Globalization

Dimensions
What is it? Global capitalist
economy & diminishing political
power of nation-state governments
(Marxists & Right-wingers)
Social relations- “stretching”
(Giddens)
Culture – a sense of “global
consciousness” (Robertson)
1) Globalization of Politics
- The end of the nation-state?

2) Globalization of Social Relations

- The stretching of social relations

3) Globalization of Culture
- Homogenization: Cultural imperialism
- Culture clashes
- Heterogenization
 Globalization of Politics
Nation-state has sovereign power:
- Treaty of Westphalia (1648)
- Draws up defined borders
- Each state controls affairs in its own
territory. SOVEREIGNTY
- Other states cannot interfere in a state’s
business

Globalization undermines sovereignty of

states i.e. undercuts power of a state to
control things in its territory

Martin Albrow: the nation-state is rapidly

losing power
Nation-state IS losing power
Economically:
1) power of TNCS
2) forces of world market
Politically:
1) International bodies and law
e.g. United Nations, European Union
2) Global protest movements e.g. Greens
Culturally:
1) Cultural influences from all over world
2) Trans-national media – public opinion
Nation-state IS NOT losing power

Hirst & Thompson:

- TNCs do not have total control of

national economies
- States still have primary control over
taxes & welfare spending
- International bodies like UN made up
of, and dependent on, nation-states
- States developing increasing control of
borders and migration e.g. passports
 Globalization of Social Relations
Giddens: “the disembedding of social
relations”

- social relations transformed from purely local

or national to more “global”

- communications technologies; travel

technologies

- dispersal of populations across globe:

migrations and diasporas
Ulrich Beck:
Trans-national social connections
- public life: trans-national business
relationships
- private life: relatives & friends in
different countries; inter-marriage
between national groups, etc.
Multiple, non-national affiliations and
identities
Cosmopolitanism: a person’s identity is
decoupled from the nation-state
Undermining the idea of “Society”
John Urry, Ulrich Beck, Roland Robertson

1) Cannot use the idea of “society” any more

2) Invented in later 19th century: Durkheim
3) Society = bounded unit; a thing
Society = nation-state
e.g. “British society”, “German society”, etc
4) Reflects out-dated social conditions
5) Need new ideas to reflect global conditions
 Undermining the idea of “Society”
Drop idea of “society”

Use other ideas from classical sociology

Max Weber: Sociality (social relations)

Georg Simmel: Social networks
(Norbert Elias: social chains)

“Global networks”
– facilitated through electronic
communications networks
 Undermining the idea of “Society”
Ulrich Beck: Cosmopolitan sociology
1) The main focus is not “society” but the “whole world”
2) Examine multiple, intersecting world-spanning processes
3) Avoid West-centric outlooks

John Urry: Sociology Beyond Societies

1) Global flows
2) Social processes like liquids
3) Liquids pouring rapidly across the world
- Flows unpredictable and uncontrollable

4) Unconstrained cross-border mobility of people and things

Zygmunt Bauman:

Free & chosen mobility for wealthy

- transnational business-people
- global tourism

Forced mobility for poor:

- migrant workers, refugees
- ever more controls on mobility of poor

Information mobility: world divides into

“information rich” and “information poor”
 Globalization of Culture
Emergence of a “global culture”?
What might this look like?

Positive: whole world shares same

ideas and values?
World Cup, Olympic Games
Negative: local cultures destroyed?

Cultural homogenization?
Cultural heterogenization?
 Cultural Imperialism
Westernisation / Americanisation of the
world

Domination of American consumer brands:

McDonalds, Nike, Coca-Cola, Gap
(“McWorld” - Benjamin Barber)

Global cultural homogenisation

- Same consumer goods everywhere
- Same ways of thinking everywhere
This is bad (left-wing critics e.g. Noam
Chomsky)
This is good (right-wing critics e.g. Francis
Fukuyama)
 Cultural Imperialism
Dominance of American mass media

Oligopoly of big media companies:

- Disney, Warner, Sony

Imbalance of cultural flows:

from ‘core’ to ‘periphery’,
not vice versa
 Culture Clashes
Benjamin Barber – Jihad vs. McWorld
- Local identities, nationalisms, religious
traditions
- Develop in opposition to McWorld
- McWorld creates Jihad

Samuel Huntington – Clash of

Civilizations
- European-Christian, Russian-Christian,
Arabic-Muslim, Chinese, etc.
- All in conflict: symbolically & materially
 Cultural heterogenization
Roland Robertson
1) People in local cultures reinterpret global culture
products in light of their own values & interests
2) Global culture is always limited by local cultures
3) Mixtures of global and local cultures:
- process of glocalization
- local becomes global; global becomes local

4) Perceived threats to local identity:

- strong assertion of local identity

Globalization reinforces local cultures

Globalization produces new “local” cultures
 Hybridization & Creolization
Anthropologists: Ulf Hannerz

1) No culture is ever ‘pure’

- Always a mixture of influences

2) Previously (relatively) separate cultures come

into contact with each other

3) Globalization = Complex mixtures of cultures

- ‘creole cultures’, ‘hybrids’
Globalization of religion:
- other options than the “local” religion
- religious syncretism: mixing and matching
- New Age religions: bits of Christianity, Hinduism,
Buddhism, Taoism, Celtic paganism & witchcraft,
etc.

Globalization of food:
- “fusion cuisine” e.g. French-Japanese, Anglo-Indian

Globalization of music:
- “World music”
- Buddhist-techno, Spanish rap, Hungarian rock

Relativization of one’s own cultural traditions

 Limits of Hybridization Ideas
1) Local cultures commercialised:
Sold to Westerners by media and
big business; fashion trends
2) Enforced hybridization
- Western culture imposed on non-West
- Westerners choose non-Western cultures
3) Most people still primarily
enmeshed in local culture?
Global culture has superficial effects?
 Points to Consider
Economic Globalization: spread of global
capitalism. Effects?
Political Globalization: decline of nation-
state’s power. True?
Social Globalization: stretching of social
relations across world. Everyone, equally?
Cultural Globalization: homogenization,
culture clashes, heterogenization. Which?
Which is most important?
How does each of these effect the others?