Geschiedenis Van Globalisering En Internationale Betrekkingen (112210157Y)
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Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
Book
Globalization
A summary of Osterhammels' book: Globalization: A Short History. Used for the UvA course The History of Globalization and International Relations (Y).
Samenvatting van het boek van Osterhammel: Globalization: A Short History. Gebruikt voor het vak The History of Globalization and International R...
Geschiedenis Van Globalisering En Internationale Betrekkingen (112210157Y)
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Globalization: a short history
Preface:
Globalization is important to understand the contemporary world and needs careful empirical
investigation. The debate takes place in many fields and disciplines. Historians offer attention to
place: how the present condition came about. They are interested in alternatives.
Change can be along various time scales: days, years, centuries and millennia. The word
globalization indicates change and dynamism over time. It refers to a bundle of related processes
that don’t progress at the same speed and in the same direction. They affect different parts of the
world differently. Globality has a history reaching far beyond modern times. This book covers the
last 7 or 8 centuries. In the recent past, globalization intensified, but in ancient times, there also
were globalizing tendencies.
Globalization should only be used when relations between distant places on earth are
regular and stable and affect a great number of people. In order to do so, these relations have to
institutionalize, as happened in the European colonies.
The early history of globalization is not about imperialism. The emergence and growth of a
global economy is also important. Since the 19 th century integrated markets for food, labor and
capital started to develop, while before there was only travel by sea or land. Another aspect is ‘the
outlook that seeks to transcend parochialism and ethnocentrism’: to think globally. Very few people
think globally today, and even fewer in the past.
This book covers the history of globalization in chronological chapters.
Chapter 1: “Globalization”: Circumnavigating a Term
A Diagnosis of the Present and a Term for a Historical Process
Globalization is a term often used to describe today’s world. Since 1990 it’s embraced by a wider
public, was adopted in languages and research. It’s used in economics mostly, but more and more
people pay attention to it. Therefore, it’s in danger of becoming just another word in the ‘name-
dropping’.
The term is also important because it gives us a name for the times in which we live. It
summarizes a wide spectrum of experiences shared by many people. There is a dichotomy at the
heart of this term: the world is becoming smaller because of the increasing connections but is also
getting larger because our horizons have never been so broad. Therefore, globalization is a good
term to describe the zeitgeist.
Here, historians intervene. They state for example that a globalizing economy emerged long
before globalization was a term. They use all-encompassing concepts of historical process to explain
changes that the world has experienced in the last three centuries. These processes follow their own
time pattern but are linked in complicated ways. They all happen across vast time periods, occur in
different forms and intensities and unleash a force of change. The concept of modernization tries to
process them in one development.
Globalization seems to be predestined for a place among the macroprocesses of the world.
Could globalization be as expressive as a term like industrialization? That would be remarkable and
enrich the interpretative repertoire of historiography. If it gets that place, it will fulfill a huge need.
This book will attempt to throw a new light on the past from the perspective of globalization.
Is it true that many aspects of our lives can only be understood in connection to worldwide integrity?
Can we really speak of a turning point in history? A global age or second modernity?
The Core Concept and the Controversies
The most important factors in any explanation are the expansion, concentration and acceleration of
worldwide relations. Definitions often contain diagnoses of our own time. It throws up 3 questions:
1; does globalization mean the demise of the nation state? 2; will it usher in cultural homogeneity?
3; will it bestow new meaning on the concepts of time and space? In the discussion about the
,meaning of the term, value judgements are often given. Enthusiasts of globalization welcome it as
growth and prosperity, while opponents see an era dominated by the west.
1 The consensus now among authors is the assumption that globalization challenges the
nation-state and alters the balance of power between states and markets in favor of the markets.
The ones profiting are multinational corporations. Governments can’t influence economic
development as before. The welfare state’s provisions are being dismantled. “one of the central
themes of social science today is the erosion of the (nation) state’s external sovereignty, its domestic
monopoly force, and its ability to govern.”
2 The second general agreement about globalization is that it influences everything that is
covered by ‘culture’. Cultural globalization was first understood as a growing dominance of American
culture over the world. Soon, movements to preserve local traditions etc. started to develop. This is
called the universalization of particularism and the particularization of universalism by Robertson. He
coined the term glocalization, meaning that globalization always has local impact and requires
absorption. Hybridity is often seen as the result of cultural change through globalization.
Glocalization’s most important mechanisms are mass media, long-distance travel and global demand
for consumer goods.
3 Because of the ease and frequency things and people cover distances, authors describe
globalization as having changed the concept of time and space. The space-time-compression of
Harvey can be seen as the third fundamental aspect of globalization. It was started by the telephone,
and the most important cause of this is the increased speed of communication.
