Globalisation: The growing interdependence of countries worldwide through the increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions in goods and services and of international capital flows, and through the more rapid and widespread diffusion of capital (IB definition).
Internationalism: The extension of economic activities across national boundaries. This is often referred to as the stage before globalization.
Glocalisation: When TNCs adapt their products to suit the local market place e.g. McDonald in India won't sell beef and in the Middle East they won't sell pork because of the religious beliefs of locals (for more details go to: Defining glocalization).
Grobalisation: The imperialistic ambitions of nations, corporations and organisations to impose themselves on various geographic areas.
Global Village: The term global village was popularised by Marshall McLuhan in 1962. He used it to refer to how the world had been contracted into a village by electric technology.
Homogenisation: The process of everything become the same. Critics of globalisation say that globalisation is making the world more homogenised.
Cultural Diversity: The increased variety of different cultures from around the world e.g. different foods, music, film, etc.
Disneyfication, Mcdonaldisation, Toyotarisation: Various TNC names have been used to describe the process of globalisation and that particular company taking over a large share of the global market place.
Anti-capitalism: A broad term that is given to any challenge to capitalism.
Nationalism: Refers to an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation.
Dimensions/Components of Globalisation
Globalisation is a complex phenomenon with multiple components. Some of the most commonly talked about components are:
Economic: This is the component most commonly associated with globalisation. It includes the growth of TNCs, global products, trading blocs as well as increased flows of money.
Urban: It is argued that urbanisation is associated with globalisation because people living in cities are more exposed foreign languages, food, products, culture, etc. Because of urbanisation and globalisation, many global (world) cities have developed e.g. London, New York and Hong Kong.
Social/Cultural: Also commonly associated with globalisation is the rise of global culture. This might include the spread of food, clothes, film, music, religion, sports and music. Some people argue that this is making the world more cultural diverse, others that it is making the world more homogenised.
Linguistic: This is related to the emergence of global languages and the disappearance of local dialects. English has become an international language, but other languages have also become dominant in other parts of the world e.g. Spanish in South and Central America and Arabic in the Middle East and North Africa. Because of its population size Mandarin is also becoming increasingly important and widespread.
Political: Globalisation has seen the growth of political ideologies e.g. Capitalism and democracy. It has also seen the growth of dominant countries e.g. US (Superpower?) and increasingly China. It has also seen the growth of political blocs with common interests e.g. NATO, OECD, G20 and OPEC. Globalisation has probably also enabled the Arab Spring in the Middle East as well as the growth of less desirable organisations e.g. Al Qaeda.
Demographic: People are now also globalised, the world has a more footloose workforce and more people now go on overseas holidays. The number of inter-racial marriages has also increased.
Environmental: Probably the least desirable component of globalisation, but many environmental problems created by humans e.g. acid rain, the hole in the ozone layer, biodiversity loss and climate change are truly global issues.
Globalisation has been able to help because of improvements in transport and communications. The list goes in a rough chronological order:
Transport
Communications
Road and horse and cart
Ships
Trains
Cars
Motorways
Air travel
High speed trains
Budget airlines
Post
Newspapers
Radio
Telegram
Telephone
Television
Pagers
Internet and e-mail
Mobile phones
Messenger e.g. MSN
Video conferencing
Skype
Facebook and Twitter
Broadband and wireless (3G and 4G)
Measuring Globalisation
Many attempts have been made to measure how globalised or unglobalised locations are. You need to know about one of the following measures of globalisation:
AT Kearney Index: AT Kearney is a management consultancy firm based in Chicago that releases a globalisation index each year.
KOF Index: KOF are a leading Swiss economic think tank that also release a yearly globalisation index.
The KOF Index of Globalization measures the three main dimensions of globalization:
economic
social
and political.
In addition to three indices measuring these dimensions, we calculate an overall index of globalization and sub-indices referring to
Although the KOF index can give us an idea of overall globalisation, it has got some critics, particularly about the accuracy and relevancy of the data. Criticisms include:
Measures like international letters per capita are very dated. Most people now use e-mail because it is quicker and cheaper. Also trade in newspapers is slightly dated, more and more people now access there news via the internet. Again trade in books is also becoming dated as more people buy e-books or visit libraries and borrow.
Anything to do with trade can be hard to measure because many countries do not know the true size of their informal economy (black market). Many black markets are actually involved in globalised trade e.g. human trafficking, smuggling of wild animals and drugs.
Measuring foreign populations can be hard because of inaccurate record keeping and illegal immigrants. Countries like the US have millions of unaccounted immigrants.
It is hard to calculate the true number of internet users. Many people don't have a home computer but access the internet at their workplace or in internet cafes.
Some countries are small and don't have many embassies and instead rely on embassies and consulates in neighbouring countries e.g. Monaco will use embassies in France, other countries share embassies e.g. Commonwealth countries like New Zealand and Australia
Some countries choose to stay neutral and not join international organisations e.g. Switzerland - this does not mean they are any less globalised.
Some countries have a large number of domestic tourists, but not many international. In large countries domestic tourists can actually be very ethnically and culturally diverse, but this is not recognised.
There is also an argument whether it is good or bad to be at the top or bottom of the globalisation list. Some people may say it is good because there is cultural diversity and that you have access to people and products from around the world. Others may argue that this is a bad thing because your culture is being lost and that your country is possibly becoming more homogenised.
The KOF index is represented in a choropleth map. Choropleth maps are very visual and good at showing spatial differences between countries and regions. However, choropleth maps do disguise intra-country variations.
Index of Globalization - World
The AT Kearney globalisation Index is also sometimes shown as a divided bar graph, showing the relative globalisation of different components. The graph is good at looking at the different components of globalisation, but not as good at making global comparisons or looking for global trends.
Global Participation
Globalisation: The growing interdependence of countries worldwide through the increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions in goods and services and of international capital flows, and through the more rapid and widespread diffusion of capital (IB definition).
Internationalism: The extension of economic activities across national boundaries. This is often referred to as the stage before globalization.
Glocalisation: When TNCs adapt their products to suit the local market place e.g. McDonald in India won't sell beef and in the Middle East they won't sell pork because of the religious beliefs of locals (for more details go to: Defining glocalization).
Grobalisation: The imperialistic ambitions of nations, corporations and organisations to impose themselves on various geographic areas.
Global Village: The term global village was popularised by Marshall McLuhan in 1962. He used it to refer to how the world had been contracted into a village by electric technology.
Homogenisation: The process of everything become the same. Critics of globalisation say that globalisation is making the world more homogenised.
Cultural Diversity: The increased variety of different cultures from around the world e.g. different foods, music, film, etc.
Disneyfication, Mcdonaldisation, Toyotarisation: Various TNC names have been used to describe the process of globalisation and that particular company taking over a large share of the global market place.
Anti-capitalism: A broad term that is given to any challenge to capitalism.
Nationalism: Refers to an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation.
Dimensions/Components of Globalisation
Globalisation is a complex phenomenon with multiple components. Some of the most commonly talked about components are:
Economic: This is the component most commonly associated with globalisation. It includes the growth of TNCs, global products, trading blocs as well as increased flows of money.
Urban: It is argued that urbanisation is associated with globalisation because people living in cities are more exposed foreign languages, food, products, culture, etc. Because of urbanisation and globalisation, many global (world) cities have developed e.g. London, New York and Hong Kong.
Social/Cultural: Also commonly associated with globalisation is the rise of global culture. This might include the spread of food, clothes, film, music, religion, sports and music. Some people argue that this is making the world more cultural diverse, others that it is making the world more homogenised.
Linguistic: This is related to the emergence of global languages and the disappearance of local dialects. English has become an international language, but other languages have also become dominant in other parts of the world e.g. Spanish in South and Central America and Arabic in the Middle East and North Africa. Because of its population size Mandarin is also becoming increasingly important and widespread.
Political: Globalisation has seen the growth of political ideologies e.g. Capitalism and democracy. It has also seen the growth of dominant countries e.g. US (Superpower?) and increasingly China. It has also seen the growth of political blocs with common interests e.g. NATO, OECD, G20 and OPEC. Globalisation has probably also enabled the Arab Spring in the Middle East as well as the growth of less desirable organisations e.g. Al Qaeda.
Demographic: People are now also globalised, the world has a more footloose workforce and more people now go on overseas holidays. The number of inter-racial marriages has also increased.
Environmental: Probably the least desirable component of globalisation, but many environmental problems created by humans e.g. acid rain, the hole in the ozone layer, biodiversity loss and climate change are truly global issues.
Globalisation has been able to help because of improvements in transport and communications. The list goes in a rough chronological order:
Transport
Communications
Measuring Globalisation
Many attempts have been made to measure how globalised or unglobalised locations are. You need to know about one of the following measures of globalisation:
The KOF Index of Globalization measures the three main dimensions of globalization:
- economic
- social
- and political.
In addition to three indices measuring these dimensions, we calculate an overall index of globalization and sub-indices referring toAlthough the KOF index can give us an idea of overall globalisation, it has got some critics, particularly about the accuracy and relevancy of the data. Criticisms include:
There is also an argument whether it is good or bad to be at the top or bottom of the globalisation list. Some people may say it is good because there is cultural diversity and that you have access to people and products from around the world. Others may argue that this is a bad thing because your culture is being lost and that your country is possibly becoming more homogenised.
The KOF index is represented in a choropleth map. Choropleth maps are very visual and good at showing spatial differences between countries and regions. However, choropleth maps do disguise intra-country variations.
The above information comes from: http://globalization.kof.ethz.ch/