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In this paper, I will be examining certain theories in which the idea of globalization can be illustrated by. Through these theories, I will be referencing different case studies that support these theories, analyzing how they interact with the real world. I will delve into three different theories of globalization. First, I highlight an economic theory of globalization, attempting to detail Wallerstein’s Modern World System through the case study of Jamaica’s structural adjustments. Secondly, I cover a political theory of Globalization highlighting Boli’s World polity theory through a certain study executed in India about call center employees.
Lastly, I talk about Robertson’s cultural theory of globalization as a problem through the hustle economy in Kenya.
Wallerstein approached globalization by defining it through the economic model called the World System Theory. This is a theory that focuses on the world as a unit rather than differentiating layers. To put it in the most simplest terms, Wallerstein came to the conclusion that some countries benefit while some are exploited.
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This theory is based off a three level hierarchy in which define how a country stands economically. We have core countries, periphery countries, and semi-periphery countries. They interact with each other in ways that set the basis for our global economy; core countries, being the dominant capitalist countries like the USA for example, exploit the peripheral countries for labor, raw materials, resources, etc. They slowly suck the life out of them. Core countries are usually strong in military power, serve the interests of the economically powerful, and are not dependent on any other state or country.
Their focuses lie in higher skill and capital intensive production. These focuses and powers lead them to be able to pay ridiculously low prices for foreign labor and raw materials. This is the constant reinforcement of unequal status between core and other countries. For example, this power that core countries hold force peripheral countries to be dependent on them for capital; peripheral countries need a strong central government and therefore are usually controlled by other states. Our society knows these countries as third world countries. Semi-peripheral countries, on the other hand, fall into both categories. One can look at them as periphery areas trying to improve their economic position or core areas starting to decline. For example, one can realize Inda lies somewhere in here due to being heavily exploited and relying on core countries, but their intensely growing tech industry has taken off. Overall, Wallerstein was able to emphasize the social structure of global inequality through this theory. He recognizes it as ever changing, shifting, and molding. Processes like recessions, economic growth, changes in geographies, etc can all play an impact on global economic inequality.
If we take a look at structural adjustment in Jamaica, there is clear evidence that supports Wallerstein’s theory. In Life and Debt, we learn about “stories of individual Jamaicans whose strategies for survival...are determined by the U.S. and other foreign economic agendas...the complexity of international lending, structural adjustment policies and free trade [are] understood in the context of the day-to-day realities of the people whose lives they impact.” This film showcased to us how people in these peripheral countries have to live due to these exploitative practices and unjust powers. Stiglitz goes into further detail arguing how countries need more say in policies affecting them in order for globalization to be reshaped. This way, he argues, growth can be not only more sustainable and less volatile but also more equitably shared. Jamaica has fallen into the world of being a peripheral country after the tragedy of colonialism came passing through, along with factors like the IMF imposing themselves into the economy. Stiglitz’s argument and the film Life and Death illustrates Wallerstein’s theory because they both work together to prove how countries’ economies are unequal due to the unfair power that comes into play; Jamaica emphasizes how history and current powers being exploitative and unbudging leads to the unbalanced social structure of global inequality.
When looking into Globalization via political theories, a well known theory is called the World Polity Theory. This was created mainly as an analysis that interprets how we know globalization today with global relations, structures, and practices in mind. It views the world as a social system with a cultural structure called world polity. This world polity holds and molds the actors, which are entities such as nations, international organizations, and people like you and me- the individuals: 'the world polity is constituted by distinct culture – a set of fundamental principles and models, mainly ontological and cognitive in character, defining the nature and purposes of social actors and action .” This idea allows actors such as the states and institutions to be influenced by global norms, unlike other theories like liberalism. A focus on homogenization puts this theory apart, and tells us that there is a set norm of forming a new state under the larger world of world polity. World polity and culture act as the catalyst for the creation of achievable cultures and organizations through globalization while in exchange, cultures and organizations further complexify the world society. Through Boli’s and Thomas’s findings within INGOs ( International nongovernmental organizations) we can see just this; INGOs prove to show signs of universalism, individualism, rational voluntaristic authority, progress, and world citizenship. These organizations could ultimately instill world-cultural principles of world polity by criticizing, convincing, lobbying, etc. INGOs act as “scriptwriters” for nation-states that look for outside legitimation to unite their own role in world politics.
