Brief definition globalization

1. I.Globalization: A
Preliminary Definition
II.Bosworth & Gordon:
Key Processes and
Public Controversies
III.Empirical Debates
IV.Normative Debates
Video: Captive Audience

2. Globalization: A Preliminary Definition
“an unprecedented compression of
time and space reflected in the
tremendous intensification of social,
political, economic, and cultural
interconnections and
interdependencies on a global scale.”
Stegler, p. ix
• time-space compression
• deterritorialization and supraterritoriality

3. One way to
approach this: think
about the world
before globalization
• Distance mattered—space often measured in
time
• Territorial boundaries more or less kept
things in and out
• Society and culture had spatial referents
• Everything had its “place” (literally)

4. In a world of deterritorialization and
supraterritoriality:
•Distance becomes almost irrelevant (the end of
distance)
•Boundaries are increasingly permeable.
•Groups and cultures increasingly don’t have a
territorial basis (deterritorialization)
•A new kind of non-physical “place” is emerging
(supraterritoriality)

5. Bosworth and Gordon: A survey of
some key processes
• Expansion of international commerce
• Rising importance of private capital flows
• Increasing travel and migration
• Increased communication and interaction
between peoples

6. Bosworth and Gordon also point to some of the
key public controversies over globalization:
• The fact there are winners and losers, and societies
vary in how much they compensate the losers
• Continuing poverty: ¼ world’s population below $1 a
day; over ½ below $2 a day
• Inequality between rich and poor is rising
• Environmental concerns and conflict over global
governance
• Open borders and their effects (the piggy-back effect)

7. Frank Lechner: Empirical Debates
2.Process vs. Project
3.New Era vs. Nothing New (Globabaloney)
4.Hard vs. Soft
4. End vs. Revival of Nation State
5. Cultural Sameness vs. Difference

8. Amartya Sen: Normative Debates
(Good vs. Bad)
2.Whether globalization is a
Western curse
3.Whether globalization
fairly benefits the poor
4.Whether the institutional
infrastructure of globalization is
adequate

9. Video: Emerging Powers: India

10. “Over the past decade globalization has
been driven by technological
advances…..But globalization has also
been driven by policies and ideas…”
Bosworth & Gordon
Next time: globalization as a neoliberal
project