08062009

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UNIVERSITY OF SOFIA  St. Kliment
Ohridski DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND THEORY OF
CULTURE

• INTRODUCTION TO
• GLOBALIZATION
• Anna Dimitrova, PhD
• Lecturer at the University of Sofia

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WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION ?
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• An English  princess with  an
• Egyptian  boyfriend crashes  in a French
   tunnel, driving  a German  car with  a Dutch
   engine, driven  by a Belgian  who  was drunkon
   Scottish  whisky,  followed  closely by Italian
   Paparazzi, on  Japanese  motorcycles

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DIFFICULTIES TO DEFINE THE CONCEPT OF
 GLOBALIZATION 

• Omnipresence G as the  big current buzzword of
  the 1990s , the  catchword of the last
  decade , the  global talk  /global babble/
• Media cliché self-understanding and
  self-sufficient
• Ambiguity and multifacetedness various meanings
  in various contexts
• Dialectics global versus local globalization
  versus localization universalization versus
  particularization
• The Paradox abundancy of definitions and
  theories of  globalization  but so far there
  lacks one definition agreed on by everyone

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GENEALOGIES OF THE  GLOBAL 

• 1920s appears the current meaning of the term
   global  in reference to the emerging  global
  trade 
• 1940s and 1950s the concept  global  is used
  for the  global war  /world war/
• 1960s  global  denotes the ideas of
  all-inclusiveness and connectivity on the
  occasion of the first photograph of the earth
  taken from space
• 1962  global  is used in Marshall McLuhans
  metaphor of the  global village 
• 1969  global  appears in Brzezinskis
  metaphors of  global society  and  global
  town 

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ECONOMIC CONTEXTUALIZATIONS OF THE CONCEPT OF
 GLOBALIZATION 

• 1983 Theodore Levitts conception of the
   globalization of markets  /integration/ giving
  birth to the  global firm  the principle of
  the  3 D  - Deregulation, Decentralization,
  Deterritorialization  Think global. Act local 
• 1985 Kenichi Omaes conception of globalization
  as  triadization  the  Global Triad  the
  USA, the UE and Japan
• 1990s in the field of economy the concept of
   globalization  is mainly conceived as
  liberalization

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 GLOBALIZATION  VERSUS  MONDIALISATION 

• 1950s and 1960s  globalization  and
   mondialisation  have similar meaning
   designing the way phenomena that have been so
  far regional or national have become  global 
  or  mondial  

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GLOBALIZATION AS A PROCESS

• Is globalization really global?
• What is its historical trajectory? objective
  and subjective G, historical /the idea or the
  project of G, often called globalism/ and
  reflexive /globality, the conscience of the
  world-as-a-whole, the experience of G/
• Is G a singular or a multidimensional process,
  convergent or divergent? The idea of
  globalizations
• Is G natural, inevitable and highly beneficial
  for all people or is this process intentional,
  that is, directed by certain states, especially
  the USA, and by MNCs and TNCs, which are largely
  American?
• What are its driving forces?

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FOUR MOST COMMON CONCEPTIONS OF  GLOBALIZATION 
AS A PROCESS CONTESTED

• GLOBALIZATION AS INTERNATIONALIZATION
• GLOBALIZATION AS LIBERALIZATION
• GLOBALIZATION AS UNIVERSALIZATION
• GLOBALIZATION AS WESTERNIZATION

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GLOBALIZATION AS INTERNATIONALIZATION

• THESIS G refers to the growth of transactions
  and interdependence between countries which were
  higer in the late 19th c. than today. Hence, G is
  an intensified form of internationalization, a
  feature of the modern state-system
• COUNTERTHESIS if globality is nothing other
  than internationality except perhaps larger
  amounts of it then why bother with new
  vocabulary?

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GLOBALIZATION AS LIBERALIZATION

• THESIS G denotes a process of removing
  officially imposed restrictions on movements of
  resources between countries in order to form an
  open and borderless world economy. Thus G is
  seen as neoliberal G
• COUNTERTHESIS Anti and alter-globalization
  movements show that other forms except the
  neoliberal G are possible

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GLOBALIZATION AS UNIVERSALIZATION

• THESIS G is taken to describe a process of
  dispersing various objects and experiences to
  people at all inhabited parts of the earth.
• On this line, global means worldwide and
  everywhere
• COUNTERTHESIS No concept of G was devised to
  describe universalization in earlier times, and
  there is no need to create new vocabulary to
  analyze this old phenomenon now either

