A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication
GLOBALIZATION THE ESSENTIALS GEORGE RITZER
Globalization
Globalization A Basic Text
George Ritzer
This balanced introduction draws on academic and popular sources to examine the major issues and events in the history of globalization.
Globalization: A Basic Text is a substantial introductory textbook, designed to work either on its own or alongside Readings in Globalization. The books are cross-referenced and are both structured around the core concepts of globalization.
2009 • 608 pages • 978-1-4051-3271-8 • paperback www.wiley.com/go/globalization
Readings in Globalization Key Readings and Major Debates
Edited by George Ritzer and Zeynep Atalay
This unique and engaging anthology introduces students to the major concepts of globalization within the context of the key debates and disputes.
Readings in Globalization illustrates that major debates in the fi eld are not only useful to examine for their own merit but can extend our knowledge of globalization. The volume explores both the political economy of globalization and the relationship of culture to globalization.
The volume is designed so it may be used independently, or alongside George Ritzer’s Globalization: A Basic Text for a complete student resource.
2010 • 560 pages • 978-1-4051-3273-2 • paperback
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A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication
GLOBALIZATION THE ESSENTIALS GEORGE RITZER
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ritzer, George. Globalization : the essentials / George Ritzer. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-470-65560-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-0-470-65561-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Globalization. I. Title. JZ1318.R5835 2011 303.48'2–dc22 2010042203
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CONTENTS
Preface xi
1 Globalization 1 Conceptualization, Origins, and History
Conceptualizing Globalization 3 From “Solids” to “Liquids” 3
“Flows” 7
“Heavy” and “Light” 8
“Heavy” Structures that Expedite “Flows” 10
“Heavy” Structures as Barriers to “Flows” 12
Subtler Structural Barriers 16
Origins and History of Globalization 17 Hardwired 17
Cycles 18
Epochs 18
Events 18
Broader, More Recent Changes 20
Chapter Summary 22
2 Theorizing Globalization 28
Imperialism 29 Colonialism 31 Development 32 Americanization 34
Anti-Americanism as a Global Process 36
Neo-Liberalism 37 Neo-Liberalism: Basic Ideas 40
The Neo-Liberal State 41
Critiquing Neo-Liberalism: Karl Polanyi 42
Contemporary Criticisms of Neo-Liberalism 44
Neo-Marxian Theories 45 Transnational Capitalism 45
Empire 47
Chapter Summary 49
3 Structuring the Global Economy 55
Before Bretton Woods 56 A Prior Epoch of Globalization 56
Contentsvi
Economic Development during and after WW II 57
Bretton Woods and the Bretton Woods System 58 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 60
World Trade Organization (WTO) 61
International Monetary Fund (IMF) 61
World Bank 64
The End of Bretton Woods 66 Changes in, and Critiques of, Bretton-Woods-Era Organizations 67 Other Important Economic Organizations 72 The Multinational Corporation (MNC) 72 The Myth of Economic Globalization? 75 Chapter Summary 76
4 Global Economic Flows 81
Trade 82 Trade Surpluses and Defi cits 82
Global Trade: Economic Chains and Networks 82
Global Value Chains: China and the US 84
Scrap metal 84
Waste paper 85
T-shirts 86
iPhones 87
Increasing Competition for Commodities 88 The Economic Impact of the Flow of Oil 89
Oil Wealth 90
Race to the Bottom and Upgrading 91 Upgrading in the Less Developed World? 92
Outsourcing 93 Financial Globalization 95
The Great Recession 95
Consumption 98 Consumer Objects and Services 100
Consumers 100
Consumption Processes 101
Consumption Sites 101
Global Resistance 101
Chapter Summary 102
5 Global Political Structures and Processes 106
On Political Flows 107 The Nation-State 108
Threats to the Nation-State 109
Global fl ows 109
viiContents
International human rights 110
“Shadows of war” 111
In Defense of the Nation-State 111 “Imagined Community” 112 Changes in Global Nation-State Relations 114 United Nations (UN) 117
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 118
United Nations Educational, Scientifi c, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) 118
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) 118
Global Governance 119 Civil Society 121
International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) 124
Chapter Summary 128
6 High-Tech Global Flows and Structures 133 Technology, Media, and the Internet
