Ch5 Social Dimension of Globalization

• Social Dimension

  • Highlights the importance of people as one of the critical elements in extending the practice of globalization
  • Focuses on how the movement of people strengthens the phenomenon in different parts of the world
• Social Dimension (Carlos Bihasa, 2021)

  • Intensification and expansion of the connections of people through the process of migration as well as the uninterrupted flow of culture in the international community
• Global Demography: People

  • One of the important instruments of globalization
  • Represent an interesting area in understanding the practice and influence of the phenomenon in the international community
  • Provide globalization with a good opportunity of extending its practice and influence beyond the boundaries of several countries in the international community
• Global Demography: Demography

  • The study of human population is known in Sociology 
  • Continuously endowed the discipline with valuable demographic information explaining how the international community has evolved in recent history
• Global Demography (Barbara Anderson, 2015)

  • The study of the growth, structure, and composition of human populations
  • The study on the causes and consequences of growth, structure, and composition of the human populations is also considered as part of demography
• Processes of Population

  • Fertility
  • Mortality
  • Migration
• Process of Population: Fertility (Macionis, 2004)

  • How many people are born
  • Incidence of child bearing
  • Control the population growth
  • “Baby-boom” event after the World War II
  • Featured fertility in an all time high
• Process of Population: Mortality (Cutler et al., 2006)

  • Extent of human population
  • Incidence of death
• Process of Population: Migration (Macionis, 2004)

  • Size of human population
  • Movement of people
  • Immigration - Developed countries
  • Emigration - Developing → Developed
• Global Migration (Shmuel Eisenstadt, 1953)

  • Physical transition of an individual or group from one society to another
  • This transition normally involves abandoning one social setting and entering another and different one
  • Process of leaving the social condition of an individual or a group in exchange for another that exists in the succeeding place of destination
• Global Migration (The World Economic Forum, 2017)

  • Identified a number of favorable and unfavorable factors that induce people to leave their countries and settle in other distant territories
  • The place of destination, therefore, provides the “pull factors” and the place of origin serves as the “push factors” in the migration of people to other territories
  • Favorable or Pull Factors (destination)
  • Unfavorable or Push Factors (origin)
• Global City (Saskia Sassen, 1990s)

  • Process of globalization can also be discussed through another spatial structure other than the nation-state
  • The terrain where a multiplicity of globalization processes assume concrete, localized forms
  • The large cities of today have emerged as strategic sites for a whole range of new types of operations
  • They serve as a nexus where the formation of new claims materializes and assumes concrete forms
• Global City (Saskia Sassen, 1990s)

  • Argued that the new conceptual architecture – the global city - is anchored on the continuous flow of capital, information, and people through a network of national cities in different parts of the world
  • In the broader context, the global city is a spatial unit or scale that possesses the following characteristics: financial center, seat of political power, center for higher learning, and melting pot of different cultures
• Characteristics of a Global City

  • Financial Center
  • Seat of Political Power
  • Center for Higher Learning
  • Melting Pot for Different Cultures
• Characteristics of a Global City: Financial Center

  • Leading financial institutions and large stock markets
  • New York: JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs
• Characteristics of a Global City: Seat of Political Power

  • Political capital of several countries in the international community
  • British Parliament, the Westminster
• Characteristics of a Global City: Center for Higher Learning

  • Site for several institutions of higher learning
  • New York: Columbia, Cornell, and Fordham University
• Characteristics of a Global City: Melting Pot of Different Cultures

  • Movement of people who bring with them their respective cultures from their own countries
• Culture

  • Sum total of all beliefs, values, behavior, and objects practiced by a large number of people
  • Recent scholars maintained that it is one of the areas where globalization is rapidly taking place
• Cultural Globalization

  • Explain the expanding flow of culture that transpires across international boundaries
  • Currently, the flow of culture occurs at a high-speed and involves not only the physical movement of people but also the use of different technologies
• Culture and Globalization (George Ritzer, 2011)

