THE CONTEMPORARY

WORLD
GEd 104
CONTEMPORARY
 CONTEMPORARY
/kənˈtempəˌrerē/

adjective adjective

1. living or occurring at
2. belonging to or

the same time. occurring in the present.

 THE CONTEMPORARY

WORLD
designed to introduce students to varied concepts and

perspectives of globalization

its effects to different social units and different

challenges posed by it.

 UNIT 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

SEVEN (7) UNITS UNIT 2 - THE STRUCTURES OF GLOBALIZATION

WITH VARIOUS
UNIT 3 - THE WORLD OF REGIONS
SUBTOPICS

UNIT 4 - THE WORLD OF IDEAS

UNIT 5 - GLOBAL POPULATION AND MOBILITY

UNIT 6 - TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE WORLD

UNIT 7 - GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

AT THE END OF THE COURSE THE

STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO:

A. Competencies

1. Distinguish different interpretations of and approaches to globalization;

2. Describe the emergence of global economic, political, social,
and cultural systems;
3. Analyze the various contemporary drivers of globalization;
4. Understand the issues confronting the nation-state; and
5. Assess the effects of globalization on different social units and their responses.
AT THE END OF THE COURSE THE

STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO:

B. Skills

1. Analyze contemporary news events in the context of globalization;

2. Analyze global issues in relation to Filipinos and the Philippines; and
3. Write a research paper with proper citations on a topic related to globalization.

C. Values

1. Articulate personal positions on various global issues; and

2. Identify the ethical implications of global citizenship
UNIT 1 Unit I deals with the introduction to

globalization where students will be able to

present their own personal concepts of

globalization; and be able to identify different

underlying philosophies out of these notions

 Unit 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

Globalization Concepts, Meanings, Features, and

Dimensions
-process in which people, ideas and goods spread throughout the world,

spurring more interaction and integration between the world's cultures,

governments and economies

-a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies,

and governments of different nations, a process driven by international

trade and investment and aided by information technology
 Unit 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

Years since the Second World War, and especially during the

past two decades:

governments have adopted free-market economic systems

Governments have negotiated dramatic reductions in barriers

to commerce and established international agreements to

promote trade in goods, services, and investment

corporations have built foreign factories and established

production and marketing arrangements with foreign partners

international industrial & financial business structure = a defining feature of globalization

 Unit 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

Effects?

on environment,
on culture,
on political systems,
on economic development and prosperity,
and on human physical well-being in societies around the world

Globalization is about growing worldwide connectivity.

 Unit 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

Example:

People are engaged in buying and selling from other places

in far-away lands like the famed Silk Road across Central Asia
that connected China and Europe during the Middle Age for
thousands of years and they also invested in enterprises in other
countries for centuries.
 Unit 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

Before outbreak of First World War 1914 and CURRENT WAVE

SIMILIARITIES: an increase cross border- trade, investment, and

migration due to policy and technical developments

DIFFERENCE(S): Today’s globalization is farther, faster, cheaper,

and deeper

Example:
Since 1950, the volume of world trade has increased by 20 times
and from 1997 to 1999, flows of foreign investment nearly doubled
from $468 billion to $827 domestically.
 TECHNOLOGY
a principal driver of globalization
transform economic life

information technologies provide all sorts of economic factors

(consumers, investors, businesses, analyses of economic trends,

easy transfers of assets, collaboration with far-flung partners, etc.)

Globalization is the process of integration of economies across the

world throughcross-border flow of factors product and information
 Unit 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

Globalization Concepts, Meanings, Features, and

Dimensions
-process in which people, ideas and goods spread throughout the world,

spurring more interaction and integration between the world's cultures,

governments and economies

-a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies,

and governments of different nations, a process driven by international

trade and investment and aided by information technology
 Unit 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

Globalization Concepts, Meanings, Features, and

Dimensions

Globalization is the process of integration of economies across the world

throughcross-border flow of factors product and information

Globalization is the growing economic interdependence of

countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of cross border

transactions in goods and services and of international capital flows and

also through the more rapid and wide diffusion of technology - IMF
 Unit 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

Globalization Concepts, Meanings, Features, and

Dimensions

Globalization is an expansion, and intensification of social relations and

consciousness across world time and world space. It is about growing

worldwide connectivity according to Steger.

FOUR CHARACTERISTICS

OF GLOBALIZATION
 1. It involves both the creation of new social networks

and the multiplication of existing connections that cut

across traditional, political, economic, cultural, and

geographical boundaries.

EXAMPLE:

Brazilian World Cup: Today’s media combine conventional TV coverage

with multiple streaming feeds into digital devices and networking sites that

transcend nationally based services.

 2. Globalization is reflected in the expansion and
the stretching of social relations, activities, and

connections.
EXAMPLE:

 Reaching of financial markets around the globe

 Occurrence of electronic around the clock
Emergence of gigantic and virtually identical shopping malls in all

continents to cater to consumers who can afford commodities all over

the world-including products whose various components were

manufactured in different countries -- social stretching.

 What are involved in SOCIAL STRETCHING?

Non-governmental organization
Commercial enterprises
Social clubs
Regional & global institutions and associations (UN, EU, ASEAN, and

others)
 3. Globalization involves the intensification and

acceleration of social exchanges

and activities.

EXAMPLE:

The worldwide web relays distant information in real time

Satellites provide consumers with instant pictures of remote events
Sophisticated social networking by means of Facebook or Twitter has

become routine activity for more than a billion people around the
globe.
4. Globalization processes do not occur merely or an
objective, material level but they also involve the
subjective plane of human consciousness.

Globalization involves both the macro-structures of a

global community and the micro-structures of global
personhood.
It extends deep into the core of the self and its
dispositions, facilitating the creation of multiple individual
and collective identities nurtured by the intensifying
relations between the personal and the global. They differ
from each other by acceleration in the speed of social
exchanges and widening of geographical scopes
HISTORICAL PERIODS OF

GLOBALIZATION
 1. The Prehistoric Period
(10000 BCE-3500 BCE)

-earliest phase of globalization

-contacts among hunters and gatherers around the world

were geographically limited

-due to absence of advanced forms of technology,

globalization was severely limited

 2. The Pre-modern Period
(3500 BCE- 1500 CE)

-invention of writing and the wheel were great social and

technological boosts
 3. The Early Modern Period
(1500-1750)

-period between the Enlightenment and the Renaissance

(In this period, European Enlightenment project tried to
achieve a universal form of morality and law. This with the
emergence of European metropolitan centers and
unlimited material accumulation which led to the capitalist
world system helped to strengthen globalization.
https://byjus.com/
 4. The Modern Period
(1750-1970)

-Innovations in transportation and communication

technology, population explosion, and increase in
migration led to more cultural exchanges and
transformation in traditional social patterns. Process of
industrialization also accelerated.
DIMENSIONS OF

GLOBALIZATION

ECONOMIC RELIGIOUS
POLITICAL IDEOLOGICAL
CULTURAL
 Dimensions of Globalization

1. Economic Dimension
-extensive development of economic relations across the
globe as a result of technology and the enormous flow of
capital that has stimulated trade in both sources and
goods
Major players in the current century’s global economic
order
Huge international corporations
(General Motors, Walmart, Mitsubishi)
International Economic Institutions
(IMF, World Bank, The World Trade Organization)
Trading Systems
 Major Sources of Economic Growth across Countries

1. Property rights
2. Regulatory institutions
3. Institutions for macro-economics
4. Stabilization
5. Institutions for social influence
6. Institutions for conflict management

Economic institutions have decisive influence on investment in physical and human

capital, technology, and industrial productions. It is also important for resource

distribution.
 Dimensions of Globalization

2. Political Dimension
-an enlargement and strengthening of political
interrelations across the globe

Political Issues that Surface in this Dimension

1. The principle of state sovereignty
2. Increasing impact of various intergovernmental organization
3. Future shapes of regional and global governance
 The globalization rendered almost powerless any political
efforts to introduce restrictive policies affecting individual
states, with the results that the world in many ways turned into
a borderless world. Governments often seek to restrict the
migration of peoples, especially those coming from the poor
countries in the global South.

