academic research. The interest for global studies
increased in the 1960s and 1970s. Various scholars introduced several
approaches in understanding the notion of globalization.
While they are motivated to formulate a universal conception of this
phenomenon, this led them to certain divides as to the lens(es) that best
suit(s) in the study of globalization. In this lesson, the principal
academic approaches to globalization as presented by the leading
global studies scholars since the 1990s are provided using the work of
Manfred B. Steger (2014). His presentation of these approaches ranges
from the perception that globalization is little more than ‘globaloney’
to conflicting interpretations of globalization.
 GLOBALIZATION AS “GLOBALONEY’

Proponents of this view contend that existing accounts of

globalization are incorrect, imprecise, or exaggerated. This is
because globalists view everything that can be linked to some
transnational process as evidence for globalization and its growing
influence. Hence, they suspect that such general observations
reflect what is called as “globaloney” (Held & McGrew, 2007;
Rosenberg, 2000; Veseth, 2010 as cited by Steger, 2014).
This description of globalization as ‘globaloney’ falls into three
categories:

(1) Rejectionists
(2) Sceptics
(3) Modifiers
REJECTIONISTS The first group disputes the usefulness of
globalization as a sufficiently precise analytical
concept; representatives of this category.

Categories of
Globalization as Arguments Weaknesses/Points of Improvement
‘Globaloney’

1. Globalization is an analytically impoverished 1. Challenge the academic community

concept (the same as nationalism) because of
its complexity and ambiguity. This
characteristic often leads to the legitimation
of some claims while delegitimizing the
Rejectionists
others (Calhoun, 1993).
2. Susan Strange (1996) considers globalization
as a vacuous term, suggesting that it has been
used in academic discourse to refer to
‘anything from internet to a hamburger.’
to provide additional examples of
how the term ‘globalization’
obscures more than it enlightens.
2. Complement the social-scientific
enterprise of exploring
globalization as an objective
process with more interpretive
studies of the ideological project
of globalism.
SCEPTICS Members of the second group point to the limited nature of
the globalizing processes, emphasizing that the world is not
nearly as integrated as many globalization proponents claim.
Categories of
Globalization as Arguments Weaknesses/Points of Improvement
‘Globaloney’
1. Hirst and Thompson set
overly high standards for
1. They emphasize the limited nature of
the economy in order to be
current globalizing process.
counted as “fully
globalized.”
2. Hirst, Thompson, and Bromley (2009)
2. Their efforts to construct an
asserted that the world economy is not truly
Sceptics a global economic phenomenon, but one
abstract model of a perfectly
globalized economy
centered on Europe, Easter Asia, and North
unnecessarily polarize the
America. Majority of economic activity
topic by pressuring the
around the world remains primarily national
readers to either completely
in origin and scope.
embrace or entirely reject
the concept of globalization.
 Categories of
Globalization as Arguments
‘Globaloney’
3. Hirst and Thompson added that
without a truly global economic system,
there can be no globalization [Hirst-
Thompson Thesis].
4. Hirst-Thompson Thesis emphasizes
Sceptics the “iron logic of economic
globalization.” According to this, the
iron logic of economic globalization
tends to produce disempowering
political effects.
Weaknesses/Points of Improvement
3. The most serious
shortcoming of the Hirst-
Thompson Thesis lies in
an attempt to counteract
neo-liberal economic
determinism with a good
with a good dose of
Marxist economic
determinism.
MODIFIERS The third group of critics disputes the novelty of the
process while acknowledging the existence of
moderate globalizing tendencies
Categories of
Globalization as Arguments Weaknesses/Points of Improvement
‘Globaloney’
1. This group disputes the novelty of the 1. A world system approach to
process, implying that the label globalization suffers from
‘globalization’ has often been applied in a the same weakness as the
historically precise manner. Marxist economic
determinist view.
2. Robert Gilpin (2000) confirms the
MODIFIERS existence of globalizing tendencies, but
he also insists that many important
aspects of globalization are not novel
developments.
 Categories of
Globalization as Arguments
‘Globaloney’
3. Moreover, neo-Marxist scholars
and world system theorists such as
Immanuel Wallerstein (1979) and
Andre Gunder Frank (1998) argue
that the modern capitalist economy
in which we live today has been
MODIFIERS global since its inception five
centuries ago.
Weaknesses/Points of Improvement
3. Wallerstein (1990) leaves little doubt
that he considers global integration to
be a process driven largely by
economic forces whose essence can be
captured by economistic analytical
models.
Accordingly, he assigns to culture and
ideology merely subordinate role as
‘idea systems” on the ‘real’ movements
of the capitalist world economy.
 GLOBALIZATION AS ECONOMIC
PROCESS

