, PERSPECTIVES ON GLOBALISATION
Understanding Globalisation
Globalisation is a process that, through the speed at which it occurs, changes the nature of other global
processes which also leads to certain global consequences.
Scholte (2000) outlines the consequences as: INTERNATIONALISATION (of cross border relations
between nations), MODERNISATION (where nations adopt certain social structures like industrialism
and capitalism), LIBERALISATION (of political and economic relationships, such as the free movement
across national borders) as well as UNIVERSALISATION (with the spread of cultural products like the
Television).
Tony Blair defines gobalisation as the spread of neo-liberal economic policies. It also involves an end to
the restrictions placed over trade and the movements of goods across nations
Nayan Chanda (2002) looks at globalisation in terms of a continuation, made more visible and faster
today, of a long historical process
WHO defines globalisation as the increased interconnectedness and interdependence between humans
and societies. This is brought about via 2 interrelates processes: the opening of borders for the exchange
of goods and services as well as the changes in institutional and policy regimes at both international and
national levels
To conceptualize globalisation as a process involving speed, it is necessary to outline some of its social
processes:
1. DISTANCIATION – a major feature outlined by GIDDENS (1990), which involves the separation of
space and time. With globalisation, there has been the establishment of various communication
networks, like the telephone, which make it possible for people to quickly and instantaneously
communicate with each other across the globe. As a result, globalisation has made the concepts
of time and space irrelevant; the speed at which things are done today means it takes a shorter
time for them to be completed.
2. DETERRIOTORIALISATION – puts emphasis on the loss of a clear relationship between cultural,
political and economic activities as well as geographical locations
3. The idea of DISTANCIATION, and the compression of time and space, creates the necessary pre-
conditions for DISEMBEDDING – the idea that things are separate from their original
surroundings and contexts. These include: OBJECTS (where the credit card is a deviation from its
original form of coinage, PROCESSES (withdrawing money from a bank account) as well as
PEOPLE in 3 ways: CULTURALLY with the creation of hybrid cultures through mixing elements of
different cultures to form something new and unique, PHYSICALLY through people using their
nationality as a form of identity to define themselves as well as TECHNOLOGICALLY by the
1
, increased prevalence of ‘cyberspace’; the practice of communicating with other around the
globe without necessarily being physically there.
Baudrillard’s (1998) concept of SIMULACRA (representations referring to other representations)
further captures the concept of DISEMBEDDING. For example, a credit card is an imitation of its
physical nature of coinage which in turn, this coin is a simulation of a piece of gold. According to
Baudrillard, we no longer buy things because we truly need them, but rather from desires created
through advertisement. As a result, we lose the knowledge of how things are made and where they
are created.
Further, this concept argues that each representation has the same equal status of what it is
imitating; each product is as real as the other (such as the idea that a telephone call is as real as
talking to someone face to face).
Glocalisation (a combination of ‘localisation’ and ‘globalisation’)
Adamu (2003) argues that it involves the ‘global processes interacting with local processes’. In other
words, the meanings and impacts of certain global cultural ideas, products and behaviors are
interpreted, adapted and modified between different local communities.
Various ways the local and global interact:
1. FAMILY TIES – Having a strong kin and friendship networks both globally and locally
2. BUSINESSES – Can operate globally with local branches, each of which is adapted to specific
local circumstances (e.g. McDonalds has both a vegetarian and non-vegetarian menu)
3. ACTING LOCALLY TO SOLVE GLOBAL PROBLEMS – Individuals within a community
contributing to the global problems in the world, such as global warming. An example if the
idea of MUNDIALISATION, involving 1000+ cities that declare themselves as ‘world citizen
cities’, having global rights and responsibilities to come together and reduce global issues.
4. LOSS OF INFLUENCE OF NATION STATES – With decisions being carried out increasingly on
global and local levels, not national ones.
