Globalization Globalization is the increasing interconnectedness of people

Globalization

Globalization is the increasing interconnectedness of people and places as a result of advances in transport, communication, and information technologies that cause political, economic, and cultural convergence.

Trade • The tremendous growth of international trade over the past several decades has been both a primary cause and effect of globalization. • The volume of world trade since 1950 has increased from $320 billion to $6. 8 trillion. This increase in the trade of manufactured goods exceeds the increase in the rate of the production of these goods by three times. As a result, consumers around the world now enjoy a broader selection of products than ever before. • Although increased international trade has spurred tremendous economic growth across the globe —raising incomes, creating jobs, reducing prices, and increasing workers’ earning power — trade can also bring about certain kinds of economic, political, and social disruption.

Technology • Information Technology (IT) is a driving factor in the process of globalization. • Improvements in the early 1990 s in computer hardware, software, and telecommunications have caused widespread improvements in access to information and economic potential. These advances have facilitated efficiency gains in all sectors of the economy. • IT provides the communication network that facilitates the expansion of products, ideas, and resources among nations and among people regardless of geographic location. Creating efficient and effective channels to exchange information, IT has been the catalyst for global integration.

Globalization vs. Local Cultures • The globalization of the production and distribution of goods and services is a welcome development for many people in that it offers them access to products that they would not otherwise have. • However, some are concerned that the changes brought about by globalization threaten the viability of locally made products and the people who produce them. For example, the new availability of foreign foods in a market—often at cheaper prices—can displace local farmers who have traditionally earned a living by working their small plots of family-owned land selling their goods locally. • Globalization, of course, does more than simply increase the availability of foreign-made consumer products and disrupt traditional producers. It is also increasing international trade in cultural products and services, such as movies, music, and publications. The expansion of trade in cultural products is increasing the exposure of all societies to foreign cultures. And the exposure to foreign cultural goods frequently brings about changes in local cultures, values, and traditions. Although there is no consensus on the consequences of globalization on national cultures, many people believe that a people's exposure to foreign culture can undermine their own cultural identity.

Cultural Impacts of Globalization 1. the development of a new culture of the globally connected professionals and especially business elites; 2. the proliferation of pop culture—which many critics complain is primarily American; and 3. the diffusion of beliefs and values about broader issues such as human rights and other social mores.

Pop Culture • Critics of globalization charge that the phenomenon, especially through pop culture, is perpetrating a kind of cultural genocide on the world—that the largest, most dominant cultures are becoming larger and more dominant at the expense of many others. In this view, globalization is in fact another word for Americanization. • However, others argue that globalization offers the potential to enrich the world culturally. To these people, the notion that the opportunities for cultural exchange brought about by globalization can help promote tolerance and diversity is very attractive. Their vision is the multi-cultural "global village, " where ideas and practices can be freely exchanged and appreciated.

Human Rights • Other observers have suggested that globalization leads to effects beyond simply raising awareness and sympathy for people and events in other nations. There is also a diffusion of values on issues such as human rights, democracy, and even on very specific concerns such as health matters. • The era of globalization is also the era of the individual. Revolutionary innovations in technology and telecommunications have empowered the individual, for better or worse, to exercise a previously unthinkable degree of self-expression. The same age that has seen the advent of the threat of global terror networks is also the one that has given birth to You. Tube.

The IMF & the World Bank • In July 1944, representatives of the U. S. , G. B. , France, Russia, and 40 other countries met at Bretton Woods, a resort in New Hampshire, to lay the foundation for the post-war international financial order. Such a new system, they hoped, would prevent another worldwide economic cataclysm like the Great Depression that had destabilized Europe and the U. S. in the 1930 s and had contributed to the rise of Fascism and the war. • Therefore, the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, as the Bretton Woods conference was officially called, created the International Monetary Fund (the IMF) and the World Bank to prevent economic crises and to rebuild economies shattered by the war. • The IMF would be aimed at stabilizing global financial markets and national currencies by providing the resources to establish secure monetary policy and exchange rate regimes, while the World Bank would rebuild Europe by facilitating investment in reconstruction and development. • Although intended to benefit the global economy and contribute to world peace, however, the World Bank and the IMF, collectively referred to as international financial institutions (IFIs), have become primary targets in the anti-globalization movement. In many countries, they are resented and are viewed as imposing Western-style capitalism on developing countries without regard to the social effects.

Controversy • Proponents of globalization argue that it allows poor countries and their citizens to develop economically and raise their standards of living, while opponents of globalization claim that the creation of a loose international free market has benefited multinational corporations in the Western world at the expense of local enterprises, local cultures, and common people.

Works Cited • http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Globalization • http: //www. globalization 101. org/index. html