ORIGINS AND HISTORY OF GLOBALIZATIONS

FIVE DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES ON THE ORIGINS OF GLOBALIZATION

 Hardwired
 Cycles
 Epoch
 Events
 Broader more Recent changes

Hardwired
According to Nayan Chanda (2007), it is because of our basic human need to make our lives better
that made globalization possible

One can trace the beginning of globalization from our ancestors in Africa who walked out from the
said continent in the late Ice Age.

Chanda also mentioned that commerce, religion, politics, and warfare are the “urges” of people
toward a better life.

These are respectively connected to four aspects of globalization and they can be traced all
throughout history; trade, missionary work, adventures, and conquest

Cycles
Globalization is a long-term cyclical process and thus, finding its origin will be a daunting mask.

What is important is the cycles that globalization gone through (Scholte,2005).Subscribing to this view
will suggest adherence to the idea that other global ages have appeared .

There is also notion to suspect that this point globalization will soon disappear and reappear.

Epoch
Ritzer (2015) cited Thernborn’s (2000) six great epochs of globalization.

These are also called “waves” and each has its own origin.

The difference of this view from the second view (cycles) is that it does not treat epochs as
returning.

The following are the sequential occurrence of the epochs:

1. Globalization of religion (fourth to seventh centuries)

2. European colonial conquest (late fifteenth century)
3. Intra-European war (late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries)
4. Heyday of European imperialism (mid-nineteenth century to 1918)
5. Post-World War II period
6. Post Cold War period.

Events
Specific events are also considered as part of the fourth view in explaining the origin of globalization.

If this is the case, then several points can be treated as the the start of globalization.

Gibbon argued that Roman conquests centuries before Christs where its origin.

The recent years could also be regarded as the beginnings of globalization with reference to specific
technological advances in transportation and communication.
Examples include:
- First transatlantic telephone cable (1956)
-First transatlantic television broadcast (1962)
- The founding of the modern internet in 1988
- The terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York (2001).

With this view, more and more specific events will characterize not just the origins of globalization
but also more if its history.

Broader, More Recent Changes

 Recent changes comprised the fifth view.
 Broad changes happened in the last half of the twentieth century
 Scholars today point to these three notable changes as the origin of globalization that we know
today. They are as follows:
1. The emergence of the United States as the global power (post- World War II
2. The emergence of multinational corporations (MNCs)
3. The demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War

The emergence of the United States as the global power post World War 2
 USA through its military and economic power after WWII was able to surpass Germany and
Japan
 Both former axis and allied powers fell behind economically compared to the new global power
 USA also progressed in different aspects like diplomacy aspects like diplomacy, media, film
(Hollywood) and many more.
 MNCs had their roots in their countries of origin during the 18th to 19th centuries.

 The United States, Germany and Great Britain all had great corporation in their homelands that
are still known today.

 An example is Ford and General motors which originated in the U.S in the 20th century and
later exported more automobiles and opened factories in other countries.

Demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War
 The last event is the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

 This lead to the opening of major parts of the world for the first time since the early 20th
century
 Many global processes-immigration, tourism, media diplomacy, and MNCs-spread throughout
the globe, paving the way to the so called “Free” world.
 Even China whose government is still communist is on its way to become a world power in
terms of global capitalism
 China is also globalizing in other aspects like hosting the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Global Theories of Globalization

As we establish different definitions of and issues in defining globalization and the metaphors to use
to comprehend with the concept of globalization, we have created theories that see globalization as a
process that increases either homogeneity or heterogeneity.

HOMOGENEITY

HOMOGENEITY THEORY

Refers to the increasing sameness in the world as cultural inputs, economic factors, and political
orientations of societies expand to create common practices, same economies, and similar forms of
government
Linked to cultural imperialism and Americanization
 Cultural Imperialism is when one culture tries to influence other cultures
 Americanization the process of Non-Americans adopting images, technologies, practices,
and beliefs associated with Americans
 Countries adopt neoliberalism, and market economy
 IMF offers a one-size fits all approach with its treatment of countries
 “Mcworld” emerges
 Global Media sees a preference for western books, movies, music, etc.
 Process of “Mcdonalization”

HETEROGENEITY THEORY

From the Greek word “heterogenḗs”

hetero– meaning “different”
genos– meaning “kind”

It pertains to the creation of various cultural practices, new economies, and political groups because
of the interaction of elements from different societies in the world.

Heterogeneity refers to the differences because of either lasting differences or of the hybrids or
combinations of cultures that can be produced through the different transplanetary processes.

Contrary to cultural imperialism, heterogeneity in culture is associated with cultural hybridization.

A more specific concept is “globalization” coined by Roland Robertson(1992).

To him, as global forces interact with local factors or a specific geographic area, the “global” is being
produced. Economic issues are not exempted from heterogeneity.
The commodification of cultures and “global” markets are examples of
Differentiation happening in many economies around the world.

The same goes with political institutions.

Barber (1995) also provided the alternate of “McWorld” – the “Jihad”.

As Ritzer (2008) mentioned, it refers to the

political groups that are engaged in an
“intensification of nationalism and that
leads to greater political heterogeneity
throughout the world.”

Some theories of globalization are:

 Liberalism
 Political realism
 Marxism
 Constructivism
 Postmodernism
 Feminism
 Transformationalism
 Eclecticism

LIBERALISM
 sees the process of globalization as market-led extension of modernization.
 They fructify in the form of:
a. Technological advances; and,
b. Suitable legal and institutional arrangement to enable markets and liberal democracy to
spread on a trans world scale.
POLITICAL REALISM
 states are inherently acquisitive and self-serving, and heading for inevitable competition of
power.
MARXISM
 Marxism is principally concerned with modes of production, social exploi-tation through unjust
distribution, and social emancipation through the transcendence of capitalism.
 Accordingly, to Marxists, globalization happens because trans-world connectivity enhances
opportu-nities of profit-making and surplus accumulation.
 Marxists reject both liberalist and political realist explanations of globalization.

CONSTRUCTIVISM
Globalization has also arisen because of the way that people have mentally constructed the
social world with particular symbols, language, images and interpretation.

POSTMODERNISM
 Some other ideational perspectives of globalization highlight the signifi-cance of structural
power in the construction of identities, norms and knowledge.
 They strive to understand society in terms of knowledge power: power structures shape
knowledge
FEMINISM
 It puts emphasis on social construction of masculinity and femininity.
 Biological sex is held to mould the overall social order and shape significantly the course of
history, presently globality.

TRANSFORMATIONALISM
 Accord-ingly, the term ‘globalization’ reflects increased interconnectedness in political,
economic and cultural matters across the world creating a “shared social space”.
 “a process (or set of processes) which embodies a transformation in the spatial
organization of social relations and transactions, expressed in trans-continental or interregional
flows and networks of activity, interaction and power.”