Technology 134 Medical Technologies 135
Space-Based Technologies 136
Leapfrogging 136
India’s “One Lakh Car” (or NANO) 138
Problematic Technological Flows 139
Media 139 Media Imperialism 139
“Media Were American” 140
New Global Media 141
Indymedia 142
Thinking about the Global Media 143
The Internet 145 Online Social Networking 146
Spam 147
Computer Viruses 147
The Internet in China 148
Chapter Summary 149
7 Global Culture and Cultural Flows 153
Cultural Differentialism 155 Civilizations 155
Cultural Hybridization 159 Muslim Girl Scouts 160
Appadurai’s “Landscapes” 161
Cultural Convergence 163
Contentsviii
Cultural Imperialism 163
Indian sari weavers 164
Deterritorialization 165
World Culture 165
McDonaldization 167
McDonaldization, expansionism, and globalization 169
Beyond fast food 170
The Globalization of Nothing 171
Cricket: local, glocal, or grobal? 173
Chapter Summary 174
8 Global Flows of Migrants 178
Migrants 179 Migration 180
Flows of Migrants to and from the US 183
Illegal Mexican migrants to the US 183
Migrants through Mexico and to the US 185
Increased law enforcement 185
Flow of Migrants Elsewhere in the World 187
Illegal immigrants in Europe 187
Great Britain 187
Switzerland 188
Greece 189
Illegal immigrants in Asia 190
The Case Against the Backlash to Illegal Immigration 191
Remittances 194
Diaspora 197
Chapter Summary 199
9 Global Environmental Flows 204
Differences Among Nation-States 207 Collapse 207 The Leading Environmental Problems 208
Destruction of Natural Habitats 208
Decline of Fish 208
Decline in Fresh Water 209
The paradox of bottled water 211
Toxic Chemicals 212
Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming 212
Rising seas 213
Global warming and health 214
Population Growth 215
The Global Flow of Dangerous Debris 215
ixContents
Global Responses 216 Sustainable Development 216
Dealing with Climate Change 218
Carbon Tax 219
Carbon Neutral 220
Alternate Fuels and Power Sources 220
Hybrid technology 220
Ethanol 221
Solar power 222
A Technological Fix? 222
Economic Issues 224
Opposing Environmentalism 224
Chapter Summary 225
10 Negative Global Flows and Processes 230 Dangerous Imports, Diseases, Crime, Terrorism, War
Dangerous Imports 232 Borderless Diseases 233
HIV/AIDS 234
Avian Flu 235
SARS 236
Ebola Virus 236
Tropical Diseases in Europe 237
Crime 237 Terrorism 242 War 247
Global Military Structures 249
Technology 249
Information War 250
Cyber-War 252
The Impact of Negative Global Flows on Individuals 253 Chapter Summary 254
11 Inequality 260
Global Inequality 261 “The Bottom Billion” 261
Migration 262
E-Waste and Inequality 263
Global Digital Divide 263
Race and Ethnicity and Gender 264 Race and Ethnicity 264
Gender 270
Gender and the economy 271
Contentsx
Global care chains 275
Traffi cking in the sex industry 276
Mail-order brides 277
Responding to and resisting global minority status: the case of women 277
Rural–Urban and Inequality 278 Rural 278
Urban 281
Cities: the main locus of global problems 283
Chapter Summary 284
12 Dealing with, Resisting, and the Future of, Globalization 291
Dealing with Globalization 292 Dealing with the Global Economy 292
Protectionism 293
Fair trade 295
Helping the “bottom billion” 298
Dealing with Political Globalization 299
Accountability 299
Transparency 299
Transparency International (TI) 300
Resisting Globalization 301 Local Resistance 304
A Social Movement? 305
More Formal Social Movements 306
World Social Forum and Cyberactivism 306
Is the Resistance to Globalization Signifi cant? 308
The Futures of Globalization 309 A “Mad Max” Scenario 311
Chapter Summary 312
Glossary 317 Index 322
PREFACE
Globalization: The Essentials is an abbreviated version of Globalization: A Basic Text (2010). While the latter is designed as a full - scale textbook for a course on global- ization, this volume is considerably shorter. It can still be used as a text in such a course, but its comparative brevity enables the instructor to assign other books, as well. In addition, it can be used as a supplementary book in a variety of other courses in sociology and the social sciences. As the title suggests, this volume retains the essential elements of the original text. Four chapters, the Appendix and various other portions of the text have been deleted from Globalization: A Basic Text to create this volume. That material is, of course, important, but hard decisions had to be made about what to cut and not to cut. It is my belief that this shorter text continues to deliver what is most important to a fundamental understanding of this most important process of our day and in the foreseeable future.
