Globalization and the future of the society

Sociology Research Paper - Globalization and the future of the society
Abstract
Globalisation is a general concept and can be understand differently in different subjects. This research paper mainly concentrates on the impact of globalisation on the society and how it has an effect on the word or concept known as ‘social’. This paper will mainly concentrate on the issues that lie between the different concepts (mainly territorial) and understanding of social, and the process and concept of globalization. Further, I would try to explain the implications it has for state – society relationships and how does it help to explain the concept of the social. Many questions arose with the introduction of the process globalisation, like, is globalisation an emergent process or a complex combination of social, economic, cultural and political changes? Does it really show the social condition or just try to explain all the familiar processes into a new language? How is globalisation different from the previously existing concepts such as post modernity, imperialism, internationalism, weightless economy, post – Fordism, neoliberalism and many more? How does this concept differ from the already existing sociological theories? Should the introduction of globalization be welcomed or should it be resisted? This paper will not answer all these issues but at the same time there will be brief discussions on these topics.
Keywords- Globalisation, concept of social, Social Space, territorial concept, globalized concept, globality.
Introduction
Globalization became the main attraction of important theoretical and conceptual discussions in the end of the twentieth century that gave rise to a large number of disciplines in addition to sociology. These disciplines faced many controversies and difficulties but at the same time these discussions and studies showed the signs of types of exhaustion that set in with postmodernism in the late nineties. In brief, difficult issues came up all the time and in order to answer them these debates needed more clarity and explaining. In 1989, the end of European Communist Systems, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Soviet Union changed the world fundamentally. All these events took place during the ‘long post-communist decade’ (as called by Stephen Holmes), where many people believed that with the removal of the borders and a quick growth in the world trade they would be able to tackle all the problems faced by the poor, would move towards an improved way of democratic system and there would be spread of the rule of law. There rose an era of competitive capitalism all over the world which further marked the end of all the existing alternatives to capitalism. The bi-polar world of the Cold War of the Cold War gave way to a multi-polar world in which there was a (contested) global hegemony of neoliberal ideas at least for the following decade. The ‘long decade’ came to an end with the fall of the Twin Towers in 2001 which made many think that globalization imposed some serious threats to the future of the whole world. Thus it was after 1989 that globalization finally took a birth or as Friedman says, “was born when the Wall fell in 1989.”
Review of Literature
Studies and research shows that one of the main consequences of globalization would be on the society and there would be an end of the ‘social’ in the sense of territorially bounded societies that have been at the core of the sociological studies and research. Former British PM Margret Thatcher believed that “there is no such thing as society” but Urry argued that “Thatcher might have been right to claim that there is no such thing as society or at least the riposte from the sociological community was not fully justified” (Urry 2000). The term ‘social’ had always been understood as more of a territorial concept but the social theorists in recent years argued that it should be considered as more of a globalized term as many social relations take place on many levels other than territorial borders, for example, global flow of goods and services, capital, conflicts, migration, and thus these theorists aim to replace this theory by a more fluid concept.
Ulrich Beck for example says, “With multidimensional globalisation, it is not only a new set of connections and cross-connections which comes into being. Much more far-reaching is the breakdown of our basic assumptions whereby societies and states have been conceived, organized and experienced as a territorial unity separated from one another. Globality means that the unity of national state and natural society comes unstuck: new relations of power and competition conflict and intersect, take shape between on the one hand, national states and actors, and n the other hand, transnational actors, identities social spaces, situations and processes.” (Beck 2000: 21) For Scholte, “Methodological territorialism lies at the heart of currently prevailing identities and society. Thus the vast majority of social and political geographers have conceived of the world in terms of bordered territorial units.”
Social space is both territorial and super territorial creating greater complexity than in earlier periods.
In addition to it, with the changes in the global economic and political changes, In 1998 Bauman said, “The things most important for the well-being and life-prospects of its citizens are largely beyond the government’s control: they are in the hands of the so called ‘market forces’ – that enigmatic entity reminiscent of primeval elements, natural disasters or blind fate, rather than of well considered, purposeful and rational human decisions. Governments can do less and less to influence the course of events which affect directly the livelihood of their subjects.”
Socio-Economic View of Globalization
With the increasing technology and declining distances we can have breakfast in India, lunch in America and dinner in china. The world has become a global village in which all are just one click apart. Begins with the Silk Road now the earth has a gigantic way for exchanging and that is called globalization. But with the pace at which globalization is spreading its roots, has lead to many drawbacks which in turn resulted in socio-economic problem.
The most important disadvantage which has been caused by globalization is the increasing number of the loafer. After the industrial revolution, secondary industry witnessed growth in some particular countries. Because of that, these countries attained power in industry all over the globe and become dominated over others. However in consequence to this, production decreased and so unemployment rise in those countries which are either less developed or is developing. Another reason of the unemployment rise is that the need of less manpower. Another major damage of globalization is that with the removal of trade and communication barriers all over the world, westernization has started entering east countries and modernization has started overlapping tradition and cultures. Also the cultures of the countries that have more economic power are more dominant than others. Dominant countries which are usually wealthy in both financial resources and man-power resources, produce many things that can affect cultures, for example, clothes, movies and technologic products. According to Kerd , while the global community is increasing, more and more people have became ignorant about social, ethical and moral values which are various in defining groups. (2002) Therefore, globalization damages small cultures which are in risk of being extinct. Lack of Moral values and traditional knowledge leads to communