Impact Of Globalization In South Africa

The Impact of Globalization

The term globalization refers to the movement throughout the world of information, financial capital, natural resources and trade goods (Haviland, Prins, Walrath, & McBride, 2012). Globalization has been accelerated by technological advances in transportation and communication. This process of globalization is more than just physically linking areas around the globe, it requires shared cultural understandings to overcome diverse economic, racial, political, and religious backgrounds (Brown, 1999). The process of globalization touches everyone’s life and can be both positive and negative. The examination of globalization in non-western cultures of China and South Africa provides insight to its potential impact.

From 1960 – 1990 South Africa’s people lived in what was essentially a battlefield during the Cold War (Brown, 1999). The people of South Africa were divided by racial and ethnic positions as well as religious affiliations. Africa’s economy was dominated by colonial powers whose only concern was with their own interest. Africa’s struggles with globalization are with economic and human development. This poor performance is in part due to social and political instability and with conflicts between the rights of individuals verses the interest of cultural groups. Racial segregation continuous to slow progress toward globalization with the division of people along ethnic and racial lines (Brown, 1999). On a positive note the globalization of South Africa has shown to improve human rights with the development of an African press. This has opened up the African government to the scrutiny of the world making it more difficult to abuse power (Jalloh,

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