CHAPTER
1 Globalization Conceptualization, Origins, and History
Conceptualizing Globalization ■ From “ Solids ” to “ Liquids ” ■ “ Flows ” ■ “ Heavy ” and “ Light ” ■ “ Heavy ” Structures that Expedite “ Flows ” ■ “ Heavy ” Structures as Barriers to “ Flows ” ■ Subtler Structural Barriers
Origins and History of Globalization ■ Hardwired ■ Cycles ■ Epochs ■ Events ■ Broader, More Recent Changes
Chapter Summary
Globalization: The Essentials, by George Ritzer © 2011 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Globalization2
Globalization is increasingly omnipresent. We are living in a – or even the – “ global age ” (Albrow 1996 ). Globalization is clearly a very important change; it can even be argued (Bauman 2003 ) that it is the most important change in human history . This is refl ected in many domains, but particularly in social relationships and social structures, especially those that are widely dispersed geo- graphically. “ In the era of globalization … shared humanity face[s] the most fateful of the many fateful steps ” it has made in its long history (Bauman 2003 : 156, italics added).
The following is the defi nition of globalization to be used in this book (note that all of the italicized terms will be discussed in this chapter and will inform the remainder of this book):
globalization is a transplanetary process or set of processes involving increasing liquidity and the growing multi - directional fl ows of people, objects, places and information as well as the structures they encounter and create that are barriers to, or expe- dite , those fl ows …
In contrast to many other defi nitions of globalization, this one does not assume that greater integration is an inevitable component of globalization. That is, global- ization can bring with it greater integration (especially when things fl ow easily), but it can also serve to reduce the level of integration (when structures are erected that successfully block fl ows).
A term that is closely related to globalization is transnationalism (Morawska 2007 ), or “ proc- esses that interconnect individuals and social groups across specifi c geo - political borders ” (Giulianotti and Robertson 2007 : 62). A related concept is transnationality , or “ the rise of new communities and formation of new social iden- tities and relations that cannot be defi ned through the traditional reference point of nation - states ” (Robinson 2007 : 1199 – 201).
Globalization and transnationalism are often used interchangeably, but transna- tionalism is clearly a more delimited process than globalization. Transnationalism is limited to interconnections that cross geo - political borders, especially those asso- ciated with two, or more, nation - states. An example is Mexican immigrants in the US sending remittances home to family members in Mexico. Globalization includes such connections, but is not restricted to them and encompasses a far wider range of transplanetary processes (e.g. direct relationships between people in many places in the world networking via the Internet). Further, geo - political borders are only one of the barriers encountered, and often overcome, by globalization. Some phe- nomena, labor unions for example, are better thought of as transnational than as global. That is, the relationship between labor unions in, for example, the US and Sweden is more important than are moves toward a global labor movement.
Globalization : Transplanetary process(es) involving increasing liquidity and growing multi - directional fl ows as well as the structures they encounter and create.
Transnationalism : Processes that interconnect individuals and social groups across specifi c geo - political borders.
Transnationality : Rise of new communi- ties and formation of new social identities and relations that cannot be defi ned as nation - states.
3Globalization
Transnationalism is most often used in thinking about, and research on, immi- grants who move from one country to another, but who continue to be involved in various ways with the country from which they came (Portes 2001 ).
The case of baseball is useful in clarifying the distinction between globalization and transnationalism (Kelly 2007 : 79 – 93). Baseball is a transnational sport because many of its fundamentals – techniques, strategies, etc. – and players have circulated across the borders of a small number of nations, especially Japan, Taiwan, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and, of course, the US. However, it is not global because it has not fl owed on a transplanetary basis to a large portion of the world.
In contrast, soccer would be much more clearly a global sport because it exists in virtually every area of the world. For example, over 200 of the world ’ s nations are members of a global organization, the F é d é ration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Another example of globalization in the realm of sports is the summer (and winter) Olympics, sponsored by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in which about the same number of nations participate.
