Globalisation is a topic that is discussed in great depth by various politicians, environmentalists, sociologists and the general public alike.
Globalisation is a topic that is discussed in great depth by various politicians, environmentalists, sociologists and the general public alike. It is clearly the word on everyone’s lips and there are few places that have not seen the effects of the global phenomena, but what does it all really mean?
The dictionary definition states that Globalisation is the term used to describe the ways in which societies are forming a global network as they become increasingly interconnected with one another. The process originated not long after the Industrial Revolution and so it is not a new concept. However the speed and scale that it has accelerated with is a recent stage within the development of the world and so it must be about time to look at the topic in more detail.
No one can fully deny that Globalisation has resulted in some positive impacts. It has impacted in the expansion of trade within developing countries and in many ways it has strengthened the concept of democracy, as power is moved to the people through more individual choice being made available to all. Although this in itself could be criticised, as culturally the spread of ideas is ever increasingly focused on the American ideology which results in a global creation of people beginning to appear more similar to one another, despite initially fighting against the process to become ‘individuals’. Marxist interpretations would also argue that the economic increase in trade has had a negative impact on the developing countries rather than the positive that was earlier mentioned. They instead hold the idea that it has resulted in the formation of countries being split into the worldwide Bourgeoisie and Proletariat nations, in some ways this could be seen to be correct – with the USA vastly leaving behind the continent of Africa in its level of development. So it would appear that an initial outlook of the process shows positive impacts, yet on a closer inspection it is perhaps not quite as shiny as we are led to believe.
Overall this seems to lead us back to one question: Who does Globalisation really benefit?
While governmental organisations and capitalist nations may argue that it is a process that has benefits for all, there are many sociologists who would argue that it has resulted in a global scale of exploitation on countries who are dependent upon the rich Western area of the world and then there are environmentalists who believe that Globalisation has led to a huge increase in pollution, as more and more countries enter their own industrial revolutions.
So there appears to be only one answer and that would be that the process simply does not benefit everyone. There is always someone who will lose out at the expense of another, as no one can be rich without another being poorer than they are themselves. This leads us to believe that whether or not Globalisation benefits you, will depend on who you are and will be as a result of various factors including your age, your gender, your ethnicity and the class that you belong to. In this day and age it seems a ridiculous conclusion, in a world that is developed enough to be able to benefit everyone and in a moment in time when communication is at its fastest surely we should be working towards a cultural assimilation in which we come together as one, not through similarities, but through accepting our differences and using every persons variation to our advantage. Only time will truly tell whether the world can unite and use Globalisation to profit everyone, maybe we will see the change occurring as Twitter highlights it through its trends, or Facebook posts statuses on the topic sometime in the future…
