This document discusses different perspectives on globalization. It begins by outlining the main strands of the globalization process, including increasing interconnectedness between societies, rising power of multinational corporations, and a growing global culture. It then examines five approaches to globalization: Technological Enthusiasts view it as an inevitable process driven by technology; Marxisant Pessimists see it increasing inequality and destroying local cultures; Pluralist Pragmatists see it as a complex process with both benefits and drawbacks; Sceptic Internationalists reject the idea of a borderless world and maintain the importance of nation-states. The document aims to provide a balanced overview of the diverse ways globalization can be understood.

1. The Nature of Globalization
Fachhochschule Coburg, 2005

2. Main strands of the
globalization process
 Increasing and deepening interconnectedness of societies in
different parts of the world
 Almost unimpeded flows of financial capital, news and cultural
images across the world
 Rising activity and power of multinational companies (MNCs)
 Rising economic growth accompanied by rising inequalities in
many countries
 A global consumer cultura in the making
 More travel and migration by more people from more countries
to more countries; faster methods of transport and electronic
communication so that time and space is increasingly being
compressed

3.  Greater awareness by the public of what is happening in the
world and of the possible implications for their own country.
 The rapid growth of government and non-government
supranational organizations that supplement, supplant and
support the activities of the nation-state.

4. Aspects of globalization
 definitions
 origins
 driving forces
 effects of globalization
 the future

5. Approaches to globalization
 Technological enthusiasts
 Marxisant pessimists
 Pluralist pragmatists
 Sceptic internationalists

6. Technological enthusiasts
Definitions:
G means the increasing transnationalization of
the world economy that has come about the
second half of the 20th
century as a result of
advances in technology and the adoption of
an individualistic market ethic.
Transnational (global) economy has replaced
national economies in a ´borderless´ world,
free of national constraints.

7. Origins:
A post-1945 process, the result of the new technologies
in transport and telecommunications that made
capital and markets far more mobile than before
Faciliated by an enabling ideology – aggressive
individualism – which stressed private enterprise at
the expense of state protection and provision

8. Driving Forces:
Technology, particularly telecommunications
and computers
National borders are meaningless for financial
markets and trade. Wriston: ‘Markets are no
longer geographical locations, but data on a
screen transmitted from everywhere in the
world.’
Technological and economic aspects of
globalization are primary and determinant of
the political and the cultural.

9. Effects of globalization:
Globalization has certain economic, political and social
imperatives
In the economic domain:
It demands that labour costs be low, that management
styles be mean and lean and that state expenditure
be reduced to encourage enterprise and national
competitiveness.
Political imperatives:
1. the triumph of capitalism over socialism
2. the nation-state will lose most of its power to the
rising might of the MNCs

10. The social sphere:
the changes to the economy, the polity and
culture are seen as beneficial to all in the
world

11. The future:
Globalization is an irresistible process
The very idea of a national economy becomes
meaningless, as are notions of a national
corporation, national capital, national
products, and national technology.
(Reich,1999)

12. Marxisant pessimists
Definitions:
G ‘is not a condition or phenomenon; it is a
process’.
‘If imperialism is the latest stage of capitalism,
globalism is the latest stage of imperialism’.

13. Origins:
G has its origins in the beginnings of
capitalism in Western Europe, it has
gained speed and momentum during
the post-war period

14. Driving forces:
Two different levels
at the basic level – the logic of capitalism – its inherent
tendency to expand, to intensify and to involve all
aspects of life.
at the secondary level – the current financial, production
and consumption arrangements of the world system
become DF for a globalized world-system.

15. Effects of Globalization:
are, at best, negative and, at worst, destructive, both in the short
term and the long term.
1. G has increased poverty and inequality in both AICs and
IDCs.
2. G affects not only the material aspects of people’s lives but
their attitudes, values and behaviour through the global media
dominated by large corporations. It leads to the
homogenization of cultures, the standartization of lifestyles
and to conformity.
3. There is disagreement whether G affects the authority of the
nation-state.

16. The Future:
G is set to continue in the foreseeable future
with increasing undesirable consequences for
most of the world’s population in terms of
exploitation, poverty, environmental
destruction and social breakdown.

17. Pluralist Pragmatists
Definitions:
G is a long, multifaceted process, with diverse, at times
conflicting, effects, with an assured future but whose
future form is not possible to predict.
G as a concept refers both to the compression of the
world and the intensification of consciousness of the
world as a whole. (Robertson, 1992)

18. Origins:
Some trace the process of world interconnectedness
back to ancient times.
G gained momentum from the 1960s onwards because
of technological changes, the political decisions
concerning free trade and capital flows and the
colapse of the Soviet Union.

19. Driving forces:
DF behind G are diverse: they include
technology, capitalist production, political
forces, and ideology. They are of equal
power.

20. Effects of globalization:
Though ‘the world is undergoing a process of ever-increasing
interconnectedness and interdependence’(Axford,1995), it does
not mean that local influences disappear from people’s lives.
People are seen as active ‘reflexive’ agents that respond thinkingly
to the globalizing influences that come their way.
G does not mean westernization. There is a dialectic relationship
between the global and the local.
‘The world economy is being systematically globalized, but by a
process which is neither homogenizing nor symmetrical.

21. Nation-states still remain important actors both within
and beyond their borders. At a time when the world is
getting closer together, it is also fragmenting into a
greater number of nation-states.
G is neither good nor bad. It spreads technology,
economic growth and democracy; it also spreads
crime, AIDS and environmental destruction.

22. The future:
G will probably intensify in the future. It will
continue to be both a unifying and a
fragmenting process; a homogenizing and a
liberating force.

23. Sceptic Internationalists
This approach is essentially a reaction against the views
of the first group of writers – a rejection of the view of
a borderless world where markets operate on a
transnational basis and where nation-states become
obsolete.
They accept the increasing internationalization of the
economy but they reject the claim that it has been
transnationalized already.
1. They argue that extreme views are based on
statistics with short-time horizons.

24. 2. MNCs are not ‘footloose’, not TNCs, they are based
in their home country.
3. the free migration of labour has not happened
4. governments have always been subject to constraints
by both internal and external forces – it does not
mean total paralysis of state power.
5. g in its extreme form has been used as an ideological
tool to convey the message that governments and
people should accept the neoliberal approach to the
economy and the welfare state.