Globalization

Globalization typically is defined as the expansion in the scope, velocity, and impacts of international transactions such as trade, investment, migration, and communications. It is a complex subject that embraces many topics and can be approached from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives, but typically globalization entails the increased integration of different societies. There is no single process of globalization but rather a diversity of intertwined processes that reflect the persistent tendency of capitalism to stretch across national borders. Because it receives considerable media attention and lies at the core of many debates about economic trends and policies, globalization often has been surrounded by erroneous or simplistic misconceptions, both among those who advocate it and among those who fear it.

A common stereotype pertaining to globalization is that it is purely economic in nature. Much of the literature on this topic has focused on international trade and foreign investment, particularly the behavior of transnational corporations. Yet such a view is overly narrow and ignores the multiple ways in which globalization operates as a political, cultural, and ideological force as well. For example, immigration clearly is a topic pertinent to globalization, with many so-called noneconomic dimensions associated with it. Equally, one could point to the globalization of education, disease, or terrorism. Some of the aspects of globalization that are resisted most vehemently in parts of the world are its cultural dimensions, including the globalization of fast food, dress, and cinema, all of which are bound up with people's worldviews and daily lives.

A second simplistic view of this topic equates globalization with cultural homogenization, as if the world economy stamped a monoculture (typically American in nature) throughout the world. For much of the world, globalization is synonymous with Americanization. As the world's largest economic, military, and political power, the United States is simultaneously envied, imitated, and despised. Admiration for American culture typically is strongest among the young, so that globalization creates a generation gap in terms of outlook and preferences. However, although there can be no denying that cultural homogenization often takes place in the wake of globalization and frequently at the expense of old, deeply held traditions, it is equally true that globalization generally means different things in different places; that is, it is geographically specific. Global trends are mediated through national policies in different ways. The unique histories of individual places serve to impart local flavor to global trends, for example, when multinational corporations such as McDonald's must tailor their menus and advertising to local preferences. Thus, local regions not only undergo changes imparted to them by the global economy but also shape that global economy in turn. The global and the local are intimately intertwined, and geographers often use the term glocalization to capture this relationship.

A third frequent misconception about globalization is that it began, or reached its most prominent stage, only during the late 20th century. Clearly, there is[Page 197] little doubt that the world today is deeply globalized and becomes more so daily. However, the birth of capitalism on a global basis during the 16th century clearly marks an earlier epoch of globalization, as did colonialism during the following centuries. The Industrial Revolution unleashed waves of time–space compression that ushered in wave after wave of globalization. In terms of the relative magnitude of foreign investment, the late 19th century was at least as globalized as the present, if not more so. Moreover, globalization might even have earlier roots; work by Janet Abu-Lughod revealed the existence of a world system during the 14th century stretching throughout much of the Old World, and some world systems theorists have speculated on even earlier systems.

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