In the development of supra-national structures and associations

held together by common concerns and mutually agreed upon
norm, the most obvious is political globalization.
 Unit 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

Example:
Global cities like New York, London, Tokyo, and Singapore

are closely connected with one another than they are to

various cities in their own countries.

European Union, United nations, NATO, The World Trade

Organization
 Dimensions of Globalization

3. Cultural Dimension
-increase in the amount of cultural flows across the globe.
Cultural interconnections are at the foundations of
contemporary globalization

Individualism and consumerism which are the dominant cultural

characteristics of our age circulate much more easily than they
did in earlier periods.
Cultural diversity often results hybridization- a constructive
interaction process between global and local characteristics
which is often visible in food, music, dance, film, fashion, and
language. As a result there is a scarcely any society in the world
that expresses itself in its own self-contained and authentic
culture
Media empires generated and directed the extensive flow of
culture. Examples of these are Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and
Disney. Advertisement plays an important role in this cultural
flow by featuring various celebrities in the television aside from
transforming newscast into entertainment shows.
 Dimensions of Globalization

4. Religious Dimension
Religion - personal or institutionalized set of attitudes,
beliefs, and practices relating to or manifesting faithful
devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity

- most important defining element of any civilization as contrasted

with race, language, or way of life.
Jihadist globalism - religious response to the materialist
assault by the ungodly West in the rest of the world

-considered a pure form of Islam, its disciples seek to destroy

all those alien influences that have been imposed on Muslim
people.

It applies to those extremely violent strains of religion that

convert the global imaginary into very concrete political
agendas and terrorist tactics. It is also applied to those violent
fundamentalists in the West who seek to transform the world
into a Christian Empire
 Unit 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

Example:
 Bin Laden understands umma as a single community of

believers professing faith in the one and only God, but at the

same time committed to destroying not only alien invaders

but also corrupt Islamic elites in order to return power to the

Muslim masses.
 Since one third of the world’s Muslim population lives in

non-Islamic countries, the restoration of God’s proper reign

must be a global event. Hence, Al-Qaeda established jihadist

cells in various parts of the world.

 8 principles that
summarize the
ROMAN CATHOLIC TEACHING

OF GLOBALIZATION Roman Catholic

Teachings

1. Commitment to universal human rights

2. Commitment to the social nature of the human person
3. Commitment to the common good
 Unit 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

4. Solidarity (The principle of Solidarity affirms that membership

in the human family means that all bear responsibility for one
another.)
5. Preferential option of the poor (In the Theology of the
Incarnation- Christ God became poor for us so as to enrich us by
his poverty. The poor are susceptible to the effects of
environmental irresponsibility because they live in countries where
cheap building materials and cheap labor are readily available.
They regularly work in farming, fishing, and forestry, areas which
suffer environmental damage).
 Unit 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

6. Subsidiary (The Catholic Church teaches that decisions should

be made at the lowest level in order to achieve the common good.

7. Justice

8. Integral Humanism- is concerned with whole person

 Unit 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

Justice is divided in three (3) categories:

1. Commutative justice
This aims at fulfilling the terms of contracts and other promises on
both personal and social level.
2. Distributive justice
This ensures a basic equity in how both the burden and the goods
of society are distributed and that ensures that every person
enjoys a basically equal moral and legal standing apart from
differences in wealth, privilege, talent and achievements
 Unit 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

3. Social justice
This refers to the creation of the conditions in which the first
two categories of justice can be realized and the common
good identified and defended.

According to catholic teaching, a just society is

one which these forms of justice are assured

because they are required by human dignity.

