Globalizatin

1. GLOBALIZATION

Although we can interpret the meaning of

'globalization' in many different ways, we can briefly say that it is

an adaptation of people, states and companies to a world that becomes more

similar and that changes every time. Another definition for Papademos, 'it is

the increasing integration and independence of national economies and the

growing exchange of technologies, information, ideas and cultures across

national borders' (1). Globalization, although not

a new phenomenon, has increased rapidly in recent years. It has been driven by

technological advances and the reduced cost of making exchanges across borders

and distances, as well as the increased mobility of capital. These forces mean

that globalization not only consists of economic activity, but also extends to

political, cultural, environmental and security issues, and relates to the

increasing interconnectivity.

There are many

factors effecting globalization. For example, there is a big phenomenon

'PSY-Gangnam dance' nowadays. Everybody finds it enjoyable. Even it

came out in South Korea, the world learned this style within the seconds due to

the main power of globalization 'media'. One of the driving factors

of globalization is exactly information technology. Developments in the 1970s

in computer hardware, software, and telecommunications greatly increased

people’s ability to access information and economic potential. These

improvements have facilitated efficiency gains in all sectors of the economy.

Information technology drives the innovative use of resources to promote new

products and ideas across nations and cultures, regardless of geographic

location.

If we accept

globalization or not, as a part of our daily life, it affects our lives. I want

to give an example about how fast globalization spreads out. Two years ago, my

cousin was graduated from the high-school. Six months before his graduation, he

wanted his father to take a Samsung mobile phone which coasted about 750 liras

at that time, but my paternal uncle had a condition: graduation from the

high-school as having good scores. My cousin accepted this condition. At the

end, he graduated from the high-school as having good scores. 2 months after

the graduation, my uncle bought him the phone costing 650 liras, but my uncle

was shocked because my cousin did not accept to take the phone. His reason was

so clear: the phone was too old just in the 2 months.

The topic 'Globalization is good or bad' is

debated. There are many proponents of globalization. One of their reasons is

because globalization reduces the differences between people, groups, states

and corporations. However, at the same time, opponents support that the

creation of an unfettered international free market has benefited multinational

corporations in the Western world at the expense of local enterprises, local

cultures, and common people. 'When more money goes to developing countries,

they can get chances to economically succeed and increase their standard of

living. However, while it provides jobs to a population in one country, takes

away those jobs from another country, leaving many without opportunities (2).

Firstly, we can start with the positive of

globalization. It has many good aspects. One of them is the efficiencies and

opportunities for open markets. 'Business can communicate efficiently and

effectively with their partners, suppliers, and customers and manage better

their supplies, inventories, and distribution network' (3).

Local producers can sell their products in distant markets with the same ease

and speed as in their home country. For example, multinational corporations

such as McDonald's, Coca Cola, Nike, Microsoft, and others can sell their products

with the same ease in Turkey as in New York.

Globalization accelerates the change of technology. It

seems that a new technological innovation is being created every day. The

pace of change occurs so rapidly many people are always playing catch up, trying

to purchase or update their new devices. Technology is now the forefront of the

modern world creating new jobs, innovations, and networking sites to allow

individuals to connect globally. As can be understood that living in a

globalized world means:

▬ More opportunities

▬ Diversity – learning about different

cultures

▬ Exchange of technology

Secondly, we can continue with the negative aspects of

globalization. In some ways globalization can help a society, but then it can

also hurt a society. It is something that goes hand in hand with imperialism.

'They are trying to create one culture and one society, but it is this idea and

movement that can kill another culture' (4). It is

the removal of the boundaries of countries and nations to make one big world.

This concept is the 'Cultural Imperialism'. As McDonald’s, for

instance, opens a new shop in place, it brings the American culture including

fast-food culture (eat and go) or drinking cola when eating something. Also, an

economic crisis in a country can trigger adverse reaction across the globe.

Companies face much greater competition. This can put smaller companies, at a

disadvantage as they do not have resources to compete at global scale.

Moreover, some argue that it is a classic situation of

the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. While global standards of living

have raised overall as industrialization takes root in third world countries,

they have fallen in developed countries. Today, the gap between rich and poor

countries is expanding as is the gap between the rich and poor within these

countries. 'Homogenization of the world is another result, with the same

coffee shop on every corner and the same big-box retailers in seemingly every

city in every country' (5).

