Reasons for choosing the topic
Globalization is the historical process of the world’s transformation into the unified system that would have the uniform characteristics. Each person in the global society is involved in this process and contributes to its development through his/her everyday life decisions and actions. Thus, the comprehension of factors influencing globalization, as well as the individual’s role in the process, is of significant interest.
The lecture examines globalization from multiple points of view: cultural/religious, economic, and historical. The historical and cultural analysis of globalization allows identification of causes and people’s motivation that underlie the process development. The lecture provokes the interest to the evaluation of the consequences of globalization.
The accumulation of the first experience has started with watching the different documentary and feature movies about the global and cultural integration such as The Cup, The Corporation, Mumbai Calling, and others. They tell the stories of individuals from different countries and depict the globalization as an inevitable process-affecting people live to a large extent.
Globalization has many implications: cultural, economic, national, and individual. Since each individual takes part in globalization, it is important for him/her to know about their responsibilities before the other people and the environment. Learning the information about the process of global integration may help to avoid negative impacts on various aspects of human life.
Understanding of globalization
Before the course, there was a little interest to the topic. The significance of globalization was evident – its impact on the social structure, environment, and economy is extensive.
The United Kingdom is involved in globalization to a large extent. The country is one of the main participants in the global trade, industrialisation, and urbanisation. Moreover, the UK society consists of many nationalities and ethnicities.
The investigation of the topic will allow becoming a good citizen of the country and world. It will support the conscious decision-making, consumption, and interactions.
Definitions
Globalization is ‘a contemporary term used in academic and nonacademic contexts to describe a late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century condition of economic, social, and political interdependence across cultures, societies, nations, and regions that has been precipitated by an unprecedented expansion of capitalism on a global scale’ (Lowe 2014).
Globalization is the increase in the influence of the external factors (economic, social and cultural) on the reproduction of all the nations involved in this process; the formation of a single world market (markets) without national barriers, and the creation of common legal terms for all countries (Matthews 2014).
Globalization is the process of the technological changes supporting the proliferation of the products and goods around the globe; the rapid development of the informational technologies and devices that helps to constrict the gaps between the people; and the formation of the global ideologies (cultures), such as ecologic and the human rights movement.
Advantages and disadvantages of globalization
Globalization by John Madeley. The author claims that globalization benefits the richer part of the world and, at the same time, doesn’t provide any advantages for the poorer half of the global society.
The issue of social and economic inequality is up-to-date. Thus, it is important to know all the potential causes of it.
‘The engine of globalization is free trade, liberalization, no restrictions to trade’ (Madeley 2009). However, these concepts do not benefit the poor citizens because of the inappropriate policies and lack of globalization’s regulation.
The provided information makes it clear that some changes at the governmental level should be made. It is important for the international community officials to undertake measures to improve the situation in the developing part of the world.
Ethical dilemmas
The ethical problems of globalization by Niadi Cernica. The study investigates the negative effects of globalization on the poor, underdeveloped countries.
Globalization implies multiple ethical and moral issues as its negative impacts on society and environment are observed.
The cultural integration that takes place in the modern world provokes the dissemination of values of material well-being and financial prosperity, as well as the standards of the high-quality life (Cernica 2011). At the same time, at the current stage of the social development, these values are unapproachable to the significant portion of people. Thus, globalization is considered unethical.
The balance between the ideological perfectionism and the real situation must be found.
Globalization and international communication
In Commentary: globalization and science communication, Susanna Horing Priest explores the beneficial effects of the global integration on the informational and cultural exchange, as well as the economic development.
The comprehension of the positive sides of globalization helps to consolidate and strengthen the beneficial effects on the social development.
Globalization provides the advantages of the international cooperation in business, science, and knowledge exchange. To a large extent, the process is provoked by the development of media and informational technologies (Priest 2000).
The intercultural communication, especially in the field of science, helps to enhance the technologic, medical, and business innovation and exploration. It increases the accessibility of science in the less developed countries.
Urbanization
The global urbanisation is stimulated by the economic and technological development, and the process gathers momentum – nowadays, more than a half of the world’s population lives in the urban areas.