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GLOBALIZATION AS WESTERNIZATION

• THESIS G is regarded as a particular type of
  universalization, one in which the social
  structures of modernity /capitalism,
  industrialism, rationalism, urbanism, etc./ are
  spread the world over, destroying pre-existent
  cultures G is equated with Americanization,
  colonization and imperialism
• COUNTERTHESIS G could in principle also take
  non-western directions /Buddhist G, Islamic G,
  etc./. Also, it is by no means clear that G is
  intrinsically imperialist, given that there are
  emancipatory transworld social movements

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WORKING DEFINITION OF GLOBALIZATION

• Globalization is a multidimensional, complex
  and ambiguous process that leads to the following
  transformations
• instantaneity /time-space compression and
  distanciation/
• interconnectedness /transgression of political,
  economic and cultural boundaries, which generates
  free flows of people, goods, capitals and
  information/
• interchangeability /simultaneous presence at
  several places in the virtual reality/
• interdependence /access to the global network/

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DRIVING FORCES OF GLOBALIZATION
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UNIVERSITY OF SOFIA St. Kliment
Ohridski DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND THEORY OF
CULTURE

• THE GLOBALIZATION DEBATE
• Anna Dimitrova, PhD
• Lecturer at the University of Sofia

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THE GLOBALIZATION DEBATE

• 1990, Anthony Giddens,  The consequences of
  Modernity   Globalization is one of the main
  consequences of modernity 
• 1992, Roland Robertson,  Globalization. Social
  Theory and Global Culture  "Globalization is
  not equated with or seen as a direct consequence
  of modernity. Rather it should be seen as a very
  long, uneven and complicated process"
• 1995, Malcolm Waters, Globalization
  Globalization is a social process in which the
  constraints of geography on social and cultural
  arrangements recede and in which people become
  increasingly aware that they are receding

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THEORETICAL DEBATES ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF
GLOBALIZATION /Malcolm Waters/

• G has been a process since the dawn of history,
  it has increased in its effects since that time,
  but there has been a sudden and recent
  acceleration /pre-modern, modern and post-modern
  globalization/
• G is co-temporal with modernization and the
  development of capitalism, and there has been a
  recent acceleration /Giddens thesis G as a
  consequence of modernity/
• G is a recent phenomenon associated with other
  social processes called post-industrialization,
  post-modernization or the disorganization of
  capitalism /G is mainly seen as an economic
  process/

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ANALYTICAL FRAME OF THE GLOBALIZATION DEBATE

• Conceptualization how can globalization be
  defined?
• Causal dynamics which are the driving forces of
  globalization?
• Historical trajectory
• Socio-economic consequences
• Implications for the state and governance.1
• 1 Held, David, Anthony McGrew, David Goldblatt
  and Jonathan Perraton./eds./ 1999. Global
  Transformations. Politics, Economics and Culture.
  Polity Press Cambridge, p. 3.

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THE HYPERGLOBALIST THESIS

• Globalization is a new global age different
  from modernity
• Driving forces market capitalism and technology,
  global market economy
• The role of the state will imminently diminish
  minimalization of the state, global
  governance
• Globalization is estimated positively because it
  causes the opening of new horizons and
  worldviews, thus providing more opportunities for
  personal and social development
• The emergence of a global culture shared by
  everyone leading to a global society

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THE SCEPTICS THESIS

• Monocausal perspective economic globalization
  criticized
• Contemporary economic globalization is a myth
  created to conceal the spread of global
  neoliberal market economy
• G is equated with internationalization the
  current international economy is less open,
  independent and integrated than the regime
  prevailing from 1870 to 1914
• Its motor forces are the states and the markets
• The role of the state reinforced because most of
  the companies are still nationally based
• In social plan, globalization will bring about
  polarization /ghetoization/, as there are many
  parts of the world that do not participate in
  this process

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THE TRANSFORMALISTS THESIS

• Multicausal perspective G is a transformative
  force affecting all politics, economy and culture
• Controversial, multidimensional and dialectical
  process
• Globalization is perceived primarily as a social
  phenomenon tightly connected with modernity
• The role of the state will not be reduced but
  reformed, shared sovereignty
• G has both  winners  and  losers ,  the
  Davos elite ,  the global rich  versus  the
  local poor 
•  Clocalization  /Robertson/

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DOMINANT TENDENCIES IN THE ACADEMIC DEBATE ABOUT
GLOBALIZATION
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION