What is globalization?

1. Summarize in your own words of materials you read

           “What is globalization?” The answer of this question is general. Also, it is difficult to define the specific meaning of the word. The reason why getting an answer to the question is difficult is it include various distinctive features to maintain the word, globalization. The definition of globalization that is accepted to everyone is yet to seek. However, there are many attempts to define the meaning of globalization that contains concept. Accordingly, a number of scholars are trying to find the idea about globalization.

           Velho is someone who described the globalization as a single process and mentioned that global education is the primary goal to grow. Therefore, globalization could be construed as the movement of the whole world. In sociology, anthropology, and the study of religion, globalization got specific name in late 1970s and early 1980s.

           There was the antiglobalization movement in the late 1990s. As many people use the Internet for global movement, global consciousness is keep developing. It is obvious that globalization has two side of effect, good side and the bad side. In the reading, it express as the ‘nasty’ side for bad side of globalization. More in details, the nasty side of globalization is about the globalization of capitalism. For more general sight of globalization, the world became a ‘single place’ continuously. The whole world became the only one.

           The most important factor of the process of globalization is the increasing connectivity. As the world becoming the single place, there are interconnectedness. The process of globalization works in complicated ways with increasing connectivity. Moreover, it naturally causes the civilizational conflict like the ‘Judeo-Christian’. Also, the religious problems are caused in the civilizational conflict.

           A lot of books and articles stipulate about three dimensions that are major factors to define the globalization. The economic dimension, the political dimension, the cultural dimension, and the social dimension are the four major dimensions of globalization. For the cultural dimension, the McDonaldization is come up the cultural imperialism and cultural globalization. The American aspect of their social and economic has been spread with international corporations. And we can find out that people throughout the world have extremely similar social and economical practices. Moreover, this phenomenon changed the tradition that each country got their uniqueness into similar practice.

           Wallerstein called the modern world-system as the world capitalist system and he mentioned that every country is becoming one as the progress of integration. The world has ideological integration, such as Soviet Communist Party.

           Globalization has the general pattern: International-systemic aspect, concept of humanity, individual selves and the nation-state.

2. Mention of any new, interesting, or unusual items learned

           Before mention about the interesting things that I learned, it was quite difficult to understand this reading. Each sentence in the reading is too long and too much using of which, what, and that. So, I have to read this with carefulness. However, it is still ambiguous about some items that I read. Firstly, the interesting thing in this reading is about the context about the form of the globalization. With the examples of ideological integrated nation, such as the soviet Communist Party and the German Fascism. Secondly, for the new item I learned from this reading are various examples about the ‘nasty’ side of globalization. I knew just a few concepts about bad sides of globalization. I have learned the possible bad side of globalization more. For the unusual item is the glocalization. I could understand only a large meaning of it and I still confuse about the glocalization in details.

3. Identify at least one question, concern, or discussion angle

           I would like to talk about the glocalization. The word ‘glocalization’ is the compound word of globalization and localization. It means that global products or goods are became locally changed.(if it is wrong meaning, please teach me a right meaning of glocalization.) And in the reading, it says ‘the alleged problem of the relationship between the local and the global could be overcome by a deceptively simple conceptual move.’ I need more specific details about this statement.