The large urban community is diverse in many aspects: culture, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, education, etc. The population diversity creates difficulties in the social communication and interrelations. The issues of the social inequality, crime, and discrimination are up-to-date in the industrial cities.
Despite the fact that urbanisation provokes technological and economic progress, the environmental and social problems caused by the urban development indicate the inefficiency of the urban planning and lack of the environmental protection policies. The current issues prove that the changes in the government regulations are needed.
International trade
Globalization provoked the expansion of the goods distribution streams worldwide. As a result, the economy in many countries experiences the significant growth.
The liberalization of cross-national trade contributes to the development of relationships among the number of countries involved in these agreements. Globalization helps to remove the trade barriers between the nations, and it is expected that all the parties involved in the trade process attain the relevant economic benefits.
Negative impacts: increase of consumption and the deterioration of the natural environment.
Global warming caused by the extensive greenhouse gasses emissions during the transportation of goods is regarded as one of the most significant issues.. According to the recent statistics, since the end of the 20th century, the emissions caused by the cross-national aviation has been increased to over 50%, and the further expansion of the international trade will provoke even greater increases (Abe, Hattori, & Kawagoshi, 2014, p. 468).
Primary research: effects of globalization on environmental state
The globalization processes including the international commercial cooperation, trade, transportation, and the global politics largely impact the environmental condition and the national ecological policies. The majority of the environmental problems are of the cross-national character, and the global community must be involved in their resolving.
Frequently, the environmental expenses are ignored in the international trade because the businessmen want to attain the financial benefits and attract the international investments (Abe, Hattori & Kawagoshi 2014). Moreover, the decrease of the ecological standards and the increase of the natural resources consumption take place. It leads to the environmental degradation.
Technologic advancement stimulated by globalization provokes the positive effects on the environment. The increase of the population income induces the environmental protection requirements.
Understanding globalization after research
The research helped to understand the impacts of globalization more profoundly.
The global integration has both advantages (i.e. technology and science development) and disadvantages (i.e. environmental pollution and social inequality).
It is important to know about the negative and positive effects of globalization because only through the critical analysis it is possible to prevent the potentially disastrous outcomes or facilitate the achievement of better results.
Reflection on learning experience
The globalization research assisted the expansion of knowledge regarding the issue. The knowledge became multidimensional and more detailed than before.
In a vast amount of information, sometimes it may be hard to find the reliable and valid sources.
The literature review and critical analysis of the previous study findings is one of the best tools of research.
It is better to avoid such methods of the information collection as watching documentaries or interviews. Although, the received information may be valuable, these methods are rather time-consuming.
Next time, a larger number of aspects related to the topic will be researched.
Further exploration
It would be useful to include the social and economic aspects of globalization in the further research. The positive effects of the cultural integration need some more focus.
The methods of the literature review will be implemented for the further exploration. The analysis of the academic articles or case studies may be regarded as reliable sources of information.
The issues of globalization affect each single person. Therefore, this topic of research is of significant interest.
Conclusion
The process of building knowledge requires the individual’s investment of mental strengths and abilities. It requires logical and rational approach, yet it is an exciting process. The comprehensive research of the information contributes to the knowledge development to the largest extent. The development of the skills in research may be regarded a step in the personal and professional growth.
The research should cover multiple aspects of the issue because understanding every single constituent of the problem leads to the generation of the holistic picture. The comprehension of the basic topical elements and the connections between them is essential in this regard.
References
Abe, K, Hattori, K & Kawagoshi, Y 2014, ‘Trade liberalization and environmental regulation on international transportation’, The Japanese Economic Review, vol. 65, no. 4, pp. 468-482.
Cernica, N 2011, ‘the ethical problems of globalization’, Euromentor Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 85-90.
Lowe, L 2014, ‘Globalization’, in B Burgett & G Hendler (eds.), Keywords for American cultural Studies, New York University Press, New York, pp. 345-347.
Madeley, J 2009, “Globalization”, Appropriate Technology, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 52-53.
Matthews, J 2014, Encyclopedia of environmental change, SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks.
Priest, S H 2000, Commentary: globalization and science communication, Science Communication, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 219-222.