Globalization: The Key Concepts

Annabelle Mooney, Betsy Evans

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781032031699
• eBook ISBN: 9781134204717
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: International Business
• Index: Business

Viewed as a destructive force or an inevitability of modern society, globalization is the focus of a multitude of disciplines. A clear understanding of its processes and terminology is imperative for anyone engaging with this ubiquitous topic. Globalization: the Key Concepts offers a comprehensive guide to this cross-disciplinary subject and covers concepts such as:

• homogenization
• neo-Liberalism
• risk
• knowledge society
• time-space compression
• reflexivity.

With extensive cross-referencing and suggestions for further reading, this book is an essential resource for students and interested readers alike as they navigate the literature on globalization studies.

GLOBALIZATION

ABSTRACT SYSTEMS

A general term covering expert systems and symbolic tokens particularly used by the sociologist Anthony Giddens. Abstract systems refer to the collection of rules and procedures that we increasingly rely on in order to calculate and negotiate risk. These systems are not accessible as such to the individual and are often very opaque. Whereas in traditional societies we might have relied on local experienced individuals, now we tend to rely on principles and rules administered by groups of experts (anything from psychologists to weather forecasters) and bureaucracies.

Expert systems and symbolic tokens are disembedding mechanisms. Symbolic tokens allow interaction and exchange between and among everyone. An excellent example is money, which allows “enactment of transactions between agents widely separated in time and space” (Giddens 1991:24). Such symbolic tokens need some authority to stand behind them such that they retain exchange value as they have no intrinsic value (for an example of money as symbolic, see the work of J.S.G. Boggs, who trades “art” money for commodities).

Further reading: Giddens 1990, 1991; Weschler 2000

ACTIVE CITIZENS

Active citizens are individuals who participate in public life. They see themselves as having a role to play in and are agents for social change. Active citizenship is a way of defining what it takes to be a good citizen, a notion that has been debated since Aristotle. Active citizens are linked to globalization literature in at least two ways. One way is to see active citizenship as an effect of and response to globalization. The globalization of economic markets is seen as a challenge to democracy because it undermines the authority and influence of nation–states and established ways of defining citizenship. The response to the democratic threat posed by globalization is to turn to, and revitalize civic culture. Encouraging active citizenship is a way to regenerate civic culture. Active citizenship is now seen as a central mechanism for ensuring and achieving democracy during a period of unprecedented social upheaval. The concept of active citizen is used to marshal certain targeted groups of people into behaving and thinking about themselves as self-governing and therefore able to regulate themselves towards good citizenship behaviors. The link between active citizen and globalization is different in this view. Instead of active citizenship being an effect of and response to the massive social transformations associated with globalization, active citizenship is a strategy that is part of the tangled bundle of practices, techniques and mentalities through which the geopolitical rationality called globalization gets configured and enabled (Larner and Walters 2004b).

See also: choice (discourse of), community participation, geopolitical rationality, global sub-politics

Further reading: Dean 1995; Giddens 1998

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ALIEN CULTURE

A term used in opposition to “native culture” to refer to practices or things introduced to (or embedded in) another culture. This term suggests that the new practice has been imposed on the other culture. Tomlinson (1991) claims that it is more usual for other cultural practices to be adopted willingly, incorporated and re-embedded than for them to be seen as imposed and “alien.”

See also: cultural imperialism

AMERICANIZATION

This term dates from 1860, meaning strictly to become American (in language, habits or professions) especially for migrants to the USA. The term has a particular meaning with regard to globalization in that it encompasses anything from an alleged cultural imperialism by the United States, to stimulating changes in local patterns of behavior and consumption because of the dominance of free-market economics.

The cultural imperialist view is clearly pejorative and relates to the increased presence of “American” products (fast food, clothing labels, soft drinks, Hollywood films) in foreign markets. In many cases, especially when used by social activists against economic globalization, Americanization is used to mean the changing nature of political and economic systems to fall in line with US administrative polices of free trade and democracy.

There is a question, though, of what counts as “American.” Some practices and products are thought of as American because of a symbolic link. So, for example, neoliberal trade practices are considered American when really they are common throughout the world (though the US was a major force behind the shape and detail of Bretton Woods institutions). Others (e.g. Featherstone 1990 and Giddens 1990, 1991) stress the critical reception of products and practices as well as their hybridization and embedding into local contexts. Note that Gienow-Hecht (2000) refers to Americanization as “American cultural transfer.”

See also: homogenization, McDonaldization

Further reading: Plender 2003

ANARCHISM

Also known as libertarian-socialism and anarcho-communism. While anarchy is a technical term describing a particular kind of political system and organization, anarchism is relevant to globalization in the way it has been used to categorize those who are also known as antiglobalizers. Anarchism in a strict sense is a theoretical or actual society which rejects the imposition of authority. A common misconception is that anarchism promotes anarchy, that is violence, chaos and social upheaval. Generally, however, anarchism is the political belief that everyone should be allowed to choose the relations they have with others (including representatives in government) and intentionally enter into relationships with other people for mutual benefit and social goals. That is to say, there is nothing inherently unorganized about the order that anarchism envisages. Rather, it is based on the actual individual making real choices as opposed to developing systems that people are then forced to inhabit. Thus, anarchism does not require that there are no representatives of people. It is the way in which such representation occurs and is established which is at issue.