This is also expressed in the idea of supraterritoriality, meaning that borders and distance no
longer play a role in social relations. Scholars think that globalization can be understood as
dismantling territoriality.
Most debating scholars take one of these three wide definitions to base their arguments on.
Albrow’s globality and Castells’s network society are important.
Albrow: globality turns the present in unlike anything we’ve seen before. This is
reflected that issues and dangers are reflected in a global thing (for example:
environmental issues exist in a framework of a global ecological system). He also
states that more and more people become aware of the global context of their
actions and positions.
Castells: he also claims that globalization is unprecedented. Through computers and
technology, social relations are not bound by territory. Economics and politics are
horizontal networks. The basis for exercising power has changed. The social ‘top’
and ‘bottom’ and the geographical ‘center’ and ‘periphery’ are used to determine to
if something or someone belongs or is being excluded. Castells divides the world in
connected people and people who are not.
There are also approaches where globalization isn’t mystified and remains a descriptive
concept of processes of transformation. For Held, globalization is the outcome of long evolving
processes. All these processes have different speed and impact. In this view, globalization is an open
process that alters human collective institutions. Rosenau and Clark also see globalization as recent
but with long-existing processes of interaction between human institutions.
Skeptics are also not hard to find. They should not be confused with the opponents of
globalization. Hirst and Thompson say that the standard literature consists of anecdotes that are
taken out of their contexts and together should form globalization.
So, anyone who identifies the signs of globalization (examples page 11) finds globalization in
the second half of the 19th century and so on. On the other hand, anyone who searches for
worldwide networking will feel that they are witnessing a new era or refuse to accept that diagnosis.
As historians we first need to establish our ‘own’ globalization concept. It should be clear and avoid
pedantry.
Chapter 2: The Dimensions of Globalization
, If globalization really is something that represent a new era, then it is necessary to compare this era
with the one before. But isn’t it a result of multiple long-term processes? Although it seems as if
historians have paid less to no attention to the ‘global’, if we change our keywords, we find much
more result. This also is a reason to split globalization in smaller components. Globalization also
needs to be placed in the context of the social sciences.
World System – Imperialism – Global History
Sociology has long been seen as studying societies in a national framework. Because of globalization,
the idea that a nation was a contained entity. Nationalism and nation-state were suddenly seen as
not appropriate for the 20th century, and even for earlier times. This shift took more time among
historians because most of them still were national historians. The following 4 fields have proven
useful in the light of globalization:
World economy: since its demise a couple of decades ago, the study of mainly
international trade is experiencing a revival of interest. Institutions as that in Kiel for
world economics are today valuable sources for reconstructing the global economic
relations. Since 1990 research also focused on migration, labor, agriculture and the
role of institutions. This gives us an overview of the evolution of global factor
markets. Economic globalization thus can be broken down in smaller components.
The 19th century is portrait as a watershed between periods.
Migration research: here methods and questions of demography and social history
are combined. It seeks to map migration movements and to discover reasons behind
migration and the experiences of the immigrants. Long-distance, transoceanic
migration is one of the most important subjects in this field. Diasporas, where
migrants keep contact with their home country over a long time, are seen as social
discontinuities. Slavery is one prime example of this.
International relations: this long has been a history where only bilateral relations
between countries (European mostly) have been important. Studies that examine
relations beyond continental borders are increasing. Conceptual horizons are being
broadened. Cultural and social factors are taken much more seriously.
Imperialism / colonialism: this is an important cornerstone for globalization. First it
was mostly a colonial history focused on the country of the researcher, but now it
tends towards a ‘histoire totale’. It uses ethnology and postcolonial studies and
criticism on eurocentrism. 3 trends are important. 1; the concept of empire gets a
new meaning. It is difficult to find similarities and differences between overseas
empires and continental empires on Eurasia. 2; new colonial history sees colonies as
multiethnic spheres were permanent identity formation takes place. 3; the question
about the impact of empires on colonized lands is reversed to the impact on the
motherland.
Again, none of these for can be identified if one uses a single grand theory of globalization.
In the English-speaking world, people also have shown interest in world history. Manning explains
world history as “the study of connections between communities and between communities and
their environments.” World history and global history are viewed as different in this book. World
history is an overview and a comparison of various civilizations, and global history tries to analyze
relations among people, countries etcetera from other perspectives than power politics and
economics. It includes globalization but also covers subjects that are not contributing to
globalization.
Wallerstein coined the term world-systems, for anyone who wants an all-encompassing
theory. He bases himself on historical research, but his theory has not truly described global
connections. His theory has many flaws but remains an inspiration for many.
Some elements of Wallerstein have proven useful. 1; a scale of levels of inquiry ranging from
private households to the world system. 2; the concept of an incorporation of external areas on the
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