GED 6

MODULE 1: LESSON 1

Global Experiences
Gio and Latif’s story is fictional but very plausible since it is in fact, based on the real-life
experience of one of the authors. It was through such friendships that one was able to appreciate
the meaning and impact of globalization.
We begin our definition of globalization with this narrative to illustrate how concrete the
phenomenon is. The story shows how globalization operates at multiple, intersecting levels. The
spread of Filipino TV into Malaysia suggests how fast this popular culture has proliferated and
criss-crossed all over Asia.
The model UN activity that Gio and Latif participated in is an international competition
about international politics. Gio met Latif (a Malaysian involved in the model UN) in Sydney, a
global city that derives its wealth and influence from the global capital that flows through it.
Sydney is also a metropolis of families of international immigrants or foreigners working in the
industries that also sell their products abroad. After the two had gone back to their home
countries, Gio and Latif kept in touch through Facebook, a global social networking site that
provides instantaneous communication across countries and continents. They preserved their
friendship online and then rekindled this face-to-face in Singapore, another hub for global
commerce, with 40 percent of the population being classified as “foreign talents”.
What other hints of globalization did you find in the story?
Some Description
Our discussion should begin with this intuitive sense that something is happening, and it
is not affecting everyone in the same way. Gio’s story is a very privileged way of experiencing
global flows, but for other people, the shrinking of the world may not be as exciting and
edifying. For example, it is very common for young women in developing countries to be
recruited in the internet as “mail-order brides” for foreign men living in other countries. After
being promised a good life once married to a kind husband in a rich city, they end up becoming
sexual and domestic servants in foreign lands. Some were even sold off by their “husbands” to
gangs which run prostitute rings in these cities. Like Gio, they too have experienced the
shrinking of the world, albeit negatively.
Governments that decide to welcome the foreign investments on the belief that they
provide jobs and capital for the country offer public lands as factory or industrial sites. In the
process, poor people living in these lands, also called “urban poor communities”, are being
evicted by the government. The irony is that these people forcibly removed from their “slums”
are also the labor force sought by foreign companies. They had to be kicked out of their homes,
and then told that they could take an hour or two of bus travel from their relocated communities
back to the “old homes” for minimum-wage work.
 Because different people encounter globalization in a variety of ways, it is deemed useful
to ask simple questions like: “Is globalization good or bad? Is it beneficial or detrimental?” The
discussion begins with two premises. First, globalization is a complex phenomenon that occurs at
multiple levels. Second, it is an uneven process that affects people differently.
Globalization: A Working Definition
Most accounts view globalization as primarily an economic process. When a newspaper
reports that nationalists are resisting “globalization”, it usually refers to the integration of the
national markets to a wider global market signified by the increased free trade. When activists
refer to the “anti-globalization” movement of the 1990s, they mean resisting the trade deals
among countries facilitated and promoted by global organizations like the World Trade
Organization.
Globalization scholars do not necessarily disagree with people who criticize unfair
international trade deals or global economic organizations. In fact, many are sympathetic to the
critique of economic globalization. Academics differ from journalists and political activists,
however, because they see globalization in much broader terms. They view the process through
various lenses that consider multiple theories and perspectives. Academics call this an
interdisciplinary approach, and it is this approach used by the general education (GE) courses
that you will be taking alongside this one.
The best scholarly description of globalization is provided by Manfred Steger who
described the process as “the expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness
across world-time and across world-space.” Expansion refers to “both the creation and new
social networks and the multiplication of existing connections that cut across traditional political,
economic, cultural, and geographic boundaries”. These various connections occur at different
levels. Social media, for example, establish new global connections between people, while
international groups of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are networks that connect a
more specific group – social workers and activists – from different corners of the globe. In the
story, Gio was able to join a model UN competition because his university was part of an
international network.
Intensification refers to the expansion, stretching, and acceleration of this network. Not
only are global connections multiplying, but they are also becoming more closely-knit and
expanding their reach. For example, there has always been a strong financial market connecting
London and New York. With the advent of electronic trading, however, the volume of that trade
increases exponentially, since traders can now trade more at higher speeds. The connection is
thus accelerating. Apart from this acceleration, however, as the world becomes more financially
integrated, the intensified trading network between London and New York may expand and
stretch to cover more and more cities. After China committed itself to the global economy in the
1980s, for example, Shanghai steadily returned to its old role as a major trading post.
It is not only in financial matters that you can find these connections. In 2012, when the
monsoon rains flooded much of Bangkok, the Honda plant making some of the critical car parts
temporarily ceased production. This had a strong negative effect on Honda-USA which relied
heavily on the parts being imported from Thailand. Not only was it unable to reach the sales
targets it laid out, but the ability of the service centers nationwide to assist Honda owners also
suffered. As a result, the Japanese car company’s global profits also fell.
The final attribute of this definition relates to the way people perceive time and space.
Steger notes that “globalization processes do not occur merely at an objective, material level but
they also involve the subjective plane of human consciousness”. In other words, people begin to
feel that the world has become a smaller place and distance has collapsed from thousands of
miles to just a mouse-click away. One can now e-mail a friend in another country and get a reply
instantaneously, and as a result, begins to perceive their distance as less consequential. Cable TV
and the internet has also exposed one to news from across the globe, so now, he/she has this
greater sense of what is happening in other places.
Steger posits that his definition of globalization must be differentiated with an ideology
he calls globalism. If globalization represents the many processes that allow for the expansion
and intensification of global connections, globalism is a widespread belief among powerful
people that the global integration of economic markets is beneficial for everyone, since it spreads
freedom and democracy across the world. It is a common belief forwarded in media and policy
circles. In the next lesson, you will realize why it is problematic.
For now, what is crucial to note is that when activists and journalists criticize
“globalization”, they are, more often than not, criticizing some manifestations of globalism.
Often, these criticisms are warranted. Nevertheless, it is crucial to insist that “globalization” as a
process refers to a larger phenomenon that cannot simply be reduced to the ways in which global
markets have been integrated.
Conclusion: Globalization from the Ground Up
All this talk of large, intersecting processes may be confusing. Indeed, it may be hard to
assess globalization or comment on it because it is so diffuse and almost fleeting. Some scholars
have, therefore, found it simpler to avoid talking about globalization as a whole. Instead, they
want to discuss “multiple globalizations”, instead of just one process.
For anthropologist Arjun Appadurai, different kinds of globalization occur on multiple
and intersecting dimensions of integration that he calls “scapes”. An “ethnoscape”, for example,
refers to the global movement of people, while a “mediascape” is about the flow of culture. A
“technoscape” refers to the circulation of mechanical goods and software; a “financescape”
denotes the global circulation of money; and an “ideoscape” is the realm where political ideas
move around. Although they intersect, these various scapes have differing logics. They thus
distinct windows into the broader phenomenon of globalization.
Appadurai’s argument is simple: there are multiple globalizations. Hence, even if one
does not agree that globalization can be divided into the five “scapes”, it is hard to deny
Appadurai’s central thrust of viewing globalization through various lenses.
Depending on what is being globalized, a different dynamic (or dynamics) may emerge.
So while it is important to ask “What is globalization?” it is likewise important to ask “What
is/are being globalized?” Depending on what is being globalized, the vista and conclusions
change.