Unit 1 Globalization CGW 4U0

Globalization ✤ the trend toward greater interconnectedness of the world’s financial, economic, technological, political, cultural, sociological, ecological, and geographic systems. ✤ Global Village - a world where every person is linked by the latest high-technology communications systems and where free trade and the efficient operation of the world’s economy contribute to growing wealth for all. ✤ To some globalization is the reason a local factory shuts down, only to reopen a thousand kilometres away in a country with cheaper labour, poor labour practices, and weaker environmental laws.

Criticisms ✤ globalization means destruction of local cultures and the weakening of traditional religious beliefs, only to be placed by a homogenized, largely American-dominated culture. ✤ Why is there so many views on globalization? ✤ glob is an ongoing, evolving process ✤ impacts are unclear ✤ eight types of globalization, can occur separately or in various combinations.

Financial Globalization ✤ world’s financial systems have become intimately interconnected ✤ ex. world’s stock markets affect each other ✤ does not involve interconnection of nations, it reflects what happens in a network of world cities that have significant financial markets.

Economic Globalization ✤ In the past, a corporation tended to be identified with one particular country. ✤ This type of glob has been one of the most controversial. ✤ Supports maintain that economic globalization brings effeciency and produces greater global wealth. ✤ Opponents say economic globalization tends only to increase the difference between the world’s haves and have nots and produces a situation in which transnational corporations become more powerful and influential than most countries.

Technological Globalization ✤ Global Village = technological globalization ✤ Remember glob is a is a process and not a destination. ✤ Most of this globalization happens in countries where they have the money to pay for cell phones, internet, etc. ✤ Many developing countries are going straight to cellphone networks, which are cheaper than building traditional phone networks.

Political Globalization ✤ As the world’s countries become more economically and technologically interdependent, it is not surprising there are pressures on them to adopt uniform policies. ✤ Examples: WTO (World Trade Organization), NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), IMF (International Monetary Fund), etc. ✤ More and more countries have swung towards a neo-liberal economic perspective.

Cultural Globalization ✤ gradual harmonization of the world’s cultures at the expense of distinctly different local cultures. ✤ Eventually, most people in the world watch the same tv shows, movies, listen to the same music, eat the same foods, have the same values, and so on. ✤ Critics say that cultural glob can happen only with the loss of the world’s cultural diversity and that the world culture develops will be primarily American.

Ecological Globalization ✤ there as been a growing acceptance of the idea that the planet must be treated as a single ecosystem rather than a collection of separate ecological systems. ✤ Ex. Ozone - Montreal Protocol (designed to protect the ozone layer) ✤ Environmentalists hope the model of international cooperation that proved so successful in this case will act as a model for the even greater risks posed by climate change.

Sociological Globalization ✤ Increasingly common belief that we are members of a single, world society that has become more significant than distinct national and cultural societies. ✤ The growing belief that certain common attitudes and standards of behaviour should exist in every country. ✤ Ex. morality of capital punishment, role of women in society.

Geographical Globalization ✤ in the past, geographers tended to look at the world in terms of what happened within one country, or what relationships existed between and among countries. ✤ Increasingly, they see a boarderless world dominated not by countries, but by worldwide ecological concerns and political, cultural, economic, and other relationships existing among the network of world cities and the regions surrounding them.