Globalization Essay, Research Paper

Explain what is meant by "globalisation". Is it really a myth?

Globalization is the free movement of capital, goods, services and labour around

the world, by big commercial companies, which have massive control of the

world’s economy, transcending the boundaries of state and country. This

transcendence across countries results in the shrinking of the economy and

results on it depending on larger companies with a controlling interest in most

of the capital within it. This global control of capital comes through the

transference of operations from "superpower" economies, to third world

countries. This transference takes place for purely economic gains, with

companies seeking to take advantage of lower wages and a large unskilled labor

force. A very good example of this is the footwear industry, in which footwear

giants such as Reebok and Nike, regularly shift their manufacturing base to

countries with lower wage scales. Globalisation can be looked at from five

different aspects; economically, technologically, politically, culturally and

environmentally. Economically, globalisation has been greatly encouraged since

the Second World War, with the introduction of free trade agreements such as

GATT (General Agreement on Tariff’s and Trade). Additionally, regional trade

agreements have also been developed, which have included ’single markets’

established by the European Community and NAFTA (North American Free Trade

Agreement). Technologically, the Information Technology revolution has resulted

in massive improvements in communication, through faxes, email, and the

internet. These improvements have resulted in the world becoming a smaller place

as world-wide interaction is both quick and easy. Culturally, there has been a

spreading of globalisation through the media of films, television and music. For

example, following the Second World War, the USA fearing the rise of communism,

actively encouraged and subsidised the world-wide distribution of films

effectively advertising the benefits of capitalism and the American Dream. As a

consequence to the dilution of cultures, Environmentally problems are

increasingly becoming global problems. Therefore, countries are no longer able

to look at environmental issues in isolation. This has been dramatically

illustrated for example by the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, the depletion of

the ozone layer and acid rain over Scandinavia. Countries now need to act

collectively for there to be any chance of reversing or just slowing the damage

being caused to the environment.