1. Globalization and Africa
Topic 1

2. Definitions
The widening, deepening and speeding up of global interconnectedness
“The ongoing process of greater interdependence among countries and their citizens” (Fischer 2003:3)
“The compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole” (Robertson 1992:8)
“Intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring miles away and vice versa” (Giddens 1990)

3. Aspects of globalization
Social- stretching of social relations across world
Economic- spread of global capitalism
Political- decline of nation-state’s power
Cultural- homogenization, culture clashes, hybridity
Technological- compression of time and space
All these aspects are interconnected

4. ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION
1. “Free Market Economy” where the market is “free” from State control
2. Economies Are Increasingly Linked Together- E.U, WTO
3. Global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations
4. Competition
5. Multi-national companies- Dutch East India Company, Nike, Wal-Mart, Royal/Dutch Shell,

5. Economic Globalization in AFRICA
Little Industry and Technology
“Brain Drain”
Debt (IMF loans)
300 million people live on less than $1/day
Sub-Saharan Africa in extreme poverty (less than 750 calories/day)
Gap between rich and poor increasing

6. POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION
The United Nations: Global association of governments. Facilitating cooperation in international law, security, economic development, and social equity
The US and the UK were the only nations in support of going to war in Iraq
Can a global politics with social values exist?

7. CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION
McArabia Kofta

8. CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION
Cultural Imperialism = Dominance of one culture over others
Hollywood movies, MacDonald’s, Disneyland, Starbucks
Dominance of the English language and invasion of other languages
Do people all over the world have the same taste?
Africa
“Culture Industry” = opportunities for Africans to sell their culture in the “global market” that values traditional culture

9. TECHNOLOGICAL GLOBALIZATION
Print, photography, film, telephone, broadcasting, satellites, and computer rapidly merging in the global communication network
Increased Computer technology around the world
Increase in internet use
Communication technology compressing time and space
(global) media and the worldwide spread of International Communication Technologies have made global interconnectedness
Development of global media and ICT networks have not merely created new networks for the dissemination of information across spatial boundaries

10. Communication enabling globalisation
The Internet with its 1.9 billion users in 2010 [4]
Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Wikileaks represent a highway of global communication.
Google is processing more than one billion searches per day [5];
105 million Twitter users are tweeting an average of 55 million tweets a day [6];
people sent more than 90 trillion s in 2010 [5];
Facebook has 540 million users who spend about 700 billion minutes on the site every month [7];
Wikileaks has published 3,890 secret diplomatic documents from all over the world...

11. Cultural imperialism
Many words that can be used to describe cultural imperialism are tied to concepts of colonialism: invasion, paternalism, proselytizing.
Sometimes viewed as the ‘invasion’ by an Western business and culture
“Globalisation is what we in the Third World have for several centuries called colonisation.” (Martin Khor 1995)
Globalization poses significant changes to people’s ways of life
Imbalance of cultural flows: from ‘core’ to periphery’, not vice versa
Local cultures commercialised

13. Cultural imperialism Americanization
Process where all peoples are becoming more like Americans through the prolonged and continued exposure to American culture
used as both a synonym for globalisation,
an expletive used to express fears of homogenisation and cultural imperialism
the promotion and extension of American principles and values
Refers to a global American monoculture promoted by American brands carrying the image of America: Coke, McDonald’s IBM, Nike, Marlboro
American media dominance perceived as a manifestation American imperial domination

14. Cultural imperialism Americanization
American image is also being shaped by popular culture and entertainment brands such as Jerry Springer, Sesame Street, Baywatch, Disney, Madonna, The Simpsons and MTV
Top 100 multinationals are all US-owned companies!
Royal/Dutch Shell: global group of energy and petrochemical companies, operating in more than 140 countries and territories, employing more than 112,000 people

15. Colonialism Manifestation of globalization
both have led to the establishment of asymmetrical economic interdependencies between territories
Colonialism seen to impose Western values on African nations
Imposition of universalized religion, economic and political models in Africa
Homogenization of culture