The world is too big compared to different groups of people residing in it. These people usually have different cultural and economic activities which they carry on as part of their lives. The difference in the perspective in which they view different aspects is mainly based on their customs, way of life and geographical location. Due to the existence of these differences, there are need to narrow the gap so as to enhance mutual interaction between different people (Petersson & Osterhammel 1). This paper explains my understanding of global citizenship and expresses how the notion of citizen-consumers fits with my thinking at this time and the relevant questions I may have.
Global citizenship is the unifying of persons’ identity irrespective of their roots and is in essence part of globalization. Globalization has become to be persistent in the current world. This has been brought forward by the presence of numerous interactions between different persons from different backgrounds. This interaction is responsible for minimizing the differences. Thus globalization cuts across all sectors of life from social to economic. This implies that globalization takes space into account (Waters 3). Globalization dates its roots back to before the independence of many countries around the world. When the colonial governments resided in countries other than their mother countries, they gradually exchanged some of their cultural, social or political aspects.
Although globalization is not a smooth process as some people usually prefer to maintain their social, political and economic aspects and respond with hostility to anyone who tries to alter it, it has some great importance as well as demerits. The merit is mainly on the economic aspect. Globalization has made it possible for technological advancement as well as sharing. This has resulted in the improvement in industrial, manufacturing and other fields of the economy which has resulted in the creation of more job opportunities for the citizens. The demerit of globalization is that although it is supposed to bring uniformity, it is not usually the case. Instead of mutual exchange, it is sometimes manifested by resources moving from one region to the other only leading to unequal resource distribution. Globalization has also led to moral decay in some communities; this happens in the case of those communities which may be viewed to be conservative. Assimilating in the new ideas brought in by globalization in such areas as dressing fashion, and in the entertainment industry has often been met with a lot of opposition in some countries for instance the Islamic countries. The new trends seem to contradict what is viewed as good morals in such countries thus globalization to them is an agent of moral decay to an extent (Khalid & Gastron 2).
The notion of consumer–citizen argues that all consumers know how to take care of their consumption. In reality, this is related to global citizenship and globalization in that well-off people or countries are capable of influencing production. The poor have little resources to spend and thus the market dynamics are controlled by the best-placed regions (Clarke 7). This is in accordance with the demerit of globalization where the resource flow is unidirectional.
Thus, although globalization has its merits and demerits brought about by the different issues it raises, the main question would be: How can we ensure uniformity in all parties involved in globalization instead of it being unidirectional? This question is subject to raise different arguments for a concise answer to be obtained. There is a need for different parties involved to compromise on the issue so as to reach a mutual agreement. Though some parties to a globalization agreement may seem lost with time all the parties will have positioned themselves to benefit. It is also worth noting that the cost of being left behind by the globalization movement will be too much for any country.
Works Cited
Clarke, Joseph. Creating citizen-consumers: changing publics & changing public services. California, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2007. Print.
Khalid, Ahmed & Gastron, Noel. Globalization and Economic Integration: Winners and Losers in the Asia-Pacific. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010. Print.
Petersson, Neils & Osterhammel, Jurgen. Globalization: a short history. New Jersey, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005. Print.
Waters, Malcolm. Globalization. New York, NY: Routledge, 2001. Print.