Fluent Essays

You were selected to reflect on our readings (An Overview of History by Redner and What is Globalization by Kiggundu) located under the module titled What is Globalization?1、From Kiggundus reading, I want you to provide a functional but comprehensive definition of globalization. Comment also on the validity of Kiggundus Center Periphery conceptualization of globalization. Finally, comment on what globalization means to you relative to your studies in the MPrS degree program. Develop at least two questions for the class so we may discuss the general idea of globalization relative to Kiggundus model. Be prepared to lead the discussion.2、It appears from Redners chapter and the work of other globalization theorists, that globalization and the concept of civilization are in conflict. At best, civilization is sometimes seen as a shared consciousness driven by consumerism. At worse, the position is sometimes taken that globalization produces human alienation and civilization is in decline.I want you to discuss, based on your readings, what you see as civilization; what you see as the relationships between globalization and civilization and, finally, what you think will be the outcome of globalization on civilization. Develop at least two questions for the class so we may discuss the idea of where civilization stands relative to globalization and what the future of civilization be. Be prepared to lead the discussion.3、Although we can certainly debate this point, I want you to address the domain assumptions expressed in the Redner and Kiggundu chapters: Globalization, moving as it does from the center to the periphery 1 and periphery 2 zones, is impressing upon the world the ideas, values and practices of industrial capitalism, a formal-legal-rational system of governance, an appreciation of science and, most certainly, a strong emphasis on education and life-long learning. Your discussion to the class needs to address whether you agree or disagree with what I have expressed in the above paragraph. In short, is globalization really doing this? If globalization is doing these things, discuss what the future holds for global citizens. If you think globalization is not doing these things, explain what it is doing and then discuss what the future holds for global citizens given your explanation of what globalization is doing.Important note: This is a discussion, but you only need to answer the third question, and you can ignore the first and second questions. At the end of this discussion I would like you to ask at least two questions to bring it up for discussion and attach your answers. kiggundu_what_is_globalization.pdf prs_611___walking_through_kiggundu_chapter_1.pdf prs_611___walking_through_redner_chapter_1.pdf redner_an_overview_of_history.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview Walking Through Kiggundu’s Chapter 1 In this set of notes I hope to highlight the primary points from Kiggundu’s Chapter 1 and its focus on What is Globalization? Definitions of Globalization Kiggundu offered us some selected expert definitions of globalization on pages 3-6 that he then contrasted with definitions from “ordinary people”. I will not list all the expert definitions but I thought it sensible to try to summarize the themes being expressed by the experts: 1. Globalization = reciprocal reach (meaning that developed, developing and non-developed nations and people are engaged with each other in mutually beneficial relationships) 2. Globalization = interdependence (relationships are part of a larger system of dependent interactions) 3. Globalization = evolving patterns of integration that can generate intra and inter-group conflict 4. Globalization = promotion of democracy 5. Globalization = convergence of powerful forces that no one group controls 6. Globalization = the flow of material and non-material culture 7. Globalization = a platform pushing greater competitiveness 8. Globalization = a new mentality and way of doing things 9. Globalization = a push toward balance 10. Globalization = wholistic thinking Although not providing us with a definition of globalization, the summarization I have provided emphasizes Kiggundu’s point that “globalization is important for all of us because it is pervasive and global and is creating deeper interdependencies and interconnectednesses among regions, nations, governments, businesses, institutions, communities, families, and individuals. It is bringing about fundamental and swift changes in the way we live, work, travel, govern ourselves, and manage our economic interests and social relations” (2002, p. 6). Another central point here is that globalization is a managed process heading toward a global society. Today, according to George Soros, we have only achieved a global economy. Much of the idealism presented in the expert’s themes have not been realized. The failure to realize the full potential of globalization is in part related to work that has been neglected and a failure of nations, governments, businesses, educational institutions and individual people to actively try to understand the causes and effects of globalization processes and to see objectively where they stand relative to those processes. Ignoring or failing to Redner – Chapter 1 Page 1 of 5 understand these processes generates apathy or resentment of globalization which further leaves peripheral 2 nations behind. Citing a United Nations Development Program report, Kiggundu (2002, p. 7), discusses several factors that should be central to the management of globalization and, by extension, if addressed would level the globalization playing field as they would reflect management in practice. They are as follows: Ethics – Less violation of human rights Equity – Less inequality within and among nations Inclusion – Less marginalization of people, organizations, communities and nations. Human Security – Less physical, mental, and psychological harm to citizens and employees Sustainability – Less environmental destruction Development – Less poverty and deprivation Put into practice, these idealized states would require: Anticipation of the macro and micro level needs Anticipation of business opportunities Constant benchmarking of the internal and external environments to enhance production customize economic activity and improve service delivery Managing change with flexible responses small scale adjustments Employing information technology to more effectively communicate Investing in learning and flexible responses Relating across cultures, developing interpersonal skills, and managing diversity GOING “GLOCAL” Commonly used terms (that reflect the causes and consequences of globalization) that ordinary people use to describe globalization should be contrasted with the above discussion. Openness Capitalism Good Govt. Capital flows Foreign Investment Europeanism Interdependence Partnership Connectedness Privatization Comparative advantage Big Brother Freedom/liberty Innovation Development Inequalities International crime Size Competitiveness Communication Alliances Peace Neocolonialism Overpopulation Geopolitics Marginalization Protest Brain drain Child labor Trade policy Rule of law Deregulation Regionalism Boom & Bust Corruption Multiculturalism Volatility Global Corp. Media Industrialization Imperfection Unemployment Stock market Migration Poverty WTO, world bank Militarism New World Order Technology Transformation Polarization Democratization GM food Crash Fear/anxiety Transparency Wealth Creation Change/speed Americanization War/terrorism Environmental degradation Cultural assimilation Hegemony Networking Westernization Complexity Human security Leapfrogging Travel/tourism Civil Society Redner – Chapter 1 Page 2 of 5 So with respect to what globalization is, the confusion of whether we are talking about the causes or effects of globalization, we are faced with the immediacy and constancy of managing it. Is the management challenge surmountable? Is it greater than us? What is needed to make this a reality? Opposition to Globalization Kiggundu (2002, p. 13) states that “[m]any people are openly opposed to globalization: the concept, its practice, and its consequences… This opposition, if left unchecked, threatens to push the world back to the dark days of protectionism and closed societies reminiscent of the Cold War.” No clearly identifiable group represents the opposition. All groups can be opposed to the uncertainty, the competition, the boom/bust cycles, the P2 nations and peoples. Globalization produces so much change that it is tempting to ignore/resist or exploit it for the quickest most immediate gain. This is a path toward chaos, conflict, and self-imposed nationalism. Globalization is a hard sell especially when the “sell” is stressing playing by the rules as there is little trust generated from the periphery nations and people that have experienced a history of exploitative relationships (i.e., colonialism). Further, there is little incentive for the center/core nations to divest themselves of past exploitative practices or do anything that reduces return on investment (ROI). Reality Check: What does Globalization Mean to Developing Countries? As developing countries approach or face globalization, Kiggundu suggests that the following factors impact their developing consciousness: 1. Globalization is multidimensional, its means different things to different players in different places and different times. It is fraught with intended and unintended consequences. 2. Globalization affects people locally so it must be explained to people relative to what they locally know. 3. Based on the Center Periphery Model, developing nations and their people do not drive globalization. Developing/peripheral countries must understand their relationships to the central or core countries and the central or core countries must obtain an understanding of how the peripheral countries work. 4. Globalizing countries and their organizations and people must develop a strategy for reducing inequality even as their economies move through “boom” and “bust” cycles. 5. Globalizing countries must recognize that the processes they will undertake are not perfectly linear. Change is necessary and national infrastructure must be developed (i.e., human and social capital) to sustain their global commitment. 6. Globalizing countries must maintain a strong governmental role in ensuring the rules of globalization are followed by all parties. Redner – Chapter 1 Page 3 of 5 Understanding Globalization: The Center Periphery Model According to Kiggundu (2013, p. 19) the Center Periphery Model (CPM) accounts for the dynamic processes and outcomes involved with globalization. CPM explains globalization in terms of a center (or core) and a periphery and “that interactions and transactions take place within and between center and periphery. The center controls most of these and uses its dominant position to advance its self-interests at the expense of the self-interests of the others in the periphery”. One should not view the center/core in geographic terms as the center is a cyberspace in which the triad forces (U.S. Western Europe, Japan and China) and the institutional structures and players interact and compete. Likewise, the center is not just nations, global corporations, international economic financial institutions, military and security establishments, the UN Security Council, universities, research centers and investment companies, etc. The “center is best conceptualized as those parts of the world interacting together and exchanging transactions for mutual benefit” (Kiggundu, 2012, p. 19). It is a transient amalgamation where collective or even individual membership is based on what one can offer as value to ongoing exchange relationships. Generally speaking, the center possesses high levels of 12 different types of capital (Kiggundu, 2002, p. 23). Physical Entrepreneurial Cultural Digital Managerial Spiritual Financial Political Human Institutional Intellectual Social The periphery is conceptualized in terms of two units (i.e., P1 and P2). The “periphery constitutes the weaker, less endowed, and more vulnerable partners in the globalization exchange. They are more dependent than interdependent. They are represented by the emerging economics of East Asia such as South Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand; the former USSR and Eastern Europe; South American countries such a Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru and South Africa. In short P1 nations are developing nations that are technologically capable of adapting themselves as well as adapting existing technology, goods and services to enter and compete in a global market and, in some cases, become innovators. P2 nations represent all the other developing nations in the world with a variety of indicators being used to empirically differentiate the P2 from P1 nations. These might include gross domestic product, per capita income, level of foreign investment, exports and other standardized measure of economic activity. P2 nations are, for the most incapable of adapting given a severe lack of technological, educational, governmental, and economic structures. Unfortunately, the further from the center one goes, the more likely they will encounter nations whose governments are weak or corrupt, whose institutional structures are weak, corrupt or that function to serve a small elite class. Under these conditions, “the chances for effective management of globalization are remote” (Kiggundu, 2002, p. 23). “A key aspect of the strategy for managing competitiveness for globalization must include the development of the local technological capacity (LTC) and the necessary physical, institutional, and human capital to support and sustain it. Of course, the specific strategies would differ for P1 and P2 countries or parts thereof. For P1 countries, the emphasis should be on building the LTC, which advances technological innovation, and commercializations for producing globally competitive goods and services. For P2 situations, however, the emphasis would be on Redner – Chapter 1 Page 4 of 5 improvements in strategic and operational aspects of technology including acquisition, maintenance, repair and servicing, technical support, learning and adaptation. The primary objective here is to develop the LTC, which enables the actors to get connected and stay connected” (Kiggundu, 2002, p. 22). Summation Kiggundu’s chapter offers us a very brief tutorial on globalization without providing us with a patented definition. From reading and discussing this chapter we should have a better understanding of the expert’s defining statements as well as those from the “ordinary” people. We should know now the centrality of relationships, the building and integration of social institutions, competitiveness, fair-play, reciprocity and fluidity to globalization. We should also know that globalization is not on a safe linear track to some state of ideal evolutionary progress. Globalization threatens and is threatened itself. In short it must be well managed by organizational/institutional leaders in both center and periphery nations. Redner – Chapter 1 Page 5 of 5 Walking Through Redner’s Chapter 1 Let us begin by first asking the following questions What is civilization and what does it mean to live in a civilized society? Are their civilizational standards or values? Is civilization in jeopardy because of globalization? I dont presume our answers will set right all we wish to understand about globalization and society but I think we should all have in mind a beginning conceptual framework to apply to the questions of what globalization is and what its effects might be. We will reflect on this conceptual framework and then, at the conclusion of this set of notes, arrive at a working definition of globalization. A Conceptual Framework Though there is little we can know specifically about the coming future, we can foresee the approaching conclusion to two very general material tendencies that have been prevalent throughout human history: first, the cumulative increase in population and production, and second, the ever growing interaction and integration between ever larger groupings, both of which we can take together as a kind of law of numbers. Sooner or later this law of numbers is bound to come close to its asymptotic limit, and when that happens, mankind will proceed on a quite different course from the one it has been pursuing from its inception until now (Redner, 2013, p. 4). The point is made that since the out of Africa period to the present day, populations have grown as has production. Concomitantly, humans have increasingly come in contact with one another--that is, they have increasingly integrated into sets of complementary but sometimes conflicting instrumental (i.e., means to ends) relationships. Distance and ecological and geographic barriers are today relatively inconsequential as the poorest among us can be physically mobile and with little effort can receive information almost in real time about events taking place around the globe. Social institutions have facilitated this integration to a greater or lesser extent. Economic media, political, religious, educational, and family structures have all been central players as has culture itself in its material (i.e., the tangible stuff we make and use) and cognitive (i.e., the ideas in our heads) forms. One question then is whether the asymptotic limit will usher in a new age of completely new patterns and ways of thinking and doing or whether it will usher in the unfettered rise of an insect planet. To discuss where we may go, it would be instructive to know what we came from and what processes were present in that movement/progression. Six Turnings Arguably there have been six turnings in human history. These turnings represent important events in the history of humanity that we may view as producing civilization as we have known it or currently know it. Redner – Chapter 1 Page 1 of 4 1. The emergence of recognizable human culture (60,000 to 40,000 years ago) in populations scattered around the globe. This period should be tied to what has often been termed the dual track of evolution (see E. O. Wilson, 1978 On Human Nature). This position holds that natural selection propelled genetic evolution and the ability to grasp culture. Those inclined to maximally use cultural tools enhanced their likelihood of survival and the survival of their genes. It is important to address how invention occurred and the possibility that such might occur simultaneously in human populations separated by great distances. One should not discount a general intelligence to the species and the application of it to a pervasive ubiquitous set of common problems (i.e. How could I grow that berry? How could I increase the force of that spear?) Cultural evolution happens very fast while genetic evolution happens very slowly. Hence the arguments that our genetic matter holds our culture on a leash. 2. The Neolithic Revolution in the Fertile Crescent around 11,000 to 9,000 BCE. This revolution is generally characterized as involving the transition of human populations from hunting and gatherers to agriculturalists. This pattern would have been repeated where climatic and ecological conditions allowed and where they allowed we see develop a class structure that essentially characterized humanity through most of human history. Indeed today, most societies and most people on the planet are agriculturalists though this number has been diminishing rapidly since the 1800s. Central to the lives of people under these circumstances was the village life and community. An important question remains though focused on why some of these societies progressed through dominant agriculturalism to other social structures and others did not. Economics and ecology seem to be incomplete in accounting for this variation. 3. The rise of civilization in Sumer and Egypt around 3,000 BCE. Population growth and increased productive efficiency (the law of numbers) would require more developed methods of social organization likely involving a political apparatus and cultural development. It is important to stress here that this process and structural and cultural change likely did not begin in one place and diffuse to others. More likely, these processes developed in response to the law of numbers and the need to maintain social order. 4. The Axial Age of 700 to 300 BCE was characterized by the emergence of religious systems and philosophy. The Axial Age was characterized by a cultural achievement involving the creation and spread of religions and philosophies. That the individuals responsible for Zoroasterism, Confucism, Buddhism and Judaism were relative contemporaries does not appear to be accidental (Redner, 2013, p. 11) but rather is more likely understood as an outcome of the development of a ruling class, the arts, and the need to keep growing populations under control. Redner – Chapter 1 Page 2 of 4 According to Redner (2013, p. 11), post-Axial civilizations are very different from pre-Axial ones. The latter are circumscribed and delimited but internally coherent entities; the former are complex admixtures with many layers that are not always completely fused. 5. Modernity, that is, a largely Western European phenomena beginning around 1500 CE and lasting until 2000 CE. One may view modernity as the outcome of certain key events that essentially dismantled the traditional and medieval expressions of both social structure and culture. Lutheranism, the enlightenment (progression of science, math, print, education), industrialization and political revolutions (U.S., French, Russian) are all examples of conflicts between the post-Axial and the modern. Redner (2013) makes an excellent point that progress into modernity in the West was not attributable to any innate nature of European people. but neither was it a mere accident of geography or the lucky chance of discovering America... [I]f the West had not developed all the essential modern forms, some other civilization would have done so before too long. But, let us be clear here, modernity, defined in terms of social structure and culture, has not changed markedly since industrialization. A plateau is evidenced. 6. Globalization, that is, the present era. Redner (2013, p. 14) argues that globalization, a new civilizational” and “unifying” formation, began in 2000 and that it does not compare with any of the previous turnings, being something utterly other than anything humanity had ... Purchase answer to see full attachment