 Dimensions of Globalization

5. Ideological Dimensions

Ideology - system of widely shared ideas, beliefs, norms

and values among a group of people

- often used to legitimize certain political interests or to

defend dominant power structures
 Dimensions of Globalization

Globalization is a social process of intensifying global

interdependence while...

Globalism is an ideology that gives the concept of

neo-liberal values and meanings to globalization.
 MAJOR IDEOLOGICAL CLAIMS OF

ADVOCATES OF GLOBALISM
1. Globalization is about the liberalization and
global integration of markets.
The problem with this claim is that liberalization and
integration of markets happen through political
project of engineering free markets by interference of
centralized state power, and it is in contrast to the
neoliberal ideal of limited role of governments.
 MAJOR IDEOLOGICAL CLAIMS OF

ADVOCATES OF GLOBALISM
2. Globalization is inevitable and irreversible.

Globalists believe that spread of market forces driven

by technological innovations is inevitable in
globalization. Neoliberals use this claim to convince
people to adopt the natural discipline of the market if
they want to prosper, which implies the elimination of
government controls over the market.
 MAJOR IDEOLOGICAL CLAIMS OF

ADVOCATES OF GLOBALISM

3. Nobody is in charge of globalization.

This claim seeks to depoliticize the public debate on

globalization and neutralizing anti -globalist
movements.
 MAJOR IDEOLOGICAL CLAIMS OF

ADVOCATES OF GLOBALISM

4. Globalization benefits everyone.

Globalists talk about the benefits of market liberalization such as
rising global living standards, economic efficiency, individual freedom,
and technological progress. But the reality is that the opportunities of
globalization are spread unequally and power and wealth are
concentrated among a specific group of people, regions and
corporations.
 MAJOR IDEOLOGICAL CLAIMS OF

ADVOCATES OF GLOBALISM

5. Globalization furthers
the spread of democracy in the world.
For the globalists democracy and free markets are synonymous.

The neoliberal explanation of globalization is ideological because it is

politically motivated and contributes to the construction of particular
meanings of globalization which stabilize existing power relations.
Globalism tries to create collective meaning and shape people’s
identities.
 References:
1. searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/globalization
2. http://www.globalization101.org/what-is-globalization/
3. Thomas Friedman. (2012). International Politics: Concepts, Theories, & Issues. Sage publications.
Edited by Rumki Basu
4. https://www.globalization101.org/what-is-globalization/
5. Cherunilam, Francis (2010). International Business: Text and Cases. 5th Edition.PHI Learning Private

END OF
Limited. New Delhi.
6. Cited by Charles Michell (2000). International Business Culture. World Trade Press. California
7. Steger. Manfred Globalization: A Very Short Introduction Published by OUP Oxford
8. Pereira, Carlos and Vladimir Teles (2011). Political Institutions, Economic Growth, and Democracy:
The Substitute Effect. https:// www. brookings. Edu/ opinions/ political- institutions –economicgrowth-
and- democracy- the – substitute- effect/. January 19
9. Rodrik, D. (2007). One Economics Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic

UNIT 1
Growth Princeton: Princeton University Press.
10. Book Review on Globalization: a very short introduction. Faculties of American Studies. http:// www.
American. Mcgill.ca/nast/; http:/ /www. American. Edu/sis /cnas.
11.(a,b,c,) Seazolts, Kevin R (2012). A Virtuous Church: Catholic Theology, Ethics, and Liturgy for the
21st Century
12. Samuel P. Huntington (1997). The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York:
Touchstone/Simon and Schuster
13. Johnston, Douglas M. Religion and Culture: Human Dimensions of Globalization. http:// indian
strategic knowledge online. com/ web/ C31 Johns. pdf
14. Seazolts, Kevin R (2012). A Virtuous Church: Catholic Theology, Ethics, and Liturgy for the 21st
Century
16. (a,b) Steger, Manfred. Globalization: A Very Short Introduction. Published by OUP Oxford