NOTES IN CONTEMPORARY WORLD GLOBALIZATION

Relevance of this course  primarily an economic process.

1. Studying the outside world is a 5 Characteristics of Globalization

cure to parochialism or an
1. The expansion and intensification
outlook that is limited to one’s
of social relations and
immediate community.
consciousness across world-time
2. It can teach you more about
and across world-space. –
yourself.
Manfred Steger
3. You will be interacting with it.
2. Globalization involves the
creation of new social networks
and the multiplication of existing
LESSON 1: WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION?
connections.
The story of Gio, Latif and the Laksa 3. Expansion, stretching and
acceleration of these networks.
 Gio – a second year international 4. Intensification and acceleration
affairs student in a University in of social exchanges and
Cebu City. activities.
 Latif – from a Muslim University in 5. Globalization processes do not
Kuala Lumpur occur merely at an objective,
 International Model UN material level but also involve the
competition in Sydney Australia – subjective plane of human
competition about international consciousness.
politics.
 Hawker centers – food park GLOBALISM
 Nasi lemak and laksa – best
 Is a widespread belief among
Malaysia cuisine
powerful people that the global
 Laksa – a rice noodle soup in
integration of economic markets
spicy coconut curry sauce.
is beneficial for everyone.
 Flat whites – an expresso drink
similar to latte. GLOBALITY
 Still connected to other through
 is a social condition
Facebook and Instagram.
characterized by globalization,
 Gio moved to Singapore as an
political, cultural, environmental
OFW.
interconnectedness, borderless
 Orchard Road – Singapore’s main
irrelevant.
commercial road.
 Manifestation – value of
TWO PREMISES: individualism and competition.
 Existence of economic system of
1. Globalization is a complex
private property.
phenomenon that occurs at
 Communal and Cooperative –
multiple levels.
social relations which is less
2. It is uneven process that affects
capitalistic.
people differently.
Hyperglobalists International Trading Systems

 Pro-globalist  SILK ROAD

 Oldest known international
Nationalist and Activist
trade route
 Anti-globalist  A network of pathways
that spanned China to
Kinds of globalization according to Middle East and Europe.
Arjun Apparudai  Traders used the Silk Road
1. Ethnoscape – global movement regularly from 130 BCE
of people when the Chinese
2. Mediascape – flow of culture  Han Dynasty open trade
3. Technoscape – circulation of to the West until 1453 BCE
mechanical goods and software when the Ottoman Empire
4. Financescape – global closed it.
circulation of money  Silk Road was
5. Ideoscape – political ideas move international, it was not
around truly “global” because it
had no ocean routes.
LESSON 2: THE GLOBALIZATION OF  According to historians DENNIS O.
WORLD ECONOMIC FYLNN and ARTURO GIRALDEZ
Economic Globalization “the age of globalization began
when all important populated
 The International Monetary Fund continents began to exchange
(IMF) defines it as a historical products continuously both with
process representing the result of each other directly and indirectly
human innovation and via other continents and in value
technological process. sufficient to generate crucial
 According to IMF, the value of impacts on all trading partners”
trade (goods and services) as a  1571 – establishment of the
percentage of world GDP galleon trade that connected
increased from 42.1 percent in Manila in the PH and Acapulco in
1980 and 62.1 percent in 2007. Mexico.
 Increased trade means that  Mercantilism Era
investments are moving all over  Countries primarily in
the world at faster speeds. Europe, competed with
 According to the United Nations one another to sell more
Conference on Trade goods as means to boost
Development (UNCTAD), the their country’s income
amount of foreign direct (called monetary reserves)
investments flowing across the  To defend their products
world was US$ 57 billion in 1982. from competitors who sold
By 2015, that number was $1.76 goods more cheaply,
billion. imposed high tariffs,
 forbade colonies to trade
with other nations.
The Bretton Woods System
 A system of global trade
with multiple restrictions  After the two world wars, world
 GOLD STANDARD leaders sought to create a global
 A more open trade system economic system that would
that emerged in 1867 ensure a longer-lasting global
 Its goal was to create a peace.
common system that  Was inaugurated in 1944 to
would allow more efficient prevent the catastrophes of the
trade. early decades of the century
 Established a common from reoccurring and affecting
basis for currency prices international ties.
and a fixed exchange rate  It was largely influenced by the
system – all based on the ideas of British economist John
value of gold Maynard Keynes who believed
 During WW1, when that economic crises occur not
ocountries depleted their when a country does not have
gold reserves to fun their enough money, but when money
armies, many were forced is not being spent and not
to abandon the gold moving.
standard.  Oil Embargo – affected the
 Great Depression – caused Western economies that were
by the gold standard and reliant on oil.
was the worst and longest  The stock markets crashed in
recession ever 1973-1974 after US stopped
experienced by the linking the dollar to gold,
Western World. effectively ending the Bretton
 Economic historian Barry Woods System.
Eichengreen argues that  Stagflation – a phenomenon in
the recovery of the US which a decline in economic
really began when having growth and employment
abandoned the gold (stagnation) takes place along
standard. side a sharp increase in prices
 At the height of WW2, (inflation)
other major industrialized  Economists such as Friedrich
countries followed suit. Hayek and Milton Friedmen
 Fiat currencies – argued that government
currencies whose value is intervention in economies distort
determined by their cost the proper functioning of the
relative to other market.
currencies.  Neoliberalism – a new form of
economic thinking and became
the codified strategy of US
 treasury department world bank Neoliberalism and Its Discontents
and IMF.
 The high point of Global
 World Trade Organization (WTO) –
Keynesianism came in the mid-
a new organization founded in
1940’s to the early 1970’s.
1995 to continue the tariff
Governments poured money into
reduction under the GATT.
their economies, allowing people
 Washington Consensus –
to purchase more goods and
dominated global economic
increase demand for these
policies, it advocates pushed for
products. As demand increased,
minimal government spending to
so did the prices of these goods.
reduce government debt.
 The theory went that, as prices
 US Pres. Ronald Reagan and
increased, companies would
British Prime Minister Margaret
earn more, and would have
Thatcher – justified their reduction
more money to hire workers.
in government spending by
 Keynesian Economists believed
comparing national economies
that all tis was a necessary trade-
to households.
off for economic development.
 Global Keynesianism – a system
 In early 1970s, the prices of oil
of the active role of governments
rose sharply as a result of the
in managing spending served as
Organization of Arab Petroleum
the anchor.
Exporting Countries (OAPEC)
 TWO FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
imposition of an embargo in
 International Bank for
response of the decision of US
Reconstruction and
and other countries to resupply
Development (IBRD or
the Israel military.
world bank) – too be
responsible for funding
postwar reconstruction
projects.
 International Monetary
Fund (IMF) – which was to
be the global lender of last
resort to prevent individual
countries from spiraling
into credit crises.
 After Bretton Woods, various
countries also committed
themselves to further global
economic integration through
the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT) in 1947. Its main
purpose was to reduce tariffs and
other hindrances to free trade.