Globalization

Over many centuries, human societies across the globe have established progressively closer contacts. Recently, the pace of global integration has dramatically increased. Unprecedented changes in communications, transportation, and computer technology have given the process new impetus and made the world more interdependent than ever. Multinational corporations manufacture products in many countries and sell to consumers around the world. Money, technology and raw materials move ever more swiftly across national borders. Along with products and finances, ideas and cultures circulate more freely. As a result, laws, economies, and social movements are forming at the international level. This site considers not only the Globalization of the Economy but also the Globalization of Politics, of Culture and of Law. The globalized world sweeps away regulation and undermines local and national politics, just as the consolidation of the nation state swept away local economies, dialects, cultures and political forms. Globalization creates new markets and wealth, even as it causes widespread suffering, disorder, and unrest. It is both a source of repression and a catalyst for global movements of social justice and emancipation. The great financial crisis of 2008-09 has revealed the dangers of an unstable, deregulated, global economy but it has also given rise to important global initiatives for change.

The term globalization encompasses a range of social, political, and economic changes. Within the section Defining Globalization, we provide an introduction to the key debates. The materials ask

what is new, what drives the process, how it changes politics, and how it affects global institutions like the UN. Globalization expands and accelerates the exchange of ideas and commodities over vast distances. It is common to discuss the phenomenon in highly generalized terms, but globalization's impacts are often best understood at the local level. Cases of Globalization explore the various manifestations of interconnectedness in the world, noting how globalization affects real people and places. Globalization often appears to be a force of nature, a phenomenon without bounds or alternatives. But peoples movements have shown that it is neither unalterable nor inevitable. Citizens all over the worldordinary people from the global North and Southcan work together to shape alternate futures, to build a globalization of cooperation, solidarity and respect for our common planetary environment.

Galobalization of the economy

Advances in communication and transportation technology, combined with free-market ideology, have given goods, services, and capital unprecedented mobility. Northern countries want to open world markets to their goods and take advantage of abundant, cheap labor in the South, policies often supported by Southern elites. They use international financial institutions and regional trade agreements to compel poor countries to "integrate" by reducing tariffs, privatizing state enterprises, and relaxing environmental and labor standards. The results have enlarged profits for investors but offered pittances to laborers, provoking a strong backlash from civil society. This page analyzes economic globalization, and examines how it might be resisted or regulated in order to promote sustainable development.

Globalization of the Politics

Traditionally politics has been undertaken within national political systems. National governments have been ultimately responsible for maintaining the security and economic welfare of their citizens, as well as the protection of human rights and the environment within their borders. With global ecological changes, an ever more integrated global economy, and other global trends, political activity increasingly takes place at the global level. Under globalization, politics can take place above the state through political integration schemes such as the European Union and through intergovernmental organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. Political activity can also transcend national borders through global movements and NGOs. Civil society organizations act globaly by forming alliances with organizations in other countries, using global communications systems, and lobbying international organizations and other actors directly, instead of working through their national governments Globalization expands and accelerates the movement and exchange of ideas and commodities over vast distances. It is common to discuss the phenomenon from an abstract, global perspective, but in fact globalization's most important impacts are often highly localized. This page explores the various manifestations of interconnectedness in the world, noting how globalization affects real people and places.

The term globalization encompasses a range of social, political, and economic changes. Some disciplines including anthropology or sociology focus on cultural changes of growing interconnectedness, such as the expansion of brands like Nike and McDonalds, and the increasing ease of travel. Other disciplines such as economics track the exchange of finances, goods and services through expanding global markets. Still other disciplines such as political science examine the role of international political institutions like the United Nations and the increasing power of transnational corporations. While one can try to dissect each of these topics to measure the changes of globalization, they are woven together in a complex manner, making it difficult to summarize positive or negative effects. Globalization creates new markets and wealth, even as it causes widespread suffering, disorder, and unrest. It is both a source of repression and a catalyst for global movements of social justice and emancipation. This provides tables and charts measuring globalization in terms of technology, demographics, and culture