GLOBALIZATION

Globalization in the 21st Century

Abstract

In this study we try to explore the concept of Globalization in the 21st Century in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on Globalization and the factors which lead globalization in the 21st Century. The research also analyzes many aspects of Globalization and tries to gauge its effect on the 21st Century.

Table of Contents

Abstract2

Introduction4

Factors of Globalization in the 21st century4

Impact on Trade5

Economic Globalization6

Cultural Globalization7

Conclusion7

References10

Globalization in the 21st Century

Introduction

Globalization is the creation and expansion of economic and social connections among people and organizations around the world. The movement of people, goods, ideas, technology, and money fuels the process across national boundaries.

The populations of different cultures have interacted and established economic and cultural links for centuries. In the middle Ages, merchants and explorers exchanged goods and ideas throughout Europe, across North Africa, and between the Middle East and Asia. However, in recent decades, globalization has advanced at an increasingly rapid pace. Two major forces in this development have been the Internet, which has sped up communications, and businesses, which have expanded to reach markets on distant continents. Although people still identify with their local communities and national governments, many increasingly see themselves as part of a global society. However, globalization does not affect all regions in the same way. Individuals and corporations in industrialized countries tend to benefit more than those in developing countries.

Factors of Globalization in the 21st century

Globalization refers to various processes that link national and regional economies, societies, and cultures. Globalization has been influenced by economic factors (trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, and migration); by the spread of technology; and by increasing transnational circulation of ideas, languages, and popular culture.

Although the term has been widely used among economists and social scientists in recent decades, views on its nature differ. David Held and colleagues say globalization “encompasses everything from global financial markets to the Internet but which delivers little substantive insight into the contemporary human condition,” and Michael Mann refers to globalization as spreading in a “multiple, variable and uneven fashion” with the advanced nation-states of the North more eager to adopt the necessary reforms to encourage the expansion of global processes (Charles 2008, 89).

Globalization involves many processes that both unite and divide humanity. Whereas humanity was divided into small tribes for many thousands of years, in recent centuries population interaction (aided by technology) has meant that very few national societies now exist that are completely homogenous in social and cultural terms. Different people continue to be brought together by new economic, social, and political developments.

Impact on Trade

Goods and services now move more freely among countries than ever before. Ongoing declines in the cost of long-distance communication and transportation and in national restrictions on international trade and investment have allowed economies around the world to become increasingly integrated, thereby enhancing productivity growth and expanding consumer choices. In parts of the developing world and especially in East Asia, globalization has been accompanied by an increase in living standard hardly imagined just a ...