  • Described the flow of culture in three different forms that include differentialism, hybridization, and convergence
  • These forms explain how culture retains its identity or transforms when paired with other cultures
  • They also explain how one culture – also known as the “hybrid” – emerges from its interaction with other several cultures
• Forms of Flow of Culture (Geroge Ritzer, 2011)

  • Cultural Differentialism
  • Cultural Hybridization
  • Cultural Convergence
• Forms of Flow of Culture: Cultural Differentialism

  • Cultures are different from one another in spite of similarities connecting them
  • Culture remain the same and remain different
• Forms of Flow of Culture: Cultural Hybridization

  • Merging of cultures that comes as a result of the different processes of globalization
  • Produces a new type of culture that is not identifiable with the existing global or local cultures
• Forms of Flow of Culture: Cultural Convergence

  • Sort of culture that everybody begins to practice 
  • Does not produce a hybrid culture
• Religion

  • One of the essential elements of a society that differentiate its people from the other members of the international community
  • Globalization influences religion
  • Religion influences globalization
• Religion (John Macionis, 2004)

  • A social institution that involves beliefs and practices anchored on a conception of the sacred
  • Draws a number of followers that exhibits similar beliefs and practices directed to things considered as sacred
• Religion (Asep Muhammad Iqbal, 2016)

  • Globalization has produced a mixed impact on religion that led to the opposing views of secularization and revitalization of the institution
  • It has endowed religion with fresh roles and identities to continue engaging the forces of globalization
• Religion: Secularization (Asep Muhammad Iqbal, 2016)

  • Decline of religion that started with the rise of the modern society
  • Developments that led to the decline
  • There are absolute truths are slowly being eroded
• Religion: Revitalization (Asep Muhammad Iqbal, 2016)

  • Giving religion with new means of coping with the strenuous challenges of the modern times
  • A response to secularization
  • Overcome erosion of practices
• Gender

  • Another essential component that underscores the study of the social dimension of globalization
• Gender (John Macionis, 2004)

  • The personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being male and female
  • Gender is often synonymously used with the word, “sex” that biologically partitions the human population between the males and females
  • Unfortunately, this leads some people to think of gender as simply the difference between the opposite sexes
• Gender and Globalization

  • The discussion of gender over the years has centered primarily on the growing inequality between men and women in the international community
  • Most of the discussions unfortunately have not been favorable to a considerable number of women who remained marginalized until the present time
• The World Economic Forum (2018)

  • Global Gender Gap Report 
  • Argued that women appeared to be lagging behind men in the field of political empowerment
• Indigenous People (International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs)

  • Disadvantaged descendants of those peoples that inhabited a territory prior to the creation of a state
  • They include a characteristic that relates the identity of a group of people to a particular area and distinguishes them culturally from all other people
• Positive Experiences of Indigenous People

  • As the process of globalization intensifies, indigenous people take advantage of the opportunity in leveraging the positive effects of the phenomenon
  • Indigenous people obviously stand to benefit from the improvements that globalization may bring to their existing social practices
  • The advent of technologies, faster communication, and new modes of travel are expected to affect the manner on how indigenous people conduct their day-to-day affairs
• Negative Experiences of Indigenous People

  • Indigenous people on the other hand have also been marginalized by governments in the delivery of basic services
  • Their population comprises the least healthy and educated among the world’s extreme poor
  • Most of the indigenous people have also lost their autonomy and control over their ancestral territories to the point that their lands are now owned by several private corporations
  • Indigenous people likewise have suffered from an impending cultural decline
• Peace Studies

  • Another essential component that emphasizes the need to understand the social dimension of globalization
  • For the past 60 years, peace studies has contributed tremendously to the preservation of international peace in spite of a number of civil wars that occurred in recent history
• Peace Studies (Peter Lawler, 2008)

  • The reduction and eventual eradication of war as well as the control and resolution of violent conflict by peaceful means
• Peace Studies (Peter Lawler, 2008)

  • Negative Peace - Absence of wars
  • Positive Peace - Preserve the peace