CONCEPTUALIZING GLOBALIZATION
In spite of the focus in this book on globalization, there are many scholars who do not accept the idea. Nevertheless, this book embraces, and operates from, a “ glo- balist ” perspective (Hirst and Thompson 1999 ) – globalization is a reality. Debates about globalization are one of the reasons that there is undoubtedly no topic today more diffi cult to get one ’ s head around, let alone to master, than globalization. However, of far greater importance is the sheer magnitude, diversity, and complex- ity of the process of globalization which involves almost everyone, everything, and every place, in innumerable ways. (The concept of globality refers to the condition [in this case omnipresence] resulting from the process of globalization [Scholte 2004 : 102 – 10].)
Before proceeding to the next section, a note is needed on the use of metaphors (Brown 1989 ), which will occupy a prominent place in the ensuing discussion. A metaphor involves the use of one term to help us better understand another term. Thus, in the next section, we will use the metaphor of a “ solid ” to describe epochs before the era of globalization. Similarly, the global world will be described as being “ liquid. ” The use of such metaphors is designed to give the reader a better and a more vivid sense of the global age and how it differs from prior epochs.
From “ Solids ” to “ Liquids ”
Prior to the current epoch of globalization (as we will see in the second part of this chapter, most observers believe that there was a previous epoch, if not many
Globality : Omnipresence of the process of globalization.
Metaphors : Use of one term to help us better understand another.
Globalization4
previous epochs, of globalization), it could be argued that one of the things that characterized people, things, information, places, and much else was their greater solidity . That is, all of them tended to be hard or to harden (metaphorically, fi gu- ratively, not literally, of course) over time and therefore, among other things, to remain largely in place. As a result, people either did not go anywhere or they did not venture very far from where they were born and raised; their social relationships
were restricted to those who were nearby. Much the same could be said of most objects (tools, food, and so on), which tended to be used where they were produced. The solidity of most ma- terial manifestations of information – stone
tablets, newspapers, magazines, books, and so on – also made them at least some- what diffi cult to move very far. Furthermore, since people didn ’ t move very far, neither did information. Places were not only quite solid and immoveable, but they tended to confront solid natural (mountains, rivers, oceans) and humanly con- structed (walls, gates) barriers that made it diffi cult for people and things to exit or to enter.
Above all, solidity describes a world in which barriers exist and are erected to prevent the free movement of all sorts of things. It was the nation - state that was most likely to create these “ solid ” barriers (for example, walls [e.g. the Great Wall of China; the wall between Israel and the West Bank], border gates and guards), and the state itself grew increasingly solid as it resisted change. For much of the twentieth century this was epitomized by the Soviet Union and its satellite states which sought to erect any number of barriers in order to keep all sorts of things out and in (especially a disaffected population). With the passage of time, the Soviet Union grew increasingly sclerotic. The best example of this solidity was the erection (beginning in 1961), and maintenance, of the Berlin Wall in order to keep East Berliners in and Western infl uences out. There was a more fl uid relationship between East and West Berlin prior to the erection of the Wall, but that fl uidity was seen in the East as being disadvantageous, even dangerous. Once the Wall was erected, relations between West and East Berlin were virtually frozen in place – they solidifi ed – and there was comparatively little movement of anything between them.
The Wall, together with East Germany and the Soviet Union, is long gone and with it many of the most extreme forms of solidity brought into existence by the Cold War. Nonetheless, solid structures remain – e.g. the nation - state and its border and customs controls – and there are ever - present calls for the creation of new, and new types of, solid structures. Thus, in many parts of Europe there are demands for more barriers to legal and illegal immigration. This has reached an extreme in the US with concern over illegal Mexican (and other Latin American) immigration leading to the erection of an enormous fence between the two countries. Thus, solidity is far from dead in the contemporary world. It is very often the case that demands for new forms of solidity are the result of increased fl uidity. However, a strong case can, and will, be made that it is fl uidity that is more characteristic of today ’ s world, especially in terms of globalization.
Solidity : People, things, information, and places “ harden ” over time and therefore have limited mobility.
5Globalization
Of course, people were never so solid that they were totally immobile or stuck completely in a given place (a few people were able to escape East Berlin in spite of the Wall and many will be able to enter the US illegally even when the fence on the Mexican border is completed), and this was especially true of the elite members of any society. Elites were (and are) better able to move about and that ability increased with advances in transportation technology. Commodities, especially those created for elites, also could almost always be moved and they, too, grew more moveable as technologies advanced. Information (because it was not solid, although it could be solidifi ed in the form of, for example, a book) could always travel more easily than goods or people (it could be spread by word of mouth over great distances even if the originator of the information could not move very far; it moved even faster as more advanced communication technologies emerged [telegraph, tele- phone, the Internet]). And as other technologies developed (ships, automobiles, airplanes), people, especially those with the resources, were better able to leave places and get to others. They could even literally move places (or at least parts of them), as, for example, when in the early 1800s Lord Elgin dismantled parts of the Parthenon in Greece and transported them to London, where to this day they can be found in the British Museum.