Finally, I would like to add an interesting example given by Anthony

Giddens. “Governments are moving to legislate

against trafficking. In the UK, the Nationality,

Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 made trafficking for

prostitution a criminal offence for the first time (extended to trafficking for

domestic servitude and forced  labour in 2004).

Clearly, globalization enables the more rapid movement of people across

national boundaries and new patterns of movement are emerging. In relation to

sex tourism and trafficking for prostitution, these patterns are related to the

huge disparities in wealth across the world's countries and to gendered power

relations. Relatively rich Westerners make short trips into developing

countries to buy sex from relatively poor people,  while relatively powerless Eastern European

women are being forced into 'sex work' in Western Europe by organized gangs of,

mostly male, people traffickers. The lives of many victims of the global sex

industry are very far removed from those of the liberated and empowered sex

workers” (6).

All in all, globalization means that it makes rich

richer and richer; poor poorer and poorer. When some groups take big pieces of

the cake, others take just a small piece. 'In the last quarter of the

century and for the most part of the first decade of this century, the world

has seen the good side of globalization. In the last four years, the world has

seen the bad side of globalization. We do hope and pray that the world won’t

see the ugly side of it’’ (7).

Globalization

sounds that it is a new thing, but it is not new, though. It is a process from

the pre-modern societies. The difference between pre-modern and modern

globalization is its speed and ways. In the past, spreading information was

very slow, yet today with a click of mouse; people can be informed more easily.

On the one hand, people, states or dynasties and corporations started to

contact with one another many years ago in lands at great distances. The best

example is the Silk Road which connected Asia to Europe via Mesopotamia during

the middle ages. Today instead of the Silk Road, there are many alternatives

for transportation. Likewise, for centuries, people and corporations have

invested in enterprises in other countries. However, the term

'globalization' is new. Anthony Giddens says that the concept of

globalization has become widely used in debates in politics, business and the

media over recent years. 'Thirty years ago, the term globalization was

relatively unknown, but today it seems to be on the tip of everyone's tongue'

(8). Also, the first wave of globalization ran its

course roughly from the middle of the nineteenth century to the outbreak of the

First World War. It is no accident that it coincided with major technical

innovations (steam engines, railways, steamships, telegraphs, and finally

electric power and telephones) and the adoption of free trade as a policy by

the then major trading nations.

Furthermore,

this topic is opened a new debate for skeptics and hyperglobalizers. To skeptics,

the growth of regionalization is the evidence that the world economy has become

less integrated rather than more so. The world economy is actually less global

in its geographical scope and more concentrated on intense pockets of activity.

According to Hirst and Thompson, 'national governments continue to be key

players because of their involvement in regulating and coordinating economic

activity' (9). To hyperglobalizers, globalization

is a very real phenomenon whose results can be felt everywhere. Ohmae sees

globalization as leading to a borderless world where market forces are more

powerful than national governments. Individual countries no longer control

their economies because of the vast growth in world trade.

Everybody is a piece of the world. Nobody can live by

himself, and also nowadays another topic about globalization is debated:

'Can we ignore globalization?”. I think that it is not possible because

economic factors are one of the noticeable examples. As Thomson and Simon said,

'it is necessary to keep in mind the market forces are structured by

policies and government. When, as has been the case, states are forced to shape

their policies according to a Western ideology regarding the free market

system, it is perhaps not surprising that some claim this is a sign of the

inevitability of globalization' (10). The

truth is, however, that these governments are without a choice regarding their

economic choices and policies. Furthermore, it has often been ignored that the

interests of the transnational corporation; the non-governmental organization,

or the Western politician drive the forces of globalization. Without these

active proponents, it can be argued that we indeed would see less of

globalization. After all, without some of the most economically powerful people

of this world promoting globalization, it would hardly have become such a tool

of Western economic policy.

As everyone affects from globalization, I have

affected, too. When I was in the high-school, I always went to Starbucks Coffee

in Bornova with my classmates because of some reasons. One of them is that

there were just these two places. The other one was that we thought that if we

went to these places, we would be modern people, and also everybody would look

us anew. Now, we feel ourselves stupid. Why we did these were because of the

global imperialism.

Information

technology (IT) is a key point to affect people's lives and life-styles. Even I

am in Turkey, I can contact with my friends in Tunisia, America, England,

Ukraine and Japan via one of the information technological methods

'Internet' which is a cause and effect of globalization. Firstly, it

was born, and little by little it has been improved. After a while, it forced

the world to be more globalized. Now, I have almost the same opportunities as

American, British, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Korean. They have

Samsun-Galaxy, and I have it, too. They go to McDonald's, and I go there, too.

They drink their coffee in Starbucks, and I drink there, too. I can up the

examples, but the main point is that globalization reduces our differences. As

we are Turkish people, we are getting more integrated into the West and its

culture, and also the West is getting more integrated into the East culture.

Therefore, I am not foreign to the world due to the Information technology.

Globalization is good for some; but not good for some.

It is good for some states; but not for others. We always debate about these

topics, but not many people talk about the world. In my view, globalization is

good for the world; but not for the earth and especially for its future. As the

world is getting more global, people, groups, and countries are getting nearer.

Also, we can find that global corporations can be interchangeable in different

countries. However, the problem here is that when they do these works together,

they need transportation. For this global transportation, they need plains,

cars, trucks, ships, trains, and so on. For these vehicles, corporations need

more and more fossil fuels including coal, petrol, diesel, and LPG. At this

point, as we know that these fuels damage the balance of the world, like the

holes on the ozone layer is getting bigger and bigger.

In 1962, the Canadian philosopher of communication

theory came up with a new term 'global Village' to describe the world

shrunk into a village by the means of the different media types, most

especially the World Wide Web, making it easy to pass across messages, like the

news, thereby making the world become like a single village where people can

easily contact one other quicker. For example, in 2011, in Japan there was a real

disaster which can be understood by looking at mortality. Having taking place

thousands of miles away from Turkey, we learned this in the seconds due to the

media and internet. If this disaster had taken place in the past, we could not

have been informed. Thus, the world has both two aspects: 'global'

because it changes every time and 'village' because due to its power

people are getting nearer and nearer each other.

McLuhan's says 'Today after more than a century

of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system in a global

embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned'

(11). Here, he wanted to explain us something. The

main idea of his view is that the rapidity of communication through electric

media. According to Symes, 'Through media such as the telephone,

television and more recently the personal computer and the Internet, we are

increasingly linked together across the globe and this has enabled us to

connect with people at the other side of the world as quickly as it takes us to

contact and converse with those who inhabit the same physical space' (12).

We can now hear and see events that take place thousands of miles away in a

matter of seconds, often quicker than we hear of events in our own villages or

even families, and McLuhan argues that it is the speed of these electronic

media that allow us to act and react to global issues at the same speed as

normal face to face verbal communication.

Globalization helps to increase everyone's quality of

life. It is a function that is becoming more and more important as it helps

those that need these improvements. It is unfair to think of globalization as a

taboo or evil word when it is implements will help change the way we see others

in the world. The lives of people in distant countries are increasingly being

linked, through communications technology, commerce, or culture. In addition to

this, a global economy has started to thrive in the 21th century as businesses

are becoming more integrated with their counterparts in other nations. This is

offering products and services in places across the globe that was once not

available. Clean running water has been provided to places that were once

thought inaccessible to this basic need.

Globalization affects everybody and every country

differently. There is a good example in front of us. In the opinion of Cain

Carpenter: 'For us here in the United States or for that matter any

industrialized nation, it may not seem like globalization improves the quality

of our lives. That is simply because we are the least likely to be affected by

it. The dissemination of ideas has been widespread thanks in large part to the

internet. Since coming to be, the internet has helped to spread ideas that were

once suppressed in foreign countries. Social values not known in certain parts

of the world have found their way into people’s homes, helping them to know a

better quality of living. There are some people that resist this notion and

prefer to hold on to their past ways and this is their choice. The sociological

effect that globalization has had doesn't force people to change for what we

perceive to be better, but offers them the choice if they want it' (13).

2. CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION

There are many types of globalization such as

military, cultural, technological, economic, political and so forth, all of

which are briefly summarized. As the world is getting more globalized, these

types are getting similar.

● The military powers of countries are getting

stronger and technological, like nuclear energy.

● The culture of Westerns or the Americans is

dominating the whole world, for example global brands are generally American

(Starbucks, McDonald's) or English is the dominant language.

● Technology is both the cause and effect of

globalization. As a new phone such as Apple is come out in America, at the same

time it is come out in Turkey, England, and South Africa...

● The world economy is getting more based on

capitalism, even China.

● The world policy is ruled by the global or regional

organizations, like the EU, NATO, UN...

