The Pros and Cons of Globalization

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Globalization is a broad concept and the angle taken to define it can lead us to interpret the idea in many different ways. There is much controversy about what globalization actually means and many definitions fail to encompass social, cultural and technological exchanges between world systems. John Pilger suggests that "it is a jargon term which journalists and politicians have made fashionable which is often used in a positive sense to denote a 'Global village' of free trade, hi-tech marvels and all kinds of possibilities that transcend class, historical experience and ideology." (J.Pilger 1998:63). Taking a broader point of view, Bilton et al defines globalization as "The process whereby political, social, economic and cultural relations increasingly take on a global scale, and which has profound consequences for individuals, local experiences and everyday lives." (Bilton et al 1996:5) The process of globalization has certainly had many changing effects to the world we live in; it has also changed the way many factors operate. Globalization is said "to have transformed the structure and scale of human relationships that social, cultural, political, and economic processes now operate at a global scale with a consequent reduction in the significance of other geographical scales."(The Dictionary of human geography 2004:315) Globalization has had both positive and negative effects on a local, national, international and global level. Globalization often brings benefits at one level which cause negative effects at another, these results and the scale at which they manifest are often uncertain and unpredictable. The very nature of its unpredictability causes instability and introduces risks to all actors involved (many of these actors unwillingly). The economics of globalization is very relevant in understanding how processes work and how it affects other issues. Without the notion of a truly global economy many of the other consequences such as culture and politics would either cease to be sustained or become less threatening. In our modern world, finance and economics is the driving force behind globalization, and globalization is serving capitalism well.

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