In your answer you should explain a range of meanings for the term "globalization".
Illustrate your answer with examples of ways in which globalization is operating in the modern world.
A couple of years ago, the term globalization was relatively unknown. Today you can see signs of it almost everywhere and it is affecting virtually everyone in the modern society. Globalization relates to the fact that we all increasingly live in "one world", so that individuals, groups and nations become more interdependent (Giddens 2001).
Many see globalization as a primarily economic phenomenon, involving the increasingly integration of national economic systems through the growth in international trade, investment and capital flows. However, one can also point to a rapid increase in cross-border social, cultural, political and technological exchange as part of the phenomenon of globalization. These aspects of globalization will be dealt with in turn in this essay.
As a result of the growth of transnational corporations (TNC) an increasing integration of economies around the globe has appeared more and more clearly in the last couple of decades. "Transnational corporations are the heart of economic globalization" Giddens argues. If you look at their size and how they have expanded around the world, affecting millions and millions of people then you can imagine what striking power they have. This power doesn't just have positive sides. Some argues that this creates a world of winners and losers, a few on the fast track to success, the majority condemned to a life of misery and despair. The statistical fact is that the poorest fifth of the world's population in global income has dropped while the richest fifth has increased (Giddens 1999). .
The way people live today in the modern society leaves obvious effects on others. "The compression of the world" relates to the fact what people do on one side of the globe has immediate consequences for people on the other side (Hoogvelt 2001).
