Much of the talk of 'globalization' is confused and confusing. 'Globalization' has become a buzzword - and those using the term often have contrasting understandings of what it means. In the table that follows we have summarized Jan Aart Scholte's discussion of what he identifies as the five, key, broad definitions of globalization that are in common usage. They are related and overlap, but the elements they highlight are significantly different.
|
Globalization - some definitions Jan Aart Scholte (2000: 15-17) has argued that at least five broad definitions of 'globalization' can be found in the literature. Globalization as internationalization. Here globalization is viewed 'as simply another adjective to describe cross-border relations between countries'. It describes the growth in international exchange and interdependence. With growing flows of trade and capital investment there is the possibility of moving beyond an inter-national economy, (where 'the principle entities are national economies') to a 'stronger' version - the globalized economy in which, 'distinct national economies are subsumed and rearticulated into the system by international processes and transactions' (Hirst and Peters 1996: 8 and 10). Globalization as liberalization. In this broad set of definitions, 'globalization' refers to 'a process of removing government-imposed restrictions on movements between countries in order to create an "open", "borderless" world economy' (Scholte 2000: 16). Those who have argued with some success for the abolition of regulatory trade barriers and capital controls have sometimes clothed this in the mantle of 'globalization'. Globalization as universalization. In this use, 'global' is used in the sense of being 'worldwide' and 'globalization' is 'the process of spreading various objects and experiences to people at all corners of the earth'. A classic example of this would be the spread of computing, television etc. Globalization as westernization or modernization (especially in an 'Americanized' form). Here 'globalization' is understood as a dynamic, 'whereby the social structures of modernity (capitalism, rationalism, industrialism, bureaucratism, etc.) are spread the world over, normally destroying pre-existent cultures and local self-determination in the process. Globalization as deterritorialization (or as the spread of supraterritoriality). Here 'globalization' entails a 'reconfiguration of geography, so that social space is no longer wholly mapped in terms of territorial places, territorial distances and territorial borders. Anthony Giddens' has thus defined globalization as ' the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa. (Giddens 1990: 64). David Held et al (1999: 16) define globalization as a ' process (or set of processes) which embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions - assessed in terms of their extensity, intensity, velocity and impact - generating transcontinental or inter-regional flows and networks of activity'. |
Of these five approaches/definitions it is only the last, according to Scholte, that offers the possibility of a clear and specific definition of globalization. The notion of supraterritoriality (or trans-world or trans-border relations), he argues, provides a way into appreciating what is global about globalization. His argument runs something like the following:
The notion of globalization as universalization also fails to provide new insight. The move towards universalization is a long-running one - and so little or nothing is added by substituting the notion of globalization.
The understanding of globalization as westernization has developed particularly in the context of neocolonialism and post-colonial imperialism. It is, again, difficult to see what advance the notion of globalization provides as against the discourse of colonialism, imperialism and 'modernization'. As Scholte (ibid.: 45) convincingly argues, 'we do not need a new vocabulary of globalization to remake old analysis'.
Important new insight can, however, be gained from approaching globalization as the growth of 'supraterritorial' or transworld relations between people. It allows for us to explore deep-seated changes in the way that we understand and experience social space.
The proliferation and spread of supraterritorial... connections brings an end to what could be called 'territorialism', that is a situation where social geography is entirely territorial. Although... territory still matters very much in our globalizing world, it no longer constitutes the whole of our geography. (Scholte 2000: 46)
The first four approaches are all compatible with territorialism, the fifth is not. Within a territorial orientation 'place' is identified primarily with regard to territorial location. However, we have witnessed a fundamental change. There has been a massive growth in social connections that are unhooked in significant ways from territory.
This argument, or rather the focus on supraterritoriality, is not without its critics. For example, Martin Shaw (2001) has argued that Scholte's focus falls into the trap of confusing a shift in the content of social relations for changes in their spatial form, 'a question of sociology for one of geography'. He suggests that Scholte's argument:
... misses the maximum sense of the global: the recognition of human commonality on a worldwide scale, in the double sense that the world framework is increasingly constitutive of society, and of emergent common values. It is not that supraterritorial spaces are growing more important, but that both territorial and supraterritorial spaces - more fundamentally national-international as well as supranational-transnational relations - are both globalized in this double sense.
In other words, the current scale, scope and speed of change in the spheres that Scholte labels as universalization and internationalization is such that it is possible to talk of our being in a qualitatively different situation. This shift, has a profound effect on the way we experience place (and vice versa).
return to the article on globalization.
Burbules, N. C. and Torres, C. A. (2000) Globalization and Education: Critical Perspectives, London: Routledge. The introduction available on the web: http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/burbules/ncb/papers/global.html
Frank, T. (2002) One Market Under God. Extreme capitalism, market populism, and the end of economic democracy, London: Vintage. 434 + xviii pages. Frank argues that 'market populism' - the notion that markets are, in some transcendent way, identifiable with democracy and the will of the people - has become a dominant doctrine. Riven with contributions it has, nevertheless, remained vital and durable. He questions many of the schemes to challenge globalization and the global corporate order, and argues that it must be challenged from outside.
Gray, J. (1999) False Dawn. The delusions of global capitalism, London: Granta. 262 pages. A spirited and well argued polemic against the effort to create a global free market. Includes a very useful overview of debates around globalization. Highly recommended.
Hutton, W. and Giddens, A. (eds.) (2001) On The Edge. Living with global capitalism, London: Vintage. 241 + xi pages. Useful collection of articles from some key contributors to the globalization debate such as Castells, Soros and Beck.
Klein, N. (2000) No Logo, London: Flamingo. 490 + xxi pages. An exposure of the rise of the brand and consumer capitalism - and the violations of human rights it has entailed. A modern classic.
Landes, D. (1999) The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Why some are so rich and some are so poor, London: Abacus. 650 + xxi pages. Fascinating long-run historical exploratoin.
Mishra, R. (1999) Globalization and the Welfare State, London: Edward Elgar.168 pages. Mishra argues that social standards have declined far more in English-speaking countries than in continental Europe and Japan, and that globalization is as much a political and ideological phenomenon as it is an economic one. He makes a case for a transnational approach to social policy to ensure that social standards rise in line with economic growth.
Monbiot, G. (2000) Captive State. The corporate takeover of Britain, London: Pan. 430 + viii pages. A committed and well argued account of the spread of corporate power and the extent to which the foundations of democratic government are threatened by corporate expansion and globalization.
Scholte, J. A. (2000) Globalization. A critical introduction, London: Palgrave. 361 + xx pages. This is a comprehensive and accessible overview of globalization. Part one develops a framework for analysis; part two discusses change and continuity (in production, governance, community and knowledge); and part three explores some key policy issues around security, justice, democracy and humane global futures. Highly recommended. Some elements of the argument can be found in an earlier article by Scholte (1997) 'Global capitalism and the state', International Affairs, 73(3) pp. 427-52, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/scholte.htm
Beck, U. (1992) Risk Society, London: Sage.
Beck, U. (1999) What is Globalization?, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Beck, U. (2001) 'Living your life in a runaway world: individualization, globalization and politics', in W. Hutton and A. Giddens. (eds.) On The Edge. Living with global capitalism, London: Vintage.
Castells, M. (1996) The Rise of the Networked Society, Oxford: Blackwell.
Castells, M. (2001) 'Information technology and global capitalism' in W. Hutton and A. Giddens. (eds.) On The Edge. Living with global capitalism, London: Vintage.
Chossudovsky, M. (1997) The Globalization of Poverty. Impacts of the IMF and World Bank reforms, London: Zed Books.
Cogburn, D. L. (1998) 'Globalization, knowledge, education and training in the global world', Conference paper for the InfoEthics98, UNESCO, http://www.unesco.org/webworld/infoethics_2/eng/papers/paper_23.htm
Foreign Policy (2002) 'Globalization's last hurrah?', Foreign Policy, January/February, http://66.113.195.237/issue_janfeb_2002/global_index.html
Fox, J. (2001) Chomsky and Globalization, London: Icon Books.
Gee, J. P., Hull, L. and Lankshear, C. (1996) The New Work Order. Behind the language of the new capitalism, St. Leonards, Aus.: Allen and Unwin.
Giroux, H. A. (2001) Stealing Innocence. Corporate culture's war on children, London: Palgrave Macmillan. 208 pages.
Held, D., McGrew, A., Goldblatt, D. and Perraton, J. (1999) Global Transformations - politics, economics and culture, Cambridge: Polity Press.
International Monetary Fund (2000) Globalization: threat or opportunity, International Monetary Fund, corrected January 2002, http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/ib/2000/041200.htm#II
Kellner, D. (1997) 'Globalization and the postmodern turn', UCLA , http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/courses/ed253a/dk/GLOBPM.htm
Kuehn, L (1999) 'Responding to Globalization of Education in the Americas -- Strategies to Support Public Education', Civil Society Network for Public Education in the Americas - CSNPEA, http://www.vcn.bc.ca/idea/kuehn.htm
Mulgan, G. (1998) Connexity: Responsibility, freedom, business and power in the new century (revised edn.), London: Viking.
Romer, Paul M. (1986) 'Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth', Journal of Political Economy 94(5), pp.1002-37.
Romer, Paul M. (1990) 'Endogenous Technological Change', Journal of Political Economy 98(5), pp. 71-102.
Shaw, M. (2001) 'Review - Jan Aart Scholte: Globalization. A critical introduction', Milleneum. A journal of international studies, http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/hafa3/scholte.htm
World Bank. (1999) World Development Report 1998/99: Knowledge for Development. Washington: World Bank. [1999, 9 August]. http://www.worldbank.org/wdr/wdr98/contents.htm.
World Bank Research (2002) 'Globalization, Growth and Poverty: Building an Inclusive World Economy', The World Bank Group, http://econ.worldbank.org/prr/subpage.php?sp=2477
Development Gateway Foundation: Useful set of pages on the knowledge economy + plenty of other resources.
Global Policy Forum. Useful set of resources and links that explore the nature of globalization.
No Logo: website linked to Klein's book with bulletin board and various resources.
World Bank Research on Globalization. Collection of topic papers and reports.
Extracted from: Smith, M. K. (2002) 'Globalization and the incorporation of education' the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/globalization.htm.
© Mark K. Smith 2002
