Individual report one
Globalization – Part II
SOCY 3720-E01 Global Perspectives on Social Issues
Summer 2019
Globalization – Part II
• For Part II of this lecture we will study:
• Globalization:
Characteristics Institutions Ideologies
• Characteristics, Institutions, and Ideologies of Globalization
• Connections, the amount of goods, the globalization of social issues, the exchange of symbols, economic
expansion and international politics have increased dramatically through modern globalization.
• Distances and travel time have shortened, technology and communications have been forever changed
and new challenges, as well as new social, cultural, economic, and political dimensions have been
created and continue to evolve.
• New characteristics such as the ones suggested by Eitzen and Zinn (2009) include production, markets,
technology, corporate restructuring, neoimperialism, changing structures of work, movement of people,
global institutions, neoliberal ideology and policies, governance, permeable borders, and a global
culture.
• Production:
• Economic activity has been forever transformed by the process of globalization. Since the 1970s
transnational corporations decided to build factories in and bought products from low-wage countries.
This in turn created what is usually referred to as the “global assembly line” where goods are
manufactured in these countries and then sold in developed countries.
• Sometimes just for one computer, a company will purchase different components from many suppliers
and subsuppliers in many different countries. A product can be produced in ten or more countries in the
end, just as a realistic example.
• This is one of the main reasons why manufacturing jobs have drastically declined within developed
countries and instead contributed to the migration of labor to many low-wage countries/labor markets.
This migration of jobs is commonly referred to as “the race to the bottom” (Eitzen & Zinn, 2009).
• Markets:
• We live in the age of global markets. Products and goods can be sold throughout the entire world. For
example, one technology company can easily sell its products to more than 130 countries.
• Many companies choose to locate factories in a country where it markets products and their products are
very popular.
• Multinational corporate conglomerates can now represent economic giants within a market and for a
product's market. These same corporate giants can exercise an immense amount of pressure and
influence within countries and economies around the world.
• Technology:
• “New technologies such as robotics, fiber optics, container ships, computers, communications satellites,
and the Internet have transformed information storage and retrieval of data in huge quantities. For
example, the amount of unique information generated worldwide each year is measured in exabytes (1
followed by 18 zeros) and now even zettabytes (1 followed by 21 zeros). Information can be sent in
microseconds via communication satellites throughout the world” (Eitzen & Zinn, 2009).
• As Business Week once noted “anyone with a computer is a citizen of the world” (Business Week,
1999).
• “Technological advancement in transportation and communications has not merely made the world
smaller, for many purposes it has made geography irrelevant” (Peoples & Bailey, 2003).
• Corporate Restructuring:
• Major corporations have a long history of operating internationally but now they are taking advantage of
our global economy in many different ways.
• We now see powerful mergers with other corporations and we also see key alliances between
corporations as well. The do “corporate outsourcing” when they commission other low-wage economies
to perform and produce various tasks for them.
• This way many international corporations can decentralize their production lines and concentrate on
gaining economic power. The largest transnational corporations together can easily be represented in
many different countries, can employ millions of people, and have total revenues, profits, and assets that
surpass trillions of dollars (Eitzen & Zinn, 2009).
• Neoimperialism:
• Even though this can be a politically-charged term is a very common term within the discussion of
globalization nonetheless.
• After World War II plenty of political power was reapportioned around the world. Many imperialist
powers gave political independence back to their colonies. However, globalization has kept most of
these countries economically dependent on Western Europe, Japan, and the United States (Eitzen &
Zinn, 2009).
• “Globalization has taken from poor countries control over their own economic policies and concentrated
their assets in the hands of first world investors. Although it has enriched some third world elites, it has
subordinated them to foreign corporations, international institutions, and dominant states” (Brecher,
Costello & Smith, 2000).
• Changing Structure of Work:
• Within the process of globalization a major issue can be seen in relation to worker security declining. It
can be considered by many a pro-employer environment where labor unions do not exercise the same
power as before.
• Employers, when facing various demands such as higher wages or improved benefits can simply
threaten to move to another place where wages and benefits can be lower (Eitzen & Zinn, 2009).
• As we also deal with issues of overpopulation and low-wage labor market saturation, we have people
more than willing to sacrifice wages and any benefits in order to survive with whatever labor and under
whichever conditions is available.
• Employers have downsized, outsourced, and changed permanent jobs to temporary ones. They have
attacked job security requirements, work rules, worker representation, healthcare, pensions, and other
social benefits (Brecher, Costello & Smith, 2000).
• Movement of People:
• The crossing of borders have been a very common occurrence. However, global immigration has greatly
accelerated due to globalization and new issues are faced by different groups and societies.
• Millions of people live outside their countries of birth or citizenship. Issues such as job opportunities,
wars, droughts, floods, political unrest, persecution, and even other modern climate changes and events
push people out of their homelands (Eitzen & Zinn, 2009).
• This migration usually happens from developing to developed countries. More specifically we also find
the notion of “feminization of migration” where more than half of immigrants are women. Many of
these women end up serving as nannies, maids, and even sex workers (Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2003).