Anarchism, or more usually anarchists, is an important feature of globalization discourses. Anarchists are not generally esteemed figures. Anarchism is not supportive of the neoliberal, “democratic” systems which are typical of and valorized in contemporary society. Often, as a result of a very imprecise use of language and incorrect representation of those involved, anyone speaking or demonstrating against globalization and capitalism is labeled anarchist.

See also: antiglobalization, neoliberalism

Further reading: Miller 1984; Ward 2004; Woodcock 1986

ANTICIPATION OF PLEASURE

Concept coined by John Urry (1990) in relation to consumption of products and experiences, particularly related to the tourist experience. The pleasure anticipated is based on representations of a yet to be had experience (in the media, tourist brochures and the like). Thus people “seek to experience ‘in reality’ the pleasurable dramas they have already experienced in their imagination” (1990: 13). Imaginative travel contrasts with corporeal (actual physical) travel. It may form part of the anticipation process prior to corporeal travel. Imaginative travel is elicited by the media in, for example, travel guidebooks, TV travel programs, brochures and the internet. By reading material or watching programs about their destination, potential tourists begin to imagine themselves already on holiday and to anticipate the holiday experience.

See also: cultural tourism, lifestyle

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ANTIGLOBALIZATION

Antiglobalization is an umbrella term used to refer to a diverse set of stances against the current form of globalization and the perceived negative impact that it is said to be causing. Members of the antiglobalization movement see the global order as being largely shaped by the interests and for the benefits of an elite minority of the world to the general detriment of the rest of humanity, especially those in the Third World. The globalization process is said to be the major cause of environmental destruction and to be leading to a growth in inequality, both across and within nations, and to the erosion of democratic processes.

There is no real consensus about exactly when the antiglobalization movement first came into being. One defining moment was the indigenous uprising of the Zapatistas in the Chiapas region of Mexico, which occurred on New Years Day, 1994 to symbolically coincide with the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Another key event was the now infamous “Battle of Seattle” both of which have achieved an iconic status within the movement. However, resistance to globalization is not a new phenomenon and protests against the Bretton Woods institutions, and structural adjustment policies have been reasonably regular occurrences within the global South since at least the mid-1970s.

Within the West the movement initially focused principally on the unethical practices of large multinational corporations, which were seen as one of the principle driving forces behind the reorganization of the global economy that characterizes globalization. For instance, in the mid-1990s the movement, which was increasingly gaining momentum, focused on the issue of “sweatshops” and the exploitative practices that these entailed with corporations such as Disney and Nike being held to account and seen as largely responsible for the conditions under which their goods were manufactured. Through such campaigns international coalitions were formed and recent years have witnessed a growing mobilization leading to a number of large demonstrations outside the meetings of the world’s political and economic elites such as that in Seattle, Prague, Quebec City and Genoa amongst others. These mass protests were largely aimed at highlighting the negative aspects of the current global order and to bring to wider public attention the exploitative, unequal and coercive logic of globalization. As well as protests the movement coheres around a number of large events. The most prominent of these being the World Social Forum (WSF), which began in January 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil as a deliberate counter-summit to the elite World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland. The WSF has grown into a very large event and now attracts well over 100,000 people to discuss different aspects of globalization and its alternatives.

In many ways the “antiglobalization” label (apparently initially coined by the US media) is misleading and indeed many activists reject the label entirely. The movement is not against globalization per se and despite criticism to the contrary an abundance of political and economic alternatives and remedies to the current problems associated with globalization have been proposed. Many have called for the complete cancellation of Third World Debt or at least a substantial reduction to it. There is also widespread belief that the three major financial institutions (the World Bank, IMF and World Trade Organization (WTO)) of global governance either need to be substantially reformed or scrapped altogether and replaced with more accountable, democratic and transparent institutions capable of regulating global capital flows, especially the activities of multinational corporations. Others have argued for a return to more locally (be they local, regional or national) based economies which, it is believed, would alleviate many of the problems associated with economic globalization. While for many within the movement this is seen as a way of offering, amongst other things, protectionism to poorer countries, this mode of thinking also represents a more conservative thread of antiglobalization sentiments. This mode of thought is fearful that globalization is leading to the loss of national self-determination and largely blames recent immigrants for the deterioration and erosion of national cultural traditions and lifestyles.

See also: global capitalism, legitimation crisis, protectionism (economic), social movements, transnational corporations (TNC)

Further reading: Brecher et al. 2000; Held and McGrew 2002; Kingsnorth 2003; Klein 2002; Notes from Nowhere 2003

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Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Key to contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• List of Key Concepts
• Key Concepts
• Bibliography
• Index