Presented by GEC103 Xx3 | CHAPTER 10

THE IMPACT OF NEGATIVE

GLOBAL FLOWS
ON INDIVIDUALS
-FAHAD S. HADJI USOPH, BSBA Marketing
All of the negative flows discussed above, indeed all of the analyses offered
throughout virtually this entire book, deal in general and abstract terms with
large-scale aspects of globalization. This is to a large degree because
globalization itself is large in scale, general, and abstract (although an effort
has been made throughout this book to concretize it). However, it is also the
case that globalization in general, as well as the various negative flows
discussed in this chapter, has a wide range of very profound effects on
individuals (Lemert and Elliott 2006 ).
 Each of the major negative flows
discussed above has profoundly
adverse effects on individuals: people
are victimized, even killed, as a result of
global crime; citizens pay the costs
resulting from corruption on a global
level;
innocent people, like those in the Twin
Towers, in the subway systems in
London and Madrid, and in Bali,
Indonesia are the victims, often the
intended victims, of terrorists; and it is
certainly, the case that large numbers
of innocent civilians die, and have
their lives
destroyed, by war.
 We can also look at this in another way by thinking about the individual
implications of the various insecurities iterated by the United Nations
Development Report: financial volatility and economic insecurity, job and
income insecurity, health insecurity, cultural insecurity, personal insecurity,
environmental insecurity, and political and community insecurity.
While all of these insecurities exist globally, nationally, and in other large-scale
collectivities of one kind or another, they are also certainly manifest at the
individual level. Individuals suffer in global economic crises; in global wars;
and from fear of such things as contractingAIDS, hostile neighbours, identity
theft, the effects of global warming, and being caught up in the turmoil
associated with a failed or failing state.
 Along these lines, one recent book (Lemert and Elliott 2006 ) has gone so
far as to argue that globalization is toxic to individuals and their emotional
lives. The authors see a variety of personal problems resulting from
globalization such as hyperindividualism, privatization, and the decreasing
solidity and durability of personal identity (although they recognize that
globalization also brings with it the possibility of more open and flexible
selves). Overall, they conclude that people are being emotionally damaged
(Walker 2008 ) by the new “globalised individualism ” and by globalization
in general, at least its negative aspects.
 Presented by Sandra Haro

Thank you very

much!