Cultural globalization, aka cultural imperialism,

means the dominance of one culture over other cultures, or means reducing the

differences between regions or culture are reduced. However, capturing the

culture of the world is not easy because to do this, they need a lot of

power.  In the history of world, there

have been some countries whose cultures have dominated the world. Until the

World War I, the dominant culture/economy/country was England because it had a

lot of colonies, so other citizens in other countries wore as how British wore;

they spoke as how British spoke, so in the past there was

'Britishisation' (being as British). Now in today's world, the

dominant culture/economy/country is America because it is the one of the most

riches countries. People wear as Americans wear, people use what Americans use,

and people eat as Americans eat, so now there is 'Americanisation'.

In the future, we may face 'Chineseisation' (being as Chinese)

because their economy is developing quickly. Consequently, dominant culture

means that which country rules the world or which country has much money.

Language which forms the main part of the culture is

the carrier of the culture. Globalization has many effects over culture.

Dominant culture or country comes with its same aspects. One of them is exactly

language. Today, English is spoken by the half population of the world. It is

becoming the second language of countries informally. Mostly, every language

has some words which have gotten from English. Thus, as the world is getting

more globalized, English is spreading out everywhere, so other languages,

meanwhile cultures, loss their power. At this point, we face the bad aspect of

the globalization to the world. Furthermore, behind Americanization, there is a

meaning. 'Titanic' is undoubtedly one of the best films for many

people worldwide, also has been watched by millions. It was one of the good

films of Hollywood which is the most powerful film industry in the world. As a

result of the good films made in Hollywood, American culture reaches China.

Because of Burger King, German children grow with American fast-food style.

Owing to Microsoft, Russia has to use Windows Home7. Since English is the

global language, Turkish university students have to learn it for having a good

career. In accordance with these examples, people from everywhere have to

accept American culture without knowing; they have a hybrid identity.

Since we are a piece of the world and a semi-periphery

country (!), this is normal that we are a victim of globalization;

Americanization damages our cultural relations, too. Until the millennium,

watching kissing scene was not seen as good as it is seen today, but we learned

to be contemporary from the Western culture (!). There are many examples about

how globalization affects Turkey. For example,

■ Our Turkish children grow with hamburger

(German culture), pizza (Italian culture) or cola (American culture); not with

lahmacun, kebab or ayran.

■ They grow with rock music; not with

Turkish Art Music.

■ They grow with McDonald's, KCF or

Starbucks; not with 'Dönerci Nedim' or 'Pideci Ramazan'.

■ They watch Hollywood; not Yesilcam.

■ Every Turkish woman loves “Titanic” more

than they love “Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalim”.

■ Turkish basketball fans support Boston

Celtics or Orlando Magic more than they support Fenerbahce or Anadolu Efes.

■ Instead of Turkish names, TV canals in

Turkey put their names as “NTV, FOX TV, STAR TV, SHOW TV, and others.

■ Instead of Turkish games, children learn

Counter Strike, GTA, and ECOF.

There are other examples to give, but briefly, the point

is that American culture comes to our home, yet we have not realized.

References and Bibliography:

▼ (1) Papademos, Lucas - Vice

President of the ECB, 'Globalization, Inflation, and Monetary Policy, 2006.

▼ (2) globalization101.com

▼ (3) Samuel, C.Park 'Is

globalization Good or Bad?' in pdf by T.N. Srinivasan, 2002, page 4

▼ (4) 'What does it mean to

live in a globalized world?' Youth Forum of Americas, page 86.

▼ (5) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/oct/31/globalisation.lewiswilliamson

▼ (6) Anthony Giddens, Sociology,

6th Edition 2009, page 600 – Sex and Gender

▼ (7) http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2011/09/10/the-good-and-the-bad-side-of-globalizion/

▼ (8) Giddens, Anthony “Sociology”,

6th Edition 2009, page 126

▼ (9) Hirst, Paul; Thompson,

Grahame; Bromley, Simon, 'Globalization in Question,' 3rd Ed.,

Polity Press, 2009.

▼ (10) McLuhan's 'The Gutenberg Galaxy',

published in 1962, and 'Understanding Media', published in

1964.

▼ (11) http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/bas9401.html

▼ (12) http://qn.som.yale.edu/content/how-has-globalization-benefited-poor

▼ (13) http://www.helium.com/items/1533796-globalization-helping-to-improve-everyones-lives