Globalization: Dimensions and Origins

Contextualising Globalisation, Culture and Lifestyle

Lecture 1
Globalization
 “the vague concept that is the buzzword of our
time” (Steger, 2003, p1)
 “an awful and ugly word, bound up in complex
processes and aspects of social change but also
theoretical trends and fashions” (Miles,
2001:143)
 But: “the primal force in social change” (Miles,
2001:144)
 So 3 questions…
 What is globalisation?
 Where did it come from?
 Why is it important for study?
Globalization: Origins
 Key factors leading  Locating globalisation
to ‘globalisation’
 Steady advance of travel
technologies
 Expansion of global
trade, international
relations and economic
migration
 Invention of ‘time’
 Steady advance of
communication
technology
 Capitalism’s drive for
profit
 ‘processes unfolding for
millennia’ (Steger,
2003:18)
 Spread of Christianity
(Held, 2000)
 Industrial revolution and
British colonialism
(Giddens, 1990)
 Post-industrial
revolution
Understanding Globalization
• “What really distinguishes globalisation from what has gone
before is the truly global impact of communication and
transport which have increased the speed and volume of
images, symbols, people and goods. No state is
disconnected.” (Held et al, 1999)
• “the intensification of worldwide social relations which link
distant localities in such a way that local happenings are
shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa”
(Giddens, 1991)
• “The compression of the world and the intensification of
consciousness of the world as a whole” (Robertson, 1992)
 ‘borderlessness’ (Urry, 1990)
 Globalization: Dimensions
 Steger (2003) – 4 dimensions of globalisation
 Political: growth of cross-national political organisations
and the increasing interrelatedness of nation states
 Economic: growth of multi-national organisation and
corporations, growth of interdependent economic
policy
 Ideological: neo-liberalism dominance(?), triumph of
markets over governments, West versus Islam,
hegemony
 Cultural: intensification and expansion of cultural flows
across the globe, the symbolic construction,
articulation and dissemination of meaning,
homogenisation versus hybridization
Globalization: Significance
 Growth of a global ‘politic’ around culture,
sport, health, events and tourism
 Issues of identity in a global community
 Changes in professional practice and
organisational operations in a global
marketplace and global factory

 Globalisation impacts of the Cultural

Industries at levels of production,
consumption and regulation.