UNIVERSIDAD DEL VALLE DE MEXICO
CAMPUS LOMAS VERDES
GLOBALIZATION
By: HEIDI GRETEL MEZA RUBACH
Covering a wide range of distinct political, economic, and cultural trends, the term “globalization” has quickly become one of the most fashionable words of contemporary political and academic debate.
In this case this debate will be focused on a single question, ¿does globalization exists?, as this term has such a background, in history with its beginning and nowadays with all of its consequences, finally we realize that it is a term that has only become commonplace in the last two decades, as a way of calling an ensemble of trends, which, indeed are understood in so many different ways, mainly related to the standard of living.
In popular discourse, globalization often functions as little more than a synonym for one or more of the following phenomena: the pursuit of classical liberal (or “free market”) policies in the world economy (“economic liberalization”), the growing dominance of western (or even American) forms of political, economic, and cultural life (“westernization” or “Americanization”), the proliferation of new information technologies (the “Internet Revolution”), as well as the notion that humanity stands at the threshold of realizing one single unified community in which major sources of social conflict have vanished (“global integration”).
Fortunately, recent social theory has formulated a more precise concept of globalization than those typically offered by pundits. Although sharp differences continue to separate participants in the ongoing debate, most contemporary social theorists endorse the view that globalization refers to fundamental changes in the spatial and temporal contours of social existence, according to which the significance of space or territory undergoes shifts in the face of a no less dramatic acceleration in the temporal structure of crucial forms of human activity. The human experience of space is intimately connected to the temporal structure of those activities by means of which we experience space. Changes in the temporality of human activity inevitably generate altered experiences of space or territory.
First, contemporary analysts associate globalization with deterritorialization, according to which a growing variety of social activities takes place irrespective of the geographical location of participants. As Jan Aart Scholte observes, “global events can -- via telecommunication, digital computers, audiovisual media, rocketry and the like -- occur almost simultaneously anywhere and everywhere in the world” (Scholte, 1996: 45). Territory in the sense of a traditional sense of a geographically identifiable location no longer constitutes the whole of “social space” in which human activity takes place.
An example on which I can locate this, is the variety of the language and how it is used by people in different parts of the world, like the Eskimos who have an extend vocabulary in order to describe the snow, they have much more than 15 words for it, which are an essential part of their lives for being part of their environment and in order to survive. In Mexico for example as many people doesn’t even know the snow, we have as much as three words to describe it. The point is that people need a way of describing the world that surrounds them with all of its phenomena and as a part of its culture, but culture is something subjective, as shown in the example. But as the entire globe is immerse in the same flow of events it has to generate a common way of referring to it in order to explain, “understand” and call it. So, the easiest way of doing it is to designate one single word, that carries the weight of all the implicated factors in it. It could have been any other word, in fact there are certainly many other ways to call it (like the ones listed above), but I think this was the less “offensive” (for the smaller countries) or perhaps the most convenient one (for the countries who do manage the truly concept of it).
In the initial sense of the term, globalization refers to the spread of new forms of non-territorial social activity. The more decisive facet of globalization concerns the manner in which distant events and forces impact on local and regional endeavors.
CAMPUS LOMAS VERDES
GLOBALIZATION
By: HEIDI GRETEL MEZA RUBACH
Covering a wide range of distinct political, economic, and cultural trends, the term “globalization” has quickly become one of the most fashionable words of contemporary political and academic debate.
In this case this debate will be focused on a single question, ¿does globalization exists?, as this term has such a background, in history with its beginning and nowadays with all of its consequences, finally we realize that it is a term that has only become commonplace in the last two decades, as a way of calling an ensemble of trends, which, indeed are understood in so many different ways, mainly related to the standard of living.
In popular discourse, globalization often functions as little more than a synonym for one or more of the following phenomena: the pursuit of classical liberal (or “free market”) policies in the world economy (“economic liberalization”), the growing dominance of western (or even American) forms of political, economic, and cultural life (“westernization” or “Americanization”), the proliferation of new information technologies (the “Internet Revolution”), as well as the notion that humanity stands at the threshold of realizing one single unified community in which major sources of social conflict have vanished (“global integration”).
Fortunately, recent social theory has formulated a more precise concept of globalization than those typically offered by pundits. Although sharp differences continue to separate participants in the ongoing debate, most contemporary social theorists endorse the view that globalization refers to fundamental changes in the spatial and temporal contours of social existence, according to which the significance of space or territory undergoes shifts in the face of a no less dramatic acceleration in the temporal structure of crucial forms of human activity. The human experience of space is intimately connected to the temporal structure of those activities by means of which we experience space. Changes in the temporality of human activity inevitably generate altered experiences of space or territory.
First, contemporary analysts associate globalization with deterritorialization, according to which a growing variety of social activities takes place irrespective of the geographical location of participants. As Jan Aart Scholte observes, “global events can -- via telecommunication, digital computers, audiovisual media, rocketry and the like -- occur almost simultaneously anywhere and everywhere in the world” (Scholte, 1996: 45). Territory in the sense of a traditional sense of a geographically identifiable location no longer constitutes the whole of “social space” in which human activity takes place.
An example on which I can locate this, is the variety of the language and how it is used by people in different parts of the world, like the Eskimos who have an extend vocabulary in order to describe the snow, they have much more than 15 words for it, which are an essential part of their lives for being part of their environment and in order to survive. In Mexico for example as many people doesn’t even know the snow, we have as much as three words to describe it. The point is that people need a way of describing the world that surrounds them with all of its phenomena and as a part of its culture, but culture is something subjective, as shown in the example. But as the entire globe is immerse in the same flow of events it has to generate a common way of referring to it in order to explain, “understand” and call it. So, the easiest way of doing it is to designate one single word, that carries the weight of all the implicated factors in it. It could have been any other word, in fact there are certainly many other ways to call it (like the ones listed above), but I think this was the less “offensive” (for the smaller countries) or perhaps the most convenient one (for the countries who do manage the truly concept of it).
In the initial sense of the term, globalization refers to the spread of new forms of non-territorial social activity. The more decisive facet of globalization concerns the manner in which distant events and forces impact on local and regional endeavors.
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