Contem World

• Globalization is a significant change in social relationships and structures, shaping the "global age" we live in
• The Internet and mass media play crucial roles in connecting people, communities, and countries globally
• Globalization involves processes affecting the economy, political systems, and culture, directly impacting social structures
• Different views on globalization exist: some see it as a positive phenomenon of progress and development, while others associate it with regression, colonialism, and destabilization
• Globalization can be viewed as a unifying force or as creating greater inequalities among nations
• Definitions of globalization can be broad and inclusive or narrow and exclusive, with implications for overcoming traditional boundaries or focusing on specific aspects like international production and labor movements
• Globalization is a complex concept with economic, political, and social dimensions, leading to various definitions and perspectives
• Globalization is a transplanetary process involving increasing liquidity and multidirectional flows of people, objects, places, and information, with potential for integration and/or fragmentation
• Defining globalization is influenced by the perspective of the definer, shaping discussions and actions regarding globalization
• Metaphors like solid and liquid are used to explain globalization, with solidity representing barriers and limited mobility, while liquidity symbolizes ease of movement and continuous fluctuation in the contemporary world
• Ritzer (2015) highlighted that the most important characteristic of liquid is that it "tends to melt whatever stands in its path (especially solids)"
• Liquidity and solidity are in constant interaction, with liquidity increasing and proliferating today
• Globalization is metaphorically described as liquidity, emphasizing the idea of flow, which will be the focus of the next discussion
• Flows refer to the movement of people, things, places, and information brought by the growing "porosity" of global limitations (Ritzer 2015)
• Global value chains (GVCs) are complex networks of manufacturing, distribution, and trading processes involving various nations and companies in the development of goods and services
• Examples of flows include the global spread of different cuisines, global financial crises, poor illegal migrants, virtual flows of information like blogs and child pornography, and immigrants recreating ethnic enclaves in host countries
• China is known as a manufacturing powerhouse in electronics, textiles, machinery, and labor-intensive industries within global value chains
• Globalization theories view the process as increasing either homogeneity or heterogeneity in culture, economy, and politics
• The US plays a significant role in worldwide value chains, especially in high-tech industries, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, and advanced manufacturing
• Two-thirds of steel made in the US is from recycled steel or scrap metals, with major global metal extraction from scrap happening in China
• Heterogeneity in globalization creates various cultural practices, new economies, and political groups due to the interaction of elements from different societies
• Waste paper from the US is shipped to China for recycling into corrugated boxes, which are then used to ship goods worldwide, including back to the US
• Theories about globalization will be further clarified in the succeeding chapters
• Cotton grown in the US is shipped to China for manufacturing T-shirts, which are then shipped back to the US for sale, with used T-shirts eventually being sold in Africa
• Different perspectives on the origins of globalization include: hardwired perspective tracing back to human needs, cycles view suggesting long-term cyclical processes, epochs view with sequential occurrences, events view considering specific historical events, and broader recent changes view focusing on notable changes in the last half of the 20th century
• iPhones are manufactured in China and exported to the US and Europe, with some ending up in unusual places and then smuggled to other nations, mainly China
• Increasing global competition for commodities like oil, natural gas, copper, lithium, rice, wheat, and corn has been a significant development, driven by China's industrialization
• Immanuel Wallerstein researched the modern world system, which is a largely self-contained system with boundaries and a definable life span
• Outsourcing involves transferring activities once performed by an entity to a business, with offshore outsourcing sending work to companies in other countries, like call center agents from the UK and US to Indian firms
• The modern world system, also known as the modern capitalist world-economy, relies on economic domination and encompasses many states with a built-in process of economic stabilization
• Insourcing involves tasks from offshore outsourcing being taken back by firms in other countries, requiring careful evaluation of costs and benefits against strategic objectives and long-term goals
• In the worldwide division of labor and development, there are three main categories:

  • Core: most dominant over the world-economy and exploit the rest of the system
  • Semi-periphery: areas that are both exploiting and exploited
  • Periphery: suppliers of raw materials and are extremely exploited
• Consumption involves consumer objects, consumers, the consumption process, and consumption sites, with a focus on increasing global flows related to consumption and decreasing barriers
• Factors for the rise of the capitalist world economy include geographical expansion, worldwide division of labor, and core state development
• Consumers are spending more time defining themselves by what they consume, with an increasing number of people consuming goods and services as tourists around the world
• Pressure for incorporation into the world-economy comes from the need of the world-economy to expand its boundaries, not from the nations being incorporated
• Consumption processes are becoming more standardized, with people knowing what is expected of them as consumers, from navigating shopping malls to making online purchases
• The race to the bottom concept involves less developed countries competing globally by undercutting each other with lower wages, poor working conditions, and other concessions
• American and Western-style consumption sites like fast-food restaurants, clothing chains, and theme parks have spread globally
• The current global economic system is built on the exploitation of less developed countries by more developed ones, but there is evidence of upgrading in less developed countries and industries over time