What is globalization

1) summarize in your own words of materials you read; 

What is Globalization? It can cover number of disciplinary standpoints or distinctive features of what has come to be called globalization. Many scholars define globalization differently. Velho (1997), for example, has spoken of globalisation as a single process, as if ‘it’ were being addressed from an Archimedean standpoint. In the Velho’s paradigm, it is the direction in which the world considered as a whole is moving. During the 1990s there arose what was called the antiglobalisation movement. The protest against capitalistic globalization grew rapidly.

The most important single defining feature of globalization is that of increasing connectivity and consciousness. Samuel Huntington predicted that, assumed end of the Cold War, centred as it was upon the conflict between the United States and USSR, the major world conflicts from there on would not be ideologically based, but rather focused more on civilizational issues. In Huntington’s argument, civilizational conflicts would revolve above all upon profound differences in conceptions of the nature and purpose of human life.

There are three major dimensions of globalization: the economic, the political and the cultural. The culture has come increasingly to the fore partly because of the concern with economic globalization. There has been much talk of what Ritzer has called McDonaldization (2000). Ritzer has been primarily concerned with the spread from America to much of the rest of the world of certain social and economic practices that have been spread not simply by the McDonald’s, but by such others as Nike, Starbucks, the Gap, KFC and so on.

The concept of glocalization is one which has received considerable attention within the confines of business studies. The problem between the local and the global could be overcome by a deceptively simple concept of diffusion. Diffusion theory anticipated what we now call glocalization in very important respects.

2) mention of any new, interesting, or unusual items learned; 

For me, the most interesting part in this article was about ‘glocalization’. We often think we are living in a globalized world. However, the real world is not simple as that. Even McDonald’s spread all over the world, it is necessary to be the same in every country. For example, McDonald’s in Korea sell Bulgogi Burger. Which is combine of global and local culture. But I wonder if the globalization process as a homogenizing force continue, could local cultures eventually survive?

3) identify at least one question, concern, or discussion angle that is either problematic in some respect or could have been elaborated more.

Is globalization more likely, as Ritzer argued, homogenization? Or is it rather a diffusion of multiple cultures. It is true that we can found Korean restaurants easily in other country. But on the other hand, what we can call ‘our culture’ or ‘tradition’ is becoming hard to find. So the question is, will globalization eventually bring monoculturalism or cultural diversity can remain in the future?