Essay on "Globalizing Trends"

Essay 12 pages (3021 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

In this regard, Cruz (2008) points out that, "As a social phenomenon globalization has primarily been associated with the flexibility and extension of the forms of production, the rapid mobility of capital, information, and goods, the denationalizing of capital, the deterritorialisation of culture, the interpenetration of local communities by global media networks, and the dispersal of socioeconomic power" (p. 358).

According to Monnier (2009), there are three basic types of human exchanges that are amenable to the globalizing trend of deterritorialisation as follows:

1. Material exchanges refer to any interaction involving the transmission of material items, such as factory work, trade in goods, tenancy. Material exchanges tend to be localized in spaces. Raw materials -- agricultural goods, petroleum -- are extracted from specific locations. Factories are located where labor is available and cheap. Manufactured goods are transported to western markets for sale and consumption.

2. Power exchanges refer to the exercise of leadership through coercion or legislation, for instance. By definition, the exercise of power applies to territories but also to international relations, that is, relations between nation-states, such as war, diplomacy or alliances. Power exchanges therefore extend internationally across territories.

3. Symbolic exchanges refer to any form of communication, exchange of information or data. This includes the mass media, the entertainment industry, advertisement and propaganda, etc. Symbolic exchanges involve the transmission of signs and symbols. Because technology makes it possible to disseminate symbols rapidly and widely, symbolic exchanges can be easily detached from territories and therefore, globalized.

Deterritorialization has been one of the most influential of the globalizing trends in recent years, due in large part to the Internet and computer-based communications technologies that facilitate information-sharing among millions of people around the world, or between two people only. For example, Monnier reports that, "When one American exchanges instant messages with someone in another country, this instantaneous interaction erases distance and occurs as if these two individuals were in the same place, a virtual space" (2009, para. 2). When people see and talk to each other in real time using Skype, for instance, the distance between them is diminished or even eliminated for all intents and purposes. In this regard, Monnier adds that, "Time and space have therefore been compressed through the technological creation of a virtual space of interaction unaffected by distance" (2009, para. 2).

Communications at the speed of light mean that distance has faded as an important factor in the relationships between national cultures and the people that live in these nations. Humankind has been describing the world as "becoming smaller" ever since the first brave soul ventured beyond the next mountain range to see what was there, and the millennia that have passed since that time have introduced far more sophisticated ways for people from different places to communicate with each other in real time in virtual space where national borders are irrelevant. For instance, Monnier emphasizes that:

Thanks to information technology, anyone in the United States equipped with a computer and an internet connection can play the stock market in Tokyo, chat online with friends in Canada, upload or download all sorts of information and data from any place in the world from other individuals similarly equipped, as well as watch Al Jazeera (a television network from Qatar, in the Arabic peninsula) via satellite. Territories and borders have become irrelevant to such interactions that are therefore global in nature. (2009, para. 4)

Indeed, deterritorialisation is a common feature of many globalizing trends, defined as "a proliferation of translocalised cultural experiences" (Marti, 2004, p. 92). In other words, deterritorialisation implies a closeness in distance, a trend that has been especially affected by globalizing trends in the above-described innovations in telecommunications and transportation. This point is also made by Cruz (2008) who reports, "One can deduce from these trends that the shrinking of spaces is a distinguishing feature of globalization, especially given the fact that as a concept it has to do with both the compression of the world and the intensification of the consciousness of the world as a whole" (p. 359). In an era of social media networks where people from around the world gather together in communities of mutual interest, it is not surprising that distance as demarcated by national boundaries has become far less important, just as hybridization has changed the national culture of the United States as discussed below.

Hybridisation

This term carries some powerful negative connotations that mirror modern reactions to arguments in favor of race separation for fear of the mongrelization of a "pure race." Nevertheless, the actual meaning of the term provides a useful approach to analyzing the effects of globalizing trends on the national culture of the United States. For example, Bell and Bell (1998) note that, "In linguistic terms, hybridisation is creolisation, which, despite its sometimes negative connotations, is an equally productive metaphor. No cultural nationalist welcomes the label of creolisation, yet if the colonising centre is itself seen as a result of the same intermixing the insult might be softened" (p. 10). In sum, then, the same forces that have been driving globalization have exposed more people to far more languages and cultures than was ever possible in the past, and it is little wonder that foreign words and phrases wend their way into the national lexicon. This process may be viewed as harmful (just ask French-speaking Quebecers), but it is in reality a neutral outcome that can only be viewed as negative if it is judged, like changes in the "American way of life," as deviating from a superior former standard. As Bell and Bell conclude, "It should be obvious that the label [hybridisation] is only demeaning if one assumes what the process denies: that in cultures and languages there ever was a fixed, authentic centre or norm against which all derivative cultures should be judged" (1998, p. 10).

Transnationalisation

Like hybridization, transnationalism is typically cited a fundamental outcome of globalizing trends. For example, Duany (2011) reports that, "The cultural dimensions of globalization have been conceptualized as transnationalization, hybridization, Creolization" (p. 19). The process of transnationalization is defined by the United Nations as "the increased activity by international corporations and their expanding role in the world economy" (The process of transnatinalisation continues, 1998, p. 54). By contrast, Duany (2011) defines the globalizing trend of transnationalism as "the processes by which immigrants build social fields that link together their country of origin and their country of settlement," a process that includes "multiple relations -- familial, economic, social, organizational, religious, and political -- that span borders" (p. 19).

In this context, the globalizing trend of transnationalism has also rapidly accelerated the speed and volume of population movements between other countries and the United States over the past several decades (Duany, 2011). Although the United States has built a wall across the entire border it shares with Mexico to keep people out (to no avail), the border between the U.S. And Canada is the world's longest unprotected border. North Americans therefore have virtually total transnational capabilities, and Americans enjoy the privilege of unrestricted travel in Mexico for short periods of time. The party stops there, though, and this globalizing trend has been interrupted to a significant extent by the aforementioned U.S. Patriot Act and the other sometimes-draconian security measures that have been taken in response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, but the importance of the physical presence of an individual in one country has been diminished, as noted above, by virtue of the other globalizing trends, most especially deterritorialisation.

Conclusion

The world is becoming a smaller place, and the importance of national borders for the citizens of countries that enjoy unrestricted access to the Internet and freedom of speech has diminished or evaporated entirely. The research showed that globalization has a number of different meanings, but there are some common features that can be evaluated by examining the globalizing trends of homogenization, deterritorialisation, hybridisation and transnationalisation and how they affect the culture of a nation. The research also showed that in an already highly multicultural society such as the United States, these globalizing trends have facilitated communications and information sharing in ways that have allowed people to more easily gather together in physical and virtual spaces. Given that these outcomes have already been realized to some degree or other, it is reasonable to conclude that the national culture of the United States has been highly influenced by these and other globalizing trends.

References

Bell, P. & Bell, R. (1998). Americanization and Australia. Sydney: University of New South

Wales Press.

Ciomos, V. (2010, Spring). The deterritorialization of human rights. Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 9(25), 17-21.

Duany, J. (2011). Blurred borders: Transnational migration between the Hispanic Caribbean

and the United States. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

Farazmand, A. (2002). Globalization and public administration. Public Administration Review,

59(6), 509-521.

Giardina, M.D. & Metz, J.L. (2003, June-July). Olympic marketing and the homogenization of multiculturalism. International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship, 3(2), 203-… READ MORE

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