What about the other processes?

When trying to understand what globalisation is, I have looked to definitions of the term in an attempt to consolidate the vast array of ideas available. However, that proved difficult, as even the range of definitions is vast and they vary greatly. But one definition resonated with me, that of Malcolm Waters.

He described globalisation in 1995 as ‘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,’ (cited in Rantanen, 2005). The idea that the social and cultural arrangements around the world become free flowing between countries because of globalisation is the underpinning to my understanding of the term.

However, this definition fails to acknowledge that there are other important aspects of globalisation that are being affected by the receding of constraints placed upon them. Not only does this ‘receding’ affect social and cultural processes, but it effects economical, political and environmental processes as well.

But there is another way this definition lacks, it doesn’t attempt to answer why the constraints of geography on certain arrangements are receding? What is making these processes globally unified? For me, technology is the common thread, it is the reason these processes can flow between nations. It has ‘enabled the world to become more interconnected…with greater access to information and communication,” (University of Waterloo).

When I try to visualise globalisation, I see the borders between nations falling away to create what Marshall McLuhan has coined a ‘global village’. Although Waters definition fails to acknowledge a few aspects of globalisation, it implies the inevitability of a ‘global village’ through the receding of constraints of geography on certain processes. That is the basis of my view of globalisation.  

References

Rantanen, T 2005, The media and globalization, Sage, London, pp. 1–18.

University of Waterloo 2011, Impact of Information Systems on Society, ‘Week 3. Technology and Globalisation’, retrieved July 28 2012, < http://impactofinformationsystemsonsociety.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/week-3-technology-and-globalisation/>

Image: The Green Times 2011, ‘Globalisation’, retrieved July 28 2012, < http://www.greentimes.com.au/lifestyle/globalisation.html>

So, what is globalisation?

What does the term actually mean? I have studied globalisation before, but never have I had to think about it in such a basic way. And it is not a basic term. To each person, globalisation means something different. How I view globalisation? My view is that the world is becoming globally connected in more than one way, be it through culture, economics, media or even ideas.

For Piertese, the term has brought about a range of debate and is, at times, a controversial term. But he attempts to put it simply by stating  “globalisation is like a prism in which major disputes over the collective human condition are now refracted: questions of capitalism, inequality, power, development, ecology, culture, gender, identity, population, all come back in a landscape where ‘globalisation did it’,” (2007, p7). To me, this is still confusing!

However, one thing that stood out was a point of consensus Piertese found among theorists. That is, globalisation is being shaped by technological change. This makes sense to me. Global connectivity is convenient and simple now. I am able stay in contact with friends travelling overseas in ‘real time’. I don’t have to wait for a postcard to arrive in the mail to know what their trip is like. I can pick up my iPhone and send a message for free through an App. Then get a reply instantaneously.

The ability to connect with people on a global scale is a positive implication of technology change. But what about the negative implications? What about sexually explicit photographs of school kids being distributed to mass audiences with the click of a button? What about the sex offender who has the ability to pose as a 14 year old on a social networking site to lure his next victim? I hate to end on a negative note, but these are all made possible because of technological change.

References

Nederveen Pieterse, J 2004, ‘Globalization: consensus and controversies’,

Globalization and culture: global mélange, Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham, Md., pp. 7–21.