• Global Institutions:
• As we have briefly reviewed before there are many global institutions in place nowadays. From
international NGOs to influential IGOs, from the World Trade Organization (WTO) to the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) these organizations form very powerful forces within the
globalization process.
• The amount of positive results or many times the lack thereof is a constant source of debate. A very
heated debate between those who support the goals, the means, and ideologies of these institutions and
those who take different humanistic approaches aside from the socioeconomic focus.
• At face value, the WTO, the World Bank, and the IMF try to foment transnational trade while providing
economic development to underdeveloped countries. Goals that have been either not accomplished in
many ways or have contributed in other ways.
• For example, the World Bank and the IMF were created together in 1944. Countries must be members
of the IMF before they can be members of the World Bank.
• Both organizations practice what is labeled as “structural adjustment” where “borrower countries unable
to obtain credit from other sources must change government policies before loans are released” (Reuss,
2000).
• Within both organizations, the number of votes a country receives is based on how much capital it gives
to the institution. This clearly means that countries such as the United States have a disproportionate
amount of votes and power. The president of the World Bank is usually from the United States and the
managing director of the IMF is usually a European individual.
• Neoliberal Ideology and Policies:
• “Contemporary globalization is fueled by the prevailing ideology know as neoliberalism or the
Washington consensus. It dates back to John Locke and Adam Smith arguing that market forces will
bring prosperity, liberty, and democracy if left unhindered by government intervention.
• In terms of policy, neoliberals promote privatization, deregulation, and dismantling of the welfare state.
Most significant, this ideology promotes free trade, that is, state borders should be open to trade without
tariffs and other restrictions.
• This ideology is behind such popular, and now much debated, agreements like NAFTA (the North
American Free Trade Agreement) and informs the policies of the WTO and the IMF” (Eitzen & Zinn,
2009).
• Governance:
• Nation state borders have technically ‘disappeared’ in relation to trade and other globalization processes.
Two clear opposing examples are the United States which actually resists efforts by international
organizations to control it and even more recently the United Kingdom after its ‘Brexit’ strategy against
the European Union.
• “We also find suprastate organizations that regulate transnational trade and international law” (Eitzen &
Zinn, 2009).
• Aside from the most recent sociopolitical debate within the United States, corporations still have more
than enough power to bypass governments and make decisions regarding outsourcing and the movement
and investment of capital even if these decisions jeopardize the welfare of citizens. In effect, cultural,
political, and economic change now goes beyond the say or control of governments (Beynon and
Dunkerley, 2009).
• Permeable Borders:
• Borders have become permeable in relation to many different social issues and social problems that we
can easily experience on a global scale.
• Political and geographical borders have changed. Trade, tourism, immigration, and electronic
communications transcend any borders. Environmental issues such as air, water, or food pollution affect
people in many different places. Epidemics and pandemics are now also globalized and difficult to
contain sometimes. From AIDS, to mad cow disease, to the Ebola and Zika virus, we live in a globalized
and interconnected society.
• Criminal networks also cross these borders. Many of these networks span across the world while
distributing illegal drugs, prostitution, human trafficking in slaves, and sweatshops along with the
amount of violence that they add to our societies. Terrorism has also become a global issue by going
beyond these permeable borders (Eitzen & Zinn, 2009).
• Global Culture:
• As we previously reviewed, culture is a fundamental aspect of society. From cultural specific to cultural
universals, we celebrate and enjoy diversity based on the different cultures around the world.
• We have always enjoyed a national culture and even a very local culture in most societies. These factors
gives us identity as a people that belong to a nation.
• Global culture challenges these expectations by existing outside the typical geographical frame of
reference. It creates a global consciousness mostly sustained by the media, corporate advertising, and the
entertainment industry.
• It creates a homogenous centralized global culture, a single world culture. A globalization effect that
many can embrace or decry based on personal or political criteria. We can be a progressive
cosmopolitan global culture or suffer from oppressive imperialism.
• Due to these different perspectives, there are often many clashes between the local and the global
cultures. Cultural diversity is mostly celebrated while people also embrace their national identity and
culture (Eitzen & Zinn, 2009).
• Conclusion
• As Lechner and Boli (2000) stated “globalization is the transformation of world society in terms of
flows of people, goods, capital, and ideas across national boundaries, linkages, institutions, culture, and
consciousness that have accelerated the last decades of the twentieth century resulting in sociologists
and other social scientists beginning to think globally” (Lechner & Boli, 2000).
• Sociologists are now exploring the effects of globalization, in particular the global capitalist system, and
how they contribute to social problems within and across national borders. From inequality, racism,
sexism, to environmental issues and sociopolitical actors and global organizations, globalization has
greatly accelerated as a process and it is very much present in our global society and economy.
• In order to understand globalization we must look at it from many different levels. “From the largely
invisible but powerful processes operating at the macro level to global practices at institutional levels, to
their impact on the daily experiences of women, men, and children of different classes, races/ethnicities,
and international contexts” (Eitzen & Zinn, 2009).