It's time for another one of those "Node your homework" writeups. This one I did as a minor assignment for Anthropology a couple of weeks ago. The task set was to define Globalization under a limit of 500 words(Give or take 10%).
What do we mean by globalization? As a very basic description, I’d say that it’s the greater interaction and communication between nations, resulting in the blending and interweaving of cultures, greater flows of economic capital and infrastructure. Scheck and Haggis define it generally as “…refers to the intensification of global interconnectedness, particularly the spread of capitalism as a production and market system” (2001 pg58). So we see that we are looking very generally at the growth of interaction between countries and populations around the world.
Industry is one of many things that are affected severely by globalization. One of the characteristics of globalization is the moving of corporations and companies over seas, usually from developed and ‘rich’ countries to less developed, poor countries. The reason this is done is because the labor in the poorer countries is so a lot cheaper than that in the more developed countries because people will work for a lot less as they often need any money they can get. This then allows them to produce products for a lot less than those corporations in the developed countries. So with that, they can then sell the produce in the developed countries for a cheaper price, making the other companies unable to compete with their prices and so are often forced to close down or relocate themselves. So not only does this affect the companies involved, but also the workers who loose their jobs as a result of the closure or relocation.
Also the local economy of each country is greatly affected. When an international corporation relocates into a country that nation is providing the workers and producing the capital, yet the profits are returned to the home country. Though at the same time, as the company moves from the other country, the amount of people forced out of work are often left looking for work and often must rely on the welfare state to support them, causing a strain on the economy from that perspective.
Culture is also affected by globalization. Globalization has resulted in the increasing of communication (And this in turn increases the level of globalization). The ease of being able to communicate and travel around the world has led to much immigration of people through out the world. Looking around this city of Perth, it’s easy to see we are living in very multicultural times. As we walk through the streets, you can see shops and restraunts that are particularly aimed at a certain ethnic group of people, or at those who wish to experience some of the culture experienced by those ethnic groups. So as people move around the world, they bring snippets of their culture with them, resulting in a nation that has many interacting cultures that intermingle and influence each other.
Many people seem to think that globalization is a new phenomenon, yet in actuality, it has been occurring for centuries. The only difference now is, is that with the speed in which it has developed over the last century, people have developed a term for it. So why has globalization suddenly erupted over the last century? Personally I feel that as we have developed new technologies that do manual work for us, people have more and more time to create and develop ideas that have improved the ease of communication between people over distances. As this developed, the globalization process quickened to such a pace that it has shown recognisable changes in many peoples lives, leading to the naming and defining of it.