The scholars under this perspective explore in much detail

how the evolution of international markets and corporation
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”
(Gilpin, 2000 as cited by Steger, 2014).
 GLOBALIZATION AS ECONOMIC
PROCESS

Moreover, according to this view,

globalization is a real phenomenon that
signals an epochal transformation in
world affairs and that, a quantum
change in human affairs has taken place
as the flow of large quantities of trade,
investment, and technologies across
national borders has expanded from a
trickle to a flood (Gilpin, 2000 as cited
by Steger, 2014).
 GLOBALIZATION AS ECONOMIC
PROCESS
The historical narratives that trace the gradual emergence of the new post-war world
economy to the 1944 Bretton Woods system and its post-war evolution are usually the
core of studies of economic globalization (Schaeffer, 2005 as cited by Steger, 2014).
Added also to this model are the following:
(a) the role of multinational corporations;
(b) the changing nature of the production process and the liberalization and
internationalization of financial transactions;
(c) advances in data processing and information technology that contributed to the
explosive growth of tradable financial value (international capital flow); and
(d) the formation of global labor market (highlighting the role of Transnational
Corporations (TNCs).
 GLOBALIZATION AS POLITICAL PROCESS

Most of the debates about political globalization

includes the weighing of conflicting evidence
regarding the fate of the modern state. In
particular, two questions have become the top
agenda of the proponents of this perspective:
(1) What are the political causes for the
massive flows of capital, money and technology
across territorial boundaries? And
(2) Do these flows constitute a serious
challenge to the power of the nation- state?
 GLOBALIZATION AS POLITICAL PROCESS

An influential group of scholars considers political

globalization as a process intrinsically connected to the
expansion of markets. “Globalization has happened because
technological advances have broken down many physical
barriers to worldwide communication which used to limit
how much connected or cooperative activity of any kind
could happen over long distances.” As asserted by an even
more extreme technological- determinist explanation,
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. The role of government will be ultimately
reduced to serving as ‘superconductor for global capitalism’
(Bryan & Farrell, 1996 as cited by Steger, 2014).
GLOBALIZATION AS POLITICAL PROCESS

Kenichi Ohmae (1990, 1995, 2005) as mentioned by

Steger (2014) argues that ‘seen from the perspective
of real flows of economic activity, the nation-state had
already lost its role as a meaningful unit of
participation in the global economy.’ Thus, in the long
run, the process of political globalization will lead to
the decline of territory as a meaningful framework for
understanding political and social change.
 GLOBALIZATION AS POLITICAL PROCESS

They argued for the continued relevance of conventional political units, operating
either in the form of modern nation-states or global cities (Steger, 2014). Also,
most of the proponents of this view understand that the development of the last
few decades has significantly constrained the set of political options open to
states, particularly in developing countries. Jan Art Scholte (2005) as mentioned
by Steger (2014) points out that globalization refers to the gradual processes of
‘relative deterritorialization’ that facilitate the growth of ‘supra-territorial’
relations between people. However, he emphasized that this deterritorialization
does not mean the extinction of state as the main organizing force in the world.
The core message of this group is loud and clear: politics is a crucial category
upon which rests a proper understanding of globalization (Steger, 2014).
 GLOBALIZATION AS POLITICAL PROCESS

