Globalization

The Contested Territory of Globalization

The term globalization has entered modern parlance with increasing frequency, but in such varied contexts with such varied meanings as to render the term less than useful. All agree that it describes a perspective beyond the personal, local, and national, an awareness that human actions and institutions can have worldwide repercussions and implications. But which ones does globalization describe? Have borders been eclipsed and cultures merged in a peaceful rendering of the “global village”? Have peoples of the world been homogenized by drinking Pepsi and eating McDonald's hamburgers while their children play with Pokemon Balls? Have transnational corporations succeeded in moving production at will to exploit the cheapest labor on the planet to manufacture their goods for ever-expanding world markets? Have nation states begun to hand over their dominion to overarching world governance? Is Western culture threatening to destroy indigenous or less dominant cultures through its control over media and commerce? Is there an accelerating sense of interconnectedness among people based on knowledge of the earth as a single ecosystem?

The answer to all of the above is a qualified yes and no, which only adds to the confusion surrounding the term globalization. Most commonly people use it to describe economic globalization. Since at least the Middle Ages, the system of market capitalism, or the pursuit of expanding markets and cheap labor beyond borders, has been the standard modus operandi for companies and enterprising individuals. However, the accelerating pace of modern life, with electronic movements of capital, instantaneous worldwide communications, and overnight delivery of goods and services has made the global economy more transparently global and market capitalism more blatantly exploitative.

It is interesting to note that only recently has the noun globalization been added in Webster's dictionary. Although our world is becoming globalized, the process is by no means as complete as the noun form “globalization” would indicate. Nation states and borders do still exist, different cultures maintain separate languages and distinct identities, and the world of most individuals is still ordered by their allegiances to specific regional and cultural values. Nevertheless, there is a greater awareness among people in most parts of the world that our political, economic, and social spheres are expanding and intertwining more than ever before. Perhaps it is the unprecedented scope and speed of the changes taking place that promotes the use of an all-encompassing term like globalization.

A working view of globalization comes from Professor Rudd Lubbers of Tilburg University, in the Netherlands. It is short and descriptive, yet sufficiently open-ended to include multiple perspectives, including the educational perspective: “such acceleration of becoming or making worldwide that it gives rise to a great many new phenomena.” Lubbers's definition emphasizes the speed at which changes affecting the entire planet are taking place and the great number of new phenomena that result, influencing economics, politics, and society.

Our ability to conceptualize and manipulate global systems of information, commerce, and governance makes some new demands on human ingenuity, for the scope of the globalization project necessitates new ways of responding to common issues like security, resource management, and human rights. The call for more global-oriented school curricula that respond to these societal changes has been advocated in the scholarly and practical work of Alger, Cummings, Kolker, Lynch, Pike, Rasmussen, Reardon, Tye, and others; but colleges and universities and other important institutions in civil society have been slow to respond.

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