Malone (2002) suggests that global subcultures are a form of hybridity in contemporary societies, where
global styles are given unique local interpretations across different cultural groups. This idea can be
applied to the style of music Hip Hop, where at the same time that it is a global cultural product for the
youth, its style and meaning differs between youths in different communities, largely influenced by the
diverse cultural backgrounds and traditions.
This leads to the creation of GLOCALISED SUB-CULTURES – mixing local traditions in the context of
global styles.
2
, This, as a result, creates tensions between:
LOCAL/PARTICULAR, characterized in terms of high cultural diversity and the GLOBAL/UNIVERSAL,
based on homogeneity.
Appadurai (1990) rejects the idea of a cultural interrelationship flowing from the ‘core to the periphery’
– where globalized and homogenous cultural forms are adopted by individual and unique cultures.
Rather, this sociologist argues that we should look at this interrelationship in terms of ‘SCAPES’ –
imagined worlds crossing national borders and interacting in various ways:
1. ETHNOSCAPES – How people from different cultures physically interact
2. TECHNOSAPCES – Interaction of different forms of technology and its cultural adaptation and
uses
3. MEDIASCAPES – Flow of information between different cultures and societies
4. IDEOSCAPES – How people interact based on exchanging images and ideas
Here, APPADURAI argues that it is the local concepts that spread to different societies across borders,
which both influence and are influenced by the ideas and relationships they meet.
Global culture
A common concern between sociologists is the growth of a single GLOBAL VILLAGE – where unique and
diverse human cultures are undermined and replaced by a single global culture, the idea of CULTURAL
CONVERGENCE.
Through practices of trade, travel and conquest, communities increasingly interact and therefore are
likely to influence each other, resulting into a loss of unique differences between them.
Also, through the increase of electronic communications and the media, this global convergence is
happening at a quicker rate. In fact, Marshall McLuhan coined the term GLOBAL VILLAGE – suggesting
how the electronic media has metaphorically tuned the world into a village, characterized by instant
communication and where people all over the world become more informed about their lives and the
ones of others and hence feel more responsible for these lives.
3
Understanding Globalisation
Globalisation is a process that, through the speed at which it occurs, changes the nature of other global
processes which also leads to certain global consequences.
Scholte (2000) outlines the consequences as: INTERNATIONALISATION (of cross border relations
between nations), MODERNISATION (where nations adopt certain social structures like industrialism
and capitalism), LIBERALISATION (of political and economic relationships, such as the free movement
across national borders) as well as UNIVERSALISATION (with the spread of cultural products like the
Television).
Tony Blair defines gobalisation as the spread of neo-liberal economic policies. It also involves an end to
the restrictions placed over trade and the movements of goods across nations
Nayan Chanda (2002) looks at globalisation in terms of a continuation, made more visible and faster
today, of a long historical process
WHO defines globalisation as the increased interconnectedness and interdependence between humans
and societies. This is brought about via 2 interrelates processes: the opening of borders for the exchange
of goods and services as well as the changes in institutional and policy regimes at both international and
national levels
To conceptualize globalisation as a process involving speed, it is necessary to outline some of its social
processes:
1. DISTANCIATION – a major feature outlined by GIDDENS (1990), which involves the separation of
space and time. With globalisation, there has been the establishment of various communication
networks, like the telephone, which make it possible for people to quickly and instantaneously
communicate with each other across the globe. As a result, globalisation has made the concepts
of time and space irrelevant; the speed at which things are done today means it takes a shorter
time for them to be completed.
2. DETERRIOTORIALISATION – puts emphasis on the loss of a clear relationship between cultural,
political and economic activities as well as geographical locations
3. The idea of DISTANCIATION, and the compression of time and space, creates the necessary pre-
conditions for DISEMBEDDING – the idea that things are separate from their original
surroundings and contexts. These include: OBJECTS (where the credit card is a deviation from its
original form of coinage, PROCESSES (withdrawing money from a bank account) as well as
PEOPLE in 3 ways: CULTURALLY with the creation of hybrid cultures through mixing elements of
different cultures to form something new and unique, PHYSICALLY through people using their
nationality as a form of identity to define themselves as well as TECHNOLOGICALLY by the
1
, increased prevalence of ‘cyberspace’; the practice of communicating with other around the
globe without necessarily being physically there.
Baudrillard’s (1998) concept of SIMULACRA (representations referring to other representations)
further captures the concept of DISEMBEDDING. For example, a credit card is an imitation of its
physical nature of coinage which in turn, this coin is a simulation of a piece of gold. According to
Baudrillard, we no longer buy things because we truly need them, but rather from desires created
through advertisement. As a result, we lose the knowledge of how things are made and where they
are created.
Further, this concept argues that each representation has the same equal status of what it is
imitating; each product is as real as the other (such as the idea that a telephone call is as real as
talking to someone face to face).
Glocalisation (a combination of ‘localisation’ and ‘globalisation’)
Adamu (2003) argues that it involves the ‘global processes interacting with local processes’. In other
words, the meanings and impacts of certain global cultural ideas, products and behaviors are
interpreted, adapted and modified between different local communities.
Various ways the local and global interact:
1. FAMILY TIES – Having a strong kin and friendship networks both globally and locally
2. BUSINESSES – Can operate globally with local branches, each of which is adapted to specific
local circumstances (e.g. McDonalds has both a vegetarian and non-vegetarian menu)
3. ACTING LOCALLY TO SOLVE GLOBAL PROBLEMS – Individuals within a community
contributing to the global problems in the world, such as global warming. An example if the
idea of MUNDIALISATION, involving 1000+ cities that declare themselves as ‘world citizen
cities’, having global rights and responsibilities to come together and reduce global issues.
4. LOSS OF INFLUENCE OF NATION STATES – With decisions being carried out increasingly on
global and local levels, not national ones.
Malone (2002) suggests that global subcultures are a form of hybridity in contemporary societies, where
global styles are given unique local interpretations across different cultural groups. This idea can be
applied to the style of music Hip Hop, where at the same time that it is a global cultural product for the
youth, its style and meaning differs between youths in different communities, largely influenced by the
diverse cultural backgrounds and traditions.
This leads to the creation of GLOCALISED SUB-CULTURES – mixing local traditions in the context of
global styles.
2
, This, as a result, creates tensions between:
LOCAL/PARTICULAR, characterized in terms of high cultural diversity and the GLOBAL/UNIVERSAL,
based on homogeneity.
Appadurai (1990) rejects the idea of a cultural interrelationship flowing from the ‘core to the periphery’
– where globalized and homogenous cultural forms are adopted by individual and unique cultures.
Rather, this sociologist argues that we should look at this interrelationship in terms of ‘SCAPES’ –
imagined worlds crossing national borders and interacting in various ways:
1. ETHNOSCAPES – How people from different cultures physically interact
2. TECHNOSAPCES – Interaction of different forms of technology and its cultural adaptation and
uses
3. MEDIASCAPES – Flow of information between different cultures and societies
4. IDEOSCAPES – How people interact based on exchanging images and ideas
Here, APPADURAI argues that it is the local concepts that spread to different societies across borders,
which both influence and are influenced by the ideas and relationships they meet.
Global culture
A common concern between sociologists is the growth of a single GLOBAL VILLAGE – where unique and
diverse human cultures are undermined and replaced by a single global culture, the idea of CULTURAL
CONVERGENCE.
Through practices of trade, travel and conquest, communities increasingly interact and therefore are
likely to influence each other, resulting into a loss of unique differences between them.
Also, through the increase of electronic communications and the media, this global convergence is
happening at a quicker rate. In fact, Marshall McLuhan coined the term GLOBAL VILLAGE – suggesting
how the electronic media has metaphorically tuned the world into a village, characterized by instant
communication and where people all over the world become more informed about their lives and the
ones of others and hence feel more responsible for these lives.
3
