Globalization and Its Discontents - Literature review Example

Globalization and Its Discontents Name Institution Date Introduction According to Irani (2011), there has been much research into the impacts of globalization to those nations involved. These might be beneficial or harmful to the nations in many ways depending on the factor of reference. The author of this article describes globalization as the growth by which various nations become united both economically and in their societies. It is viewed in terms of free market, economic liberalization, westernization and internet revolution all of which can completely change the image of a country. A number of concepts have been applied to improve people’s understanding of globalization from the colonialism era to the current world. When different nations join and start operating as one, several changes in the economy and in the society are likely to be experienced. The debate about whether or not globalization should be encouraged is still revolving around various nations. Research Question Is globalization supposed to be encouraged between nations? Arguments to support globalization Different authors have documented arguments to support globalization which encourage national integration and corporation among nations. Abdelal and Meunier (2010) argue that globalization has allowed interaction between national doctrines, practice and promise. Citizens from varied countries easily exchange the difference in understanding of their doctrines, practices and promises through national integration. This acts as a factor for promoting international unity. According to Brinkman and Brinkman (2002), globalization has led to attainment of high levels of corporate power with many nations experiencing positive structural transformations over time. This follows the development of increased levels of unity across several countries since 1970 through to the period following the post Second World War era. Nations can therefore have a chance to enjoy corporate power and political dominance hence total national freedom is achieved. Globalization encourages the exchange of technological advancements between countries making it a precursor for technological advancements within and outside nations. Quality of life and environmental measures both of which constitute the macro marketing are both provide one area in which national collaborations and integrations have positively affected nations. The nature of the globalization process has instigated national freedom which is one of the major inputs of a business development process (Kilbourne, 2004). Similarly, Ocampo (2010) states that, nationalism and consolidation among countries should be done away with and globalization encouraged since it increases the level of national interdependence. The independent countries are regarded as sovereign meaning that they have the freedom to make their identifiable decisions. This improves the status of national security making various developments possible in those countries. National integration also encourages intercultural interactions which allows for sharing of ideas and opinions across cultures. This has been seen to maintain developments in the societies. Again, is through globalization that successful trade can occur between different countries due to market expansion. Lee and Vivarelli (2006) also accept that globalization also has social impacts on the developing countries. It increases trade which aids in wiping out poverty across nations as well as high degree of economic growth. Individuals are enjoying improvements in the country’s economy and they would opt for encouragement of globalization. There is also freedom in product distribution across nations. The Apple factory has made various apple items which have been distributed across nations worldwide with the influence of globalization. Anyone willing to get access to Apple products such as iPod and iPhones can obtain them from their nations unlike before. The Apple products can easily be distributed from Japan to other countries like China where demands for iPod and iPhones are very high. This form of distribution of products is made possible through globalization. Through globalization, social responsibility standards set by the Western countries have been achieved by the Chinese factories that are extending the market of iPhones as products of Apple Company (In class podcast). Stiglitz (2002) supports that the issue of globalization has led to several positive impacts to the business world due to the new business conditions brought by it such as free movement of goods, services and investments but not people across nations. This has led to improvements in international trade hence causing national economic developments across nations. It has increased knowledge and unity among the developing countries. It has also led to reduction in poverty and improvement of national stability. Intergovernmental institutions such as United Nations have been renewed and stabilized through globalization which has ensured that peace is maintained across member states. Globalization has contributed to political stability in the United States and Germany since its emergence. Due to globalization, Germany has defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War and the United States has been able to deal with the Civil War that taken over the nation for quite a long period of time. The political stability so maintained has led to economic improvements in both Germany and United States brought about as a result of globalization (Wallerstein, 2003). Counterarguments to support globalization Despite the various supports of globalization, some individuals and nations are still not for it and in a similar way different authors have documented their views as in the cases that support the issue. Globalization affects the distribution of resources both within the country and worldwide in the market (Goldberg and Pavcnik, 2006). This distribution process is never uniform in most developing countries which cause distributional conflicts among such countries. Globalization has not done much in helping the less skilled people who are presumed to be the locally plentiful factor in emerging states. In as much as national integration promotes international unity, the interactions between doctrines, practices and promises can negatively impact countries. This is by promoting racism and high levels of tribalism as individuals are able to learn much about the exact differences that different cultures and religions have (Abdelal and Meunier, 2010). Kilbourne (2004) points out that, the current global capitalism is an inadequate approach to development because of its focus on the relations between various economic markets. A close examination of the relationship regarding globalization and economic developments shows some negative economic, cultural, political as well as environmental impacts to nations. These cause instability in the development process making other countries more economically stable than others. This may also be attributed to imbalance in the global finance resulting into totally different economies. Lee and Vivarelli (2006) are also against the concept of integration among nations and want the concepts of nationalism and national isolation to be encouraged. In their opinion, globalization has adversely affected the nations involved by increasing employment concentration plus marginalization to urban areas. This creates total employment imbalance in relation to the urban population and the rural population of the same country. Nationalism will help to bring about this balance by ensuring that its citizens from the urban areas and those from rural parts have equal employment opportunities. They also associate globalization with income inequality between those individuals with businesses and those who are engaged in other petty activities in a country. The business people will experience more economic growth than those not carrying out any business activities. The issue of globalization however puts much pressure to citizens of the developing nations. The reason is, they are compelled to pay high taxes, consume the prohibited drugs and repay loans at high interest rates thus taking care of loans that are supposed to be repaid by citizens of developed countries. The western countries therefore benefit at the expense of the developing countries. In addition, there have been increased levels of environmental destruction, corruption of political processes and negative cultural changes as most third world countries are trying to adapt the western culture. In an attempt to interact with other nations of different ethnic backgrounds due to globalization, other nations have taken advantage of this. They have made the issue of ethnic differences to act as a means of getting rid of other nations leading to social dissolution (Stigltiz, 2002). Despite the increased levels of national unity that has been brought about by globalization, member countries have not been able to assist other nations to bring back national unity. For example, being the United States is a military super power, it has done very little to help maintain peace in the countries of the Middle East (Wallerstein, 2003). In class film 2007, the main characteristic of globalization in developed countries is increase in the number of industries. Industrialization is the development of more factories which increases the rate at which environmental destruction occurs in search of raw materials. The processing of these products also causes increased levels of environmental pollution from fumes generated from trucks and industries. During industrialization, there are high levels of extraction of raw materials, production and distribution of the finished products to the consumers, consumption of the processed products and disposal of wastes by industries and consumers. The whole process of extraction of raw materials has led to loss of vegetations and forests and water pollution. In addition, production exposes workers to harmful chemicals and toxic substances whose health outcomes cannot easily be treated. The distribution process exposes the atmosphere to high levels of harmful substances like lead from vehicles which have unsafe health consequences when inhaled by human beings. Increased levels of wastes are disposed in the environment from industries that come up as a result of globalization. All these act as health hazards to human beings such that some argue that these problems would not have occurred were it not for globalization (Khondker, 2004). Although globalization has some negative impacts, the positive impacts out-number the negative impacts. I therefore recommend that globalization should be encouraged. References Abdelal, R. & Meunier, S. 2010. Managed Globalization: Doctrine, Practice and Promise, Journal of European Public Policy 17(3), pp. 350-367. Brinkman, R. L. & Brinkman, J. E. 2002. Corporate Power and the Globalization Process, International Journal of Social Economics, 29(9), pp. 730-748. Goldberg, P. K. & Pavcnik N. 2006. Distributional Effects of Globalization in Developing Countries, Journal of Development Economics, 59: 125-15, pp. 2-67. In class film: 2007. “The Story of the Stuff,” San Francisco’s Tides Center). Runtime: 20 minutes. Available on-line: http://www.youtube.com/ In class podcast (factual or fictional?): “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory,” This American Life, runtime 41 minutes. Irani, F. N. 2011. Globalization and Challenges: What are the Globalization’s Contemporary Issues? International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1(6), pp. 216-217 Khondker, H. H. 2004. Glocalization as Globalization: Evolution of a Sociological Concept, Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology, 1(2), pp. 1-9. Kilbourne, W. E. 2004. Globalization and Development: An Expanded Macromarketing View, Journal of Macromarketing, 24(2), pp. 122- 134. Lee, E. and Vivarelli, M. 2006. The Social Impact of Globalization in the Developing Countries, International Journal of Sociology, pp. 2-18. Ocampo, J. A. 2010. Rethinking Global Economic a d Social Governance, Journal of Globalization and Development, Columbia University Press, pp. 1-24. Stiglitz, J. 2002. “The Promise of Global Institutions”, In Globalization and Its Discontents, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, pp. 3-22 (book on reserve at High Use Collection S 337/248 Wallerstein, I. M. 2003.The Decline of American Power: the U.S. in a Chaotic World, New York Press, Chapter One, pp. 13-27 Read More