A case study that illustrates the idea of globalization through the world polity theory is one that was done on Indian call centers. In Nadeem’s book, Dead Ringers: How Outsourcing Is Changing the Way Indians Understand Themselves, the chapter “Macaulay’s (Cyber) Children” outlines how globalization affects the outsourced indian call center employees and their goals. We learn about the rise of a new middle class there, and how they are questionably called today’s “mimic men.” Nadeem then goes into the ways that organizations and companies significantly play a role in the identities and behavior of these employees. Basically, we learn that Indian workers are strongly encouraged, if not forced, to adopt foregin accents, personas, etc. This balances as both invigorating yet disorienting and anxiety filling. This constant grasp into foregin lifestyles leads them into a globally led mindset. These employees, executives and all, use this close engagement with the west as a way to define themselves other than the traditional indian. Nadeem argues that globalization heads the growth to an Indian mortality act where the ‘fun’ aspect collides with the demands of Indian ‘tradition.’ Here, an unhealthy relationship between pleasure and duty is established. This study showcases how global polity is a possible theory for globalization due to the existence of a nongovernmental organization instilling their pressures in a society in which creates a new global culture. It exists on a very small scale level, but it is there. Having homogenization be a key factor in the world polity theory, Nadeems case study exemplifies this relationship between homogenization and globalization through the ways in which these Indian employees are encouraged to act. The idea that they are supposed to adapt to westernized personas adds to the idea of globalization existing through the process of making lives similar and uniform.
When it comes to cultural theories of Globalization, Roland Robertson contends a strong argument. He believes that the genuine idea of globalization is clouded while peripheral concerns like tiny economic examinations are exaggerated. He shows us a new view that fuses the economic and cultural aspects of the global world while connecting basic social structures to recorded advancements in the cutting edge world. He thinks that although globalization as a process has been around for a long period of time, ideas should be based off more recent developments. He coins a term called ‘the global field’ which is to fight the notion that globalization is a result of modernity and that it can be better understood as “the coming into, often problematic, conjunction of different forms of life .” In order to accomplish this, he builds a model which has four reference points: national societies, selves, the world systems of societies, and humankind. They work together to “draw attention to increasing, interrelated thematizations of societies, individual selves, international relations and humankind.” In this way, his thinking develops from an individual basis and how each one of those individuals is connected to the world system of societies altogether.
In looking at the economy of employment in Kenya, there is this idea of a ‘hustle’ economy, which illustrates globalization through Robertson’s theory. Through the article “The “hustle” amongst youth entrepreneurs in Mathare's informal waste economy” by Thieme, we read about the alternative economic strategies of youth within the waste management sector that lives and breathes in one of Nairobi’s biggest and oldest settlements named Mathare. We see these lives of young people within this informal field of waste management considered to be in a state of ‘hustling.’ This ‘hustle’ is referred to in three different manners. First being a hustle that is equal to a last resort; or a survival mechanism so to speak. Secondly, it can be seen as a ‘livelihood strategy,’ a way to complete risk management. And furthermore, lastly, hustle as in the contestations that cross-cut waste management practices amongst the young living in urban poverty. This case study, after 15 months of ethnographic research, comes to explore and articulate the meaning of this ‘hustling’ within Mathare’s waste world where other forms of formal employment and institutions are otherwise inaccessible. This case study exemplifies how Robertson’s cultural theory of globalization is illustrated in our world due to the fact that this idea of ‘hustling’ is based on an individual level; to hustle is to work for oneself. In addition to that, this idea of ‘hustling,’ although not old, has only recently been acknowledged as just that. Therefore, this lines up with Robertson’s idea of basing globalization off more recent developments.
In conclusion, globalization in a complex and ever changing layer of our world that never ceases to be of importance. We learned that economically, Wallerstein’s idea of globalization comes through the world- system theory, highlighting the multidisciplinary, macro-scale way to world history and social change which focuses the world system as the primary unit of social examination. Secondly, we learned that through Boli’s thoughts that World Polity is a convincing political theory that illustrates globalization through the way is grabs and changes the actors, which are entities such as nations, international organizations, and people like you and me. Lastly, we looked at a cultural theory of globalization. Robertson addresses globalization through a new view that fuses the economic and cultural aspects of the global world while connecting basic social structures to recorded advancements in the cutting edge world. All together, I personally believe Wallerstein economic model on illustrating globalization is most convincing. In our present day world our lives on a very individual level are run by the economy whether we like it or not. This economy, however, is present well by Wallerstein. It is not one equal entity- our country, the USA, considered a core, exploits and steals from others in order to gain the power we have. And by doing this, there is a chain reaction of what we know as globalization. Other peripheral and semi peripheral entities are caught and stuck in this economic inequality that seems to shift and mold yet remain unbalanced. Globalization is a product of these shifts and molds that snake through these three levels of entities.
The Idea Of Complex Globalization. (2024, Feb 23). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-idea-of-complex-globalization-essay
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