The third group of scholars suggests that globalization is motivated by a

mixture of political and technological factors. John Gray (1998) cited by Steger
(2014) mentioned that ‘globalization is a long-term technology- driven process
whose contemporary shape has been politically determined by the world most
powerful nations.’
The fourth group of scholars perceives political globalization primarily
from the notion of global governance. Scholars in this group analyze the role
of various national and multilateral responses to the fragmentation of economic
and political systems and the transnational flows permeating through national
borders (Steger, 2014). There are scholars who believe that political
globalization might facilitate the emergence of democratic transnational social
forces emerging from a thriving global civil society.
 GLOBALIZATION AS POLITICAL PROCESS

Martin Shaw (2000) as mentioned by Steger (2014) emphasized ‘the

role of global political struggles in forming a ‘global revolution’ that
would lead to an internationalized, rights-based Western state
conglomerate symbolically linked to global institutions.’
This is furthered by the democratic theorist John Keane who coined
the term ‘cosmocracy’ which means a messy and complex type of polity
understood as ‘a conglomeration of interlocking and overlapping sub-
state, state and suprastate institutions and multidimensional processes
that interact, and have political and social effects on a global scale
(Steger, 2014).
 GLOBALIZATION AS POLITICAL PROCESS

Furthermore, 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. A number of critics to this perspective boils down to the
claim that Held and McGrew indulged in an abstract idealism that fails to engage with
current political developments on the level of policy. Some critics assert that the
emergence of private authority has increasingly become a factor in post-Cold War world;
global collective actors like religious terrorists and organized criminals are not merely
symptoms of the weakening state, but their actions also dim the prospects for the rise of
cosmopolitan democracy. Moreover, the cultural lens of the possibility of cosmopolitan
democracy is left unexplored (Steger, 2014).
 GLOBALIZATION AS CULTURAL PROCESS

 Any analytical account of globalization would be woefully

inadequate without an examination of its cultural
dimensions (Steger, 2014). John Tomlinson (1999) a
sociologist, emphasized the centrality of culture to
contemporary debates on globalization. He states that
‘Globalization lies at the heart of modern culture; cultural
practices lie at the heart of globalization.’ This perspective
answers the following questions:
(1) Does globalization increase cultural homogeneity, or
does it lead to greater diversity and heterogeneity?
(2) Does globalization make people alike or more different?
(3) How does dominant culture of consumerism impact the
natural environment?
 GLOBALIZATION AS CULTURAL PROCESS

Tomlinson (1999) defines cultural globalization as a ‘densely growing network of

complex cultural interconnections and interdependencies that characterize modern
social life.’ He argued that global cultural flows are directed by powerful
international media corporations that utilize new communication technologies to
shape societies and identities. Culture no longer remains tied to fixed localities such
as town and nation but acquires new meanings that reflect dominant themes
emerging in global context (Steger, 2014).
Additionally, various scholars argued that these processes led to the rise of an
increasingly homogenized global culture underwritten by Anglo-American value
system which is also known as “cultural imperialism.” The American sociologist
George Ritzer coined the term “McDonaldization” to describe the wide-ranging
process by which the principles of fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more
and more sectors of American society, as well as the rest of the world (Steger, 2014).
 GLOBALIZATION AS CULTURAL PROCESS

Cultural theorist Arjun Appadurai (1996) identifies five conceptual dimensions or ‘landscapes
that are constituted by global cultural flows:
Each of these ‘scapes’ contain the building blocks of new ‘imagined worlds’ that are assembled
by historically situated imaginations of persons and groups spread around the globe (Sterger,
2014).

(1)Ethnoscapes
(2) Finanscapes
(3) mediscapes
(4) technoscapes
(5) ideoscapes
 INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION
VALIDATION TIME

Individual Thought Paper. COMPARE AND

CONTRASTTHE PERSPECTIVE OF GLOBALIZATION ON
YOUR OWN THOUGHT, UNDERSTANDING AND EXAMPLE.

Rubric for Assessment:

Content - 40
Presentation - 30
Organization - 20
Technicalities – 10
Total: 100
GE LWR: LIFE AND WORKS OF RIZAL
VALIDATION TIME

Create a video showing your personal experience on the

implications of COVID-19 pandemic in the context of
globalization.

Rubric for Assessment:

Content:
40
Originali
ty/Creativity: 25
Technicalities – 10
Relevance: 25
Total - 100