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Unit 14: Globalization

knowledge of philosophy. During the middle ages the people moved from place to place to propagate Notes
their art and architecture. Columbus went out to discover India. The adventurous traders of Europe
moved to the countries of Africa and Asia and Latin-America. Thus, the process of interactions amongst
different people of the world continued. Now the same process is very fast and active the reason of
which may be traced in the marvellous developments in the fields of science and technology. The
whole world has become, in the words of Marshal McLuhan, like a ‘global village’. In the estimate of
Keohane and Nye, the old globalisation was ‘thin’ and ‘extensive’, the new globalisation is ‘thick’
and ‘intensive’. Globalisation is a system in which human beings are no longer part of isolated
communities that are themselves linked through narrow channels of diplomatic relations or trade.
Entire societies are now directly ‘plugged in’ to global affairs.”
If so, three dimensions of globalisation may be taken note of— socio-cultural, economic and political.
1. Socio-Cultural Dimension: Globalisation has its definite impact on the social and cultural life
of the people. Traditional institutions are growing weak and new identities are emerging that
do not belong to any community or nation in particular. New developments in the field of
information technology transform the cultural patterns of a people’s life by making them
accustomed to wear American garments, eat Chinese food, drink French whisky, listen English
pop music and the like. It appears that a global society is emerging built on shared values and
ideals that poses a serious challenge to the fanatics of ‘swadeshi’.
2. Economic Dimension: Globalisation is very much visible in the sphere of markets, trade, goods
and financial investments. It also extends to flows of services, technology, information and
ideas across national boundaries. Globalisation has its natural linkage with liberalisation, because
capital is flowing and multi-national companies and corporations are spreading their network
across the countries of the world. So new terms are coming into currency as Disneyfication,
McDonaldisation and Coca-Colonisation. Foreign direct investment is a world-wide
phenomenon. Assisted by more open markets and reduced costs for transportation, many MNCs
control assets and make huge profits often rivalling the GDPs of the countries in which they do
business.
3. Political Dimension: The political aspect of globalisation has an importance of its own, because
it affects the nation-state system that has had its long history since the Westphalia treaty of
1648. It has affected the external aspect of sovereignty and entailed the end of the welfare state.
It is creating a new model of state that acts in collaboration with a number of non-state actors.
The borders of the states have become outdated on account of the assault of information
technology. Television network has demolished the ‘iron curtain’ and the ‘bamboo curtain’.
Political globalisation “may bring about a more peaceful world order, constraining the tendencies
towards violent conflict by constraining the capacity and autonomy of states.”
In other words, Social relations— that is the countless and complex ways that the people interact
with and effect upon each other - are more and more being conducted and organised on the basis of
a planetary unit. By the same token, country locations and, in particular, boundaries between territorial
states are, in some important senses, becoming less central to our lives, although they do remain
significant. Globalisation is thus an on-going trend whereby the world has in many respects and at a
gradually accelerated rate become one relatively boundless social sphere.
In this way, the case of globalisation has certain salient features which may be enumerated as
under:
1. Many things happen in contemporary world largely irrespective of territorial distances and
borders.
2. It involves a complex mix of concurrent tendencies towards cultural convergence on the one
hand and an increase in groups differentiation on the other.
3. It has not brought about the end of geography, it has created a new super-territorial sphere
alongside and inter-related with old territorial geography.
4. Within globalisation social relations acquire a host of non-territorial qualities.
5. Crucial conditions for effective sovereignty are removed, system is dissolved in a deluge of
electronic and other flows.

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