However, at an increasing rate over the last few centuries, and especially in the last several decades, that which once seemed so solid has tended to “ melt ” and become increasingly liquid . Instead of thinking of people, objects, information, and places as being like solid blocks of ice, they need to be seen as tending, in recent years, to melt and as becoming increasingly liquid. It is, needless to say, far more diffi cult to move blocks of ice than the water that is produced when those blocks melt. Of course, to extend the metaphor, there continue to exist blocks of ice, even glaciers (although even these are now literally melting), in the contemporary world that have not melted, at least not completely. Solid material realities (people, cargo, newspapers) continue to exist, but because of a wide range of technological devel- opments (in transportation, communication, the Internet, and so on) they can move across the globe far more readily. Everywhere we turn, more things, including ourselves, are becoming increasingly liquefi ed.
Karl Marx opened the door to this kind of analysis (and to the use of such meta- phors) when he famously argued that because of the nature of capitalism as an economic system “ everything solid melts into air. ” That is, many of the solid, ma- terial realities that preceded capitalism (e.g. the structures of feudalism) were “ melted ” by it and were transformed into liquids. However, while Marx was describ- ing a largely destructive process, the point here is that the new liquids that are being created are inherent parts of the new world and are radically transforming it. In the process, they are having both constructive and destructive effects (Schumpeter 1976 ).
Marx ’ s insight of over a century - and - a - half ago was not only highly prescient, but is far truer today than in Marx ’ s day. In fact, it is far truer than he could ever have imagined. Furthermore, that melting, much like one of the great problems in the global world today – the melting of the ice on and near the North and South
Globalization6
poles as a result of global warming (see Chapter 9 ) – is not only likely to continue in the coming years, but to increase at an exponential rate. Indeed, the melting of the polar icecaps can be seen as another metaphor for the increasing fl uidity associ- ated with globalization, especially its problematic aspects. And, make no mistake, the increasing fl uidity associated with globalization presents both great opportuni- ties and great dangers.
Thus, the perspective on globalization presented here, following the work of Zygmunt Bauman (2000, 2003, 2005, 2006) , is that it involves, above all else, increasing liquidity (Lakoff 2008 : 277 – 300). Several of Bauman ’ s ideas on liquidity are highly relevant to the perspective on globalization employed here.
For example, liquid phenomena do not easily, or for long, hold their shape. Thus, the myriad liquid phenomena associated with globalization are hard - pressed to maintain any particular form and, even if they acquire a form, it is likely to change quite quickly.
Liquid phenomena fi x neither space nor time. That which is liquid is, by defi ni- tion, opposed to any kind of fi xity, be it spatial or temporal. This means that the spatial and temporal aspects of globalization are in continuous fl ux. That which is liquid is forever ready to change whatever shape (space) it might take on momen- tarily. Time (however short) in a liquid world is more important than space. Perhaps the best example of this is global fi nance, where little or nothing (dollars, gold) actually changes its place (at least immediately), but time is of the essence in that the symbolic representations of money move instantaneously and great profi ts can be made or lost in split - second decisions on fi nancial transactions.
Liquid phenomena not only move easily, but once they are on the move they are diffi cult to stop. This is exemplifi ed in many areas, such as foreign trade, invest- ment, and global fi nancial transactions (Polillo and Guillen 2005 : 1764 – 802), the globality of transactions and interactions (e.g. on Facebook, Twitter [Clive Thompson 2008 : 42ff.]) on the Internet, and the diffi culty in halting the global fl ow of drugs, pornography, the activities of organized crime, and illegal immigrants.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, that which is liquid tends to melt what- ever stands it its path (especially solids). This is clearest in the case of the much discussed death, or at least decline, of the nation - state and its borders in the era of increasing global fl ows (see Chapter 5 ). According to Cartier ( 2001 : 269), the “ forces of globalization have rendered many political boundaries more porous to fl ows of people, money, and things. ”