Globalization

There is a greater mobility of population today than that was in the nineteenth or twentieth century because of the modem rapid means of transport. The life of the modem man is always on wheels. It is an important factor in the determination of spatial aspect of social relationships. Changes in communication devices (e-mail, internet, mobile phones etc.) have also influenced all aspects of social life (work, leisure, family, friendship, sports etc.) enormously. The basic function of all communication and transportation devices is the conquest of time and space. Shrinking space and time through the speed and low cost of electronic communication and air travel has developed a new phenomenon called ‘globalisation’.

Computers have affected almost all aspects of our life from reservations at the railway ticket window or registration for hospitals or colleges to the maintenance of accounts in banks and large business corporations. The popularity of science fiction (Harry Potter) and the films like Jurrasic Park are other indicators of the mythical and abundant power which technology can have in the modem world. Modern technology has also revolutionised the concept and quality of the systems of production, communication, social organisation and various processes of acculturation and symbolisation in societies. Technology helps in realising of our goals with less effort, less cost and with greater efficiency. Technology creates desire for novelty and innovation. Novelty is sought everywhere and transient interests give a corresponding character to social relationships. Technology has advanced in leaps and bounds over the last 25 years and the single invention that has had to greatest impact on our lives is the cell phone. It is now not only used as a means of communi-cation but it has enabled us to operate home appliances and entertainment devices, monitor our home’s safety, customise our internal home environment. In the light of these technical advances the anthropologist Peter Worsly (1984) was actuated to comment, “until our day, human society has never existed”, meaning that it is only in quite recent times that we can speak of forms of social association which span the earth. The world has become in important respects a single social system as a growing ties of interdependence which now affect virtually everyone.
The idea of ‘global village’ developed by Marshall McLuban (1960) reflects that the world is becoming more integrated in economic, political and cultural terms. (Above quoted from https://www.academia.edu/25227760/Theories_of_Social_Change?email_work_card=view-paper)
NEW FOUNDATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM ОR WHY DO STATES LOSE THEIR SOVEREIGNTY IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION? Leonid E. Grinin (4/11/26 email): The process of globalization undoubtedly contributes to the change and re- duction of the scope of state sovereign powers. The list of threats to state sov- ereignty often includes global financial flows, multinational corporations, global media empires, and the Internet etc. At the same time (note that this point is debated surprisingly little and occasionally), since the end of World War II, increasingly more states have been willingly and consciously limiting their sovereign rights. And what is extremely important, many countries quite often give away some of their sovereign powers voluntarily. In the article, it is argued that the factor of voluntariness in reducing one’s own authority is, no doubt, the most important in understanding the future of the state. There are several reasons for such voluntariness and ‘altruism’, includ- ing the fact that such a restriction becomes profitable, as in return the coun- tries expect to gain quite real advantages especially as members of regional and interregional unions. The transformation of sovereignty proceeds some- how almost in all countries. However, it is more characteristic of Western countries.

 

Other:

What initially appeared as a unipolar American hegemony is splitting into a multipolar world, but an adolescent can also come to develop several selves.

Europe has achieved substantial unity since World War II, and other regional blocs are developing in South America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Military conflict between France and Germany is now almost unimaginable. Although national rivalries remain, rooted in cultural, racial, and ethnic differences, armed conflict among nations has diminished compared with the 19th-century era of colonialism, nationalism, and isolationism. Clear international conflicts and tensions still exist, but they are minor compared with World Wars I and II, despite the authoritarian elephant in the room.

Global human society is being woven into a tighter system, and the connections within it are generally becoming more cooperative because long-term mutual benefit lies there. Nations and individuals still act opportunistically, belligerently, and selfishly, ignoring broader environmental and other concerns, but those narrow behaviors are increasingly criticized, shamed, and sometimes punished. Multinational and transnational institutions, both public and private, flourished in the latter 20th century on the basis of that cooperation. Although globalization and transnational cooperation may be backsliding at the moment through onshoring, friend-shoring, and near-shoring of manufacturing, and although democratic and autocratic nations and political parties are aligning in opposing camps for self-interested reasons, the broader and longer-term trend shows growing cooperation among nations. The same is true of individuals and groups, despite recent polarization.

Globalization is bringing efficiencies, but also a loss of diversity, an increase in entropy.

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