UNDERSTANDING

GLOBALIZATION
Unit I
Unit I: UNDERSTANDING
GLOBALIZATION

LESSON 1: Defining
Globalization
LESSON 2: Interrogating
Globalization
LESSON 1: Defining
Globalization
– Globalization has been a critical
discourse in the international
development policy arena. There is an
increasing number of books written
about globalization since the end of
the 1980’s.
– There are numerous definitions of
globalization, and one definition tends
to focus on the economic side of
globalization.
– Nevertheless, it is highly contested
concept. People commonly debate about
the economic aspect of globalization.
– But, it is only one aspect
of the globalization
agenda. Some authors argue
against the hegemony and
power imbalance that comes
with globalization.
– While other authors
highlight its positive
impact on trade, commerce,
and information flow.
DEFINING
GLOBALIZATION
– There are numerous definitions of
globalization in the development
literature. Some definitions focus on
the world’s interconnectivity in terms
of processes, events, and decisions.
– A word cloud of the different
definitions found in the literature
was generated. Keywords in these
definitions include “movement,”
“integration,” “free trade,”
“capital,” and “world.”
– Globalization is seen as the process
that focuses on the movement of trade,
capital, and ideas.
– These definitions emphasize “what is
being moved or traded across borders?”
and “how it could integrate diverse
economic processes, cultures and
worldviews?”
– However, some authors argue against
just the focus on the linear and
spatial dimensions of globalization.
– These authors distinguish globalization
from deterritorialization and
westernization.
– Scholte (2005) argues that
globalization is not just about
going beyond territorial
boundaries, but is also about
changes in the temporal
connections of people.
– For instance, news from other
parts of the world could be
readily accessible in real-time
through mainstream as well as
online media.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHANGES IN
GLOBALIZATION
– Scholte (2005) identifies macro-structural
changes in a globalized society such as product
and services integration through commodity value
chains, emerging institutional arrangements,
pluralistic identity, and growth of supra-
territorial relations. Also, he identifies four
keys shifts in society:
• Growth of trans- and supra-territorial
connectivity
• The shift from capitalism to hyper-capitalism
focused on production
• A move from nationalism toward identifying
pluralism and hybridity
• From rationalism toward knowledge reflexivity
FACTORS DRIVING
GLOBALIZATION
– Different sources and factors drove
globalization. One of the factors that
drive globalization is the reduction of
trade barriers.
– In 1947, richer countries banded together
to reduce taxes on imports or tariffs
under the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT), which was later
transformed to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) in 1994 (Koopman &
Hancock, 2019).
INTERROGATING
GLOBALIZATION
Lesson 2
LESSON 2: INTERROGATING
GLOBALIZATION
– Globalization has been responsible for
remarkable changes in the 20th century. In
understanding it as a subject, one must
examine what kind of changes are created
and the underlying processes behind these
changes.
– Furthermore, the pursuit of globalization
operates on several assumptions that need
to be evaluated. As a complex change, it
permeates people’s daily realities as well
as the lives of communities and countries.
ECONOMIC, CULTURAL, AND
POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION
– Globalization is mainly
conceptualized as an intensified
transference or exchange of
things across existing
boundaries.
– However, globalization is
primarily an economic process,
the drive toward integration of
economies throughout the world.
– Globalization and its accompanying
processes point to a paradigm about
development. Globalization is built in on
the belief that development can be achieved
through rapid economic growth, made
possible because of economic integration.
– Economic globalization is a complex global
process of expanding the market economic
system all throughout the world. The market
economy, the economic system that gives
freedom to entrepreneurs to control
productive process to pursue profit , is
just one kind of economic system designed
by human societies.
FLOWS IN THE AGE OF
GLOBALIZATION
– Important aspects of globalization
include global trading, capital
flows, and movement of people.
TRADING
– International trading, or the
economic exchanges and deals between
countries, is enabled by
international fiscal payments where
private banks and the central banks
of particular nations play important
roles. Global trading concerns
importation and exportation.
CAPITAL MOVEMENT
– There was an increase in the capital flows
to poor countries during the 1990’s.
– One manifestation of capital movement is
foreign investment. Foreign investment can
be categorized as commercial loans,
official flows, or foreign direct
investment.
– Commercial loans are money lent to foreign
businesses or governments, while official
flows refer to development aid or money
granted by rich countries to developing
nations.
MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE
– People can be migrate to other
countries in search of better
employment opportunities.
– In the Philippines, the number
OFW’s during the period of April
to September 2018 was estimated
at 2.3 million.
CULTURAL AND POLITICAL
GLOBALIZATION
– Increased independence of
economies in the also combines
with globalization of culture
and politics.
CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION
– Refers to the increasing
“contract between people and
their cultures – their ideas,
their values, their ways of
life.”
– This significant change is
getting deeply entrenched in
contemporary societies.
POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION
– Is the enlargement of the
international political system and
its establishments, where inter-
regional dealings, including trade,
are managed.
– Conventional politics usually happens
within national political spheres. In
political globalization on the other
hand, political decision-making can
transcend the boundaries of nations.
THE IMPACTS OF
GLOBALIZATION
– Economic deregulation is met with
disapproval from different groups
such as labor organizations,
environmental groups, indigenous
peoples, and even consumer
groups.
WORLD BANK, IMF, AND
DEBTS
– Supporters of globalization carry several
assumptions about it. Assumptions need to
be scrutinized against real-life
conditions.
– Proponents and guardians of globalization,
such as the IMF, acknowledge poverty and
inequality existing alongside globalized
economies. However, globalization trend
must not be halted, bust must be continued
by embracing policy changes.
– International production is conceived on
increase jobs created across countries.
CONTRASTING EVIDENCE OF
POSITIVE EFFECTS
– Increased income
– More employment
– Less poverty
GLOBALIZATION HAVE LOSER
AND GAINERS
– Increased trading may result to wider
choices of consumer goods in the
market. However, international
trading produces varying results.
– Restructuring of economy through
fast-paced flux of capital across
different countries has impacts on
places and social relations.
THE EFFECTS OF GLOBAL TRADING ON
THE PHILIPPINES LOCAL ECONOMY

– Because of enhanced global

trading, cheap imported
vegetables flood the local
market.
– Local consumers and businesses
find it cheaper to buy imported
agricultural products than
locally produced goods.
– Advertised to the world as a remedy
to all problems, globalization comes
short. It has not raised the poor
from poverty. Instead, it has widened
the gap between developed and
developing countries and between the
wealthy and the disenfranchised.
– It has hindered democracy and social
justice; it has damaged small
communities and displaced farmers
from their lands. Additionally, it
has sped up the largest environmental
degradation known to mankind.
END OF LESSON…
Thank you for listening!