What is Globalization?_Bongnyoung Heo

1. Summary






Globalization is a very general and specific concept also. It is common because we have to cover as many world views as there are in the world, and it is specific because we are interested in the characteristic features of what is called globalization.






What is globalization? It is very difficult to answer the question in an abstract way, On the other hand, there are a number of specific examples including global governance, global citizenship, human rights, migration and refugees. There have been numerous attempts to create a clear and systematic methods to closely analyze the overall commonalities and differences of globalization that can be answered in this particular way, but in the end they have to admit that globalization is essentially a controversial concept. (However, it is rather unnecessary to claim uniqueness, given the similarity of conclusions among many scholars who have defined globalization personally.)



Still, attempts to define globalization in a manipulative manner followed much debate, which resulted from global differences of view. The difference in many worldviews derived from the gap between the rich and poor, social position and national power is not an insurmountable nature For this reason, many scholars refer to globalization as a plural rather than a single globalization process.


Indeed, the term globalization has spread worldwide since 1989 when communism collapsed. From this point on, the concept of globalization begins to be represented by the unidimensional concept of economics by the rise of capitalism. It becomes a symbol of what people think of as a 'nasty' aspect of globalization. However, when many sociological factors were ignored while concentrating on the capitalist concept of globalization, the anti-globalization movement took place in the 1990s, and the multidimensional approach of development developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and many studies on globalization were derived.






Against this backdrop of globalization theory, the idea was that the world was becoming a "single place." The unifying of the world, represented by "unicity," has had a lot of academic and political impact, including increasing questions about topics such as sovereignty and territory.


Many sociologists define the economy, politics and culture in three main dimensions of globalization. These three are very closely connected. McDonaldization, a concept created by Ritzer, allows transnational companies in the West to do business for economic gain but cultural adaptation is made to promote sales in each country. This kind of problem is expressed in the concept of glocalization. Sociologists also tend to underestimate the social dimension of globalization, and the spread of social interaction and communication represented by the Internet or mobile phones is also an important aspect of globalization.






Problems related to the form of globalization were raised by Immanuel Wallerstein. He raised early clues to an important study of the global capitalist system, a system that unifies the modern world. There also appears totalitarian ideas such as imperialism and fascism on the issue of unifying the world. These ideas may be regarded as one-of-a-kind, but they have become an important issue as attempts have taken place to recognize a protoglobalization by combining imperial movements with modern society.
The author also explains that the concept of a nation-state that has constituted a human society for centuries is not in decline and it is also part of globalization. Rather, the reason for globalization emerged to exist as a nation-state, and it also served to establish the identity of migrants on the issue of multicultural society and refugees, a problem derived from globalization.


Next, including the selves in the framework of globalization cannot be excluded from the scope of globalization either. Individualism taking place around the world isolates individuals and gradually increases responsibility for their actions. This phenomenon, in which society relies on individual efforts, is very dangerous because it can turn into a manipulation of an individual's identity.






2. What was interesting?/What did you learn?






What is globalization? It looks like a simple question, but it was never simple. In the article, the author does not define what globalization is. This is because it is essentially a very controversial concept and it is not easy to generalize. Everything in this article was new and interesting because I usually had only fragmentary knowledge of globalization. Reading the theories of scholars such as Velho, Ritzer, and Wallerstein was a totally new experience for me. I also learned about so many interesting subjects such as the global spread of globalization following the collapse of East Germany, the terrorist attacks of the Middle East against the West represented by the United States and resource competition hidden within it, religious war, and 4 dimensions of globalization, the relationship between Global and local and Glocalization.






3. Discussion Point:






the inclusion of selves within the general frame of global change has been motored by the conviction that it is not viable to exclude individuals – or, more generally, local life - was very interesting, but in the process of individualization resulting from such individual globalization, I realized that there was so much in sight in urbanized modern society that individuals were isolated and makes her or him more and more responsible for her/his action. How can we solve this ill of modern society where society relies on individual inputs and individuals who do not live up to expectations become losers? From a digitized modern society to an agrarian society again, it seems impossible and not efficient to return to a rural community. I think we need to discuss how to address the side effects of globalization.