Blog assignment 2 / What is Globalization? / Siyoung In


1) summarize in your own words of materials you read; 
What is ‘globalization’?
Globalization is plural because there are differences in perspective across the world, and also there is a deviation with respect to ideas about globalization from one civilization. Velho said globalization is object, perspective and horizon. The object approach see globalization is a single process.
Globalization was discussed in religion, sociology, anthropology in the late 1970s and the early 1980s. However, the term of globalization was used after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and communism.
As anti-globalization movement progresses in the late 1990s, WTO, IMF, G7/8 was promoted with the development of Internet, and the development of global recognition about inequality from globalization was also discussed in the economic sense. As the protests against capitalist globalization spread rapidly, there was also the view that the anti-globalization movement itself was a part of the process of globalization. Meanwhile, since the early 1990s, policies were developed to support the demand for open markets, free trade, deregulation and privatization, especially for rich countries. Along with the advocacy of such policies, commonly called neoliberalism, these policies are becoming increasingly important in global economic life as transnational corporations around the world. However, focusing on the capitalist concept of globalization has led to a tendency for many important sociological factors to be largely ignored.
The Parameters of the General Process of Globalization : Connectivity and Consciousness
The characteristic of globalization is that it increases connectivity. However, people who think that connectivity is only focused do not pay direct attention to what can be considered a combination of subjective and cultural factors in general terms. Both connectivity and consciousness are important, but those who support just connectivity relatively ignore consciousness. Certain areas have considered globalization, with the emphasis placed on either connectivity or consciousness. For example, political scientists, international relations specialists and economists regard connectivity as important, while anthropologists, sociologists and cultural historians emphasis consciousness.
Globalization consists three dimensions: economic, political, and cultural dimensions.
Ritzer mentioned McDonaldization, but he has been mainly concerned not only with McDonald’s but also other global companies spread with the global expansion of certain social and economic practices, and those companies, nevertheless need to adapt to the local environment. And those adaptation to the local environment can consist of homogeneity. It means that localization can promote heterogeneity, but the way localization processes around the world is similar.
Sociologists have often overlooked social aspects when considering globalization. However, Ritzer was referring to McDonaldization, and studied the social aspects and relationships of globalization. Even though sociologists have overlooked social aspects of globalization, the spread and convergence of social interaction and communication styles played a pivotal role in the globalization process.
Immanuel Wallerstein, mentioned the form of globalization, argued that there are several ways the world can be a single space, but this ‘single space’ does not mean that we live in a world where every country and sectors is completely integrated.
There are four components in progress of globalization, they are international-systemic aspect, humanity, individual selves, and nation-state.
Localization has received attention in the limited field of business. This concept of localization was introduced in relations between the ‘global’ and ‘local’. Indeed, so far local has been accepted as the opposite of global concept, but the two concepts should be considered in different ways under the same concept rather than opposition.
It is necessary to apply various consumer traits to produce goods for various consumers. In practice, producers thought that simply being able to achieve localization just based on local circumstances, but it should be studied how the relationship between the world and the region actually works.
Since there is no standard for how a globalized world looks, it is impossible to use the term ‘globalized world’, and globalization inherently limits itself in terms of localization. However, as a homogenizing force works, given Ritzer's globalization, globalization cannot be regarded that it limits itself.

2) mention of any new, interesting, or unusual items learned; 
First, it was interesting that there were a lot of different theories and opinions surrounding globalization. For example, scholars of one dimension only value the connectivity of globalization, while scholars of the other side value consciousness. In addition, there were three major dimensions of globalization, but the fact that socialists themselves have overlooked the social aspect was one of the things that I was a little curious and unexpected. And what was most interesting was that there were four elements that make up the globalization process. I had never thought that the elements that make up globalization would include individual selves or humanity, but in this article I learned that they would be necessary for the globalization process.

3) identify at least one question, concern, or discussion angle;
In this article, there are four important factors that are included in the globalization process, which are international-systemic aspect, humanity, individual selves, and nation-state. There are various opinions that each element should be included in the globalization process, and I personally thought that the contents of the article to include the individual selves are very persuasive, and that it is a necessary and important factor in the impact of the individual selves on globalization. Therefore, I would like to discuss what factors do you think important.

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