Globalization - also in Society

by: Stefan Seiler

Table of contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Globalization 2

2.1. Definition 2
2.2. Elements of the globalization term 2
2.3. The extensive globalization term 3

3. Society 4

4. Dimensions of Globalization in the view of society 5

4.1. Economy 5
4.2. Politics 7
4.3. Social-Culture Dimension 8

5. Conclusion 10

References III

 

1. Introduction

People around the globe are more connected to each other than ever before. Information and money flow more quickly than ever. Goods and services produced in one part of the world are increasingly available in all parts of the world. International travel is more frequent. International communication has become a routine in our life. This phenomenon has been titled "globalization."

"The Era of Globalization" is fast becoming the preferred term for describing the current times. Just as the Depression, the Cold War Era, the Space Age, and the Roaring 20′s are used to describe particular periods of history; globalization describes the political, economic, and cultural atmosphere of today. While some people think of globalization as primarily a synonym for global business, it is much more than that.¹ The author Peter Gross sums up globalization as a field of force, which is surrounded by economy, society and politics. His statement is that nothing would work without other parts. Decisive is that the differentiation of the modern society can be interpreted as consequence of dynamics which can be set more deeply, their understanding for the management and leading a business are certainly essential. ²

On the following pages I’m going to describe and explain the high complexity of globalization and its process. Furthermore I will show my understanding of the term society. During reading articles and books I realized, that it is almost impossible to bring up each section of globalization, e.g. I won’t show any issues about environment. For this reason I will concentrate on the relationship between globalization and society, especially on the parts economy, politics and social-cultural items. My goal is it to emphasis on social-cultural dimension. On special task I want to show is the dynamic of society in globalization, without naming it. Another objective I want to achieve is the question, if society is a part of globalization or an idea itself.

2. Globalization

2.1. Definition

Every day you hear it on the news, you read it in the papers, you overhear people talking about it… and in every single instance the word globalization seems to have a different meaning. So, what is globalization? The global use of the notion globalization contains already purely conceptually an enormous trap, because the entire good and bad conditions of our modern world were already in advance present. They were being just taken under a streamlined principle term. Globalization is, a key word- like used name for the world-wide penetration of markets, above all causes by the increasing meaning of the international financial markets, the world trade and the intensive international adjustment of (multinational) enterprises ("global players") and favors by new telecommunications technology as well as by financial innovations or the intertwinement of the national economies.³

2.2. Elements of the globalization term

The globalization term has found largest spreading within shortest time – as political key word and as central term of the science. Not only in political view the globalization term is disputed, also in science. The understanding always however in detail by globalization is, that it exists widely a agreement that in the course of the globalization traditional borders dissolve that they become porous or at least problematic or in their process to change. In particular the borders between states, respectively individual societies are concerned. Because in the real world borders lose their meaning or changing slightly, therefore borders of scientific disciplines shift also. If these disciplines work with the term “society “, this, so Immanuel Wallerstein, happens usually from a point of view, in which “society “ shape one half of a tandem, whose other half is the “state “. The borders of society and state are thought often synonymously, so that the present states appear as a sovereign unity, within which the social life take place. Wallerstein summarizes this aspect concisely:

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1 http://www.radesays.com/viewpaper.php?nats=MTAxMToyOjE&request=40694

2 compare Gross, 2001: p.19

3 http://lernen.bildung.hessen.de/global/glob_einf/gbein_01