IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON SOCIAL AND CULTURAL VALUES:

Impact of Globalization on Social and Cultural Values: Perspective from Pakistan

Introduction

Globalization

Few current topics are more contested than globalization—its definition, causes, and economic, political, social, and moral implications. Some critics maintain that globalization is a faddish term that encompasses too many ideas to be coherent. Yet it is hard to deny that some kinds of global interaction are taking place that are significantly reshaping life for many human beings. Debates swirl around how globalization can be most efficiently and equitably steered or constrained, if indeed it can be guided in some way. At whatever level (local, national, and international), leaders in various sectors face effects of globalization.

Globalization is better understood as a set of processes—sometimes competing; sometimes complementary—than as a unified process. It refers to economic, political, technological, social, cultural, and ethical developments. The term is most often employed in relation to developments after 1980, even though many scholars now assert that earlier periods of history also contained elements of globalization. In general, globalization refers to the incorporation of the global level into activities or frames of reference that would otherwise remain local, national, or regional in scope.

Culture

That there is a relationship between culture and communication is obvious when misunderstandings occur in international relations and business: When a U.S. president greeted the people of Poland, his translator said in Polish, “The President says he is pleased to be here in Poland grasping your secret parts.” Chevrolet attempted to market its Nova compact car in Latin American countries. In Spanish, no va means “does not go,” or “it doesn't run.” The car was renamed the Caribe. And for the 1994 World Cup, both McDonald's and CocaCola reprinted the Saudi Arabian flag with its sacred words “There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his Prophet” on millions of paper bags and cans. Muslims objected to its use as a sales device and that the bags and cans with the sacred words would be thrown in the trash. On a more individual level, when any of us live for an extended period of time in a country other than our native land, we may experience some feelings of disorientation and anxiety when we discover that our assumptions about life and ways of behaving can be challenged.

Globalization: A theoretical Overview

Although globalization can and does entail a variety of dimensions, the term commonly refers to economic links and processes. Economic globalization concerns the expansion of production, trade, consumption, savings, and investment to markets beyond national and regional ones. Although trade has always crossed national boundaries, from spice routes to the East, to trade in the Roman Empire, to international shipping between Europe, Africa, and the Americas, the level of international trade has skyrocketed since about 1980.

With strong encouragement from leaders in private enterprise, political leaders have pushed for the reduction in tariffs on the trade of goods and service across national lines. The Uruguay round of trade talks (1986-1994) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT, established in 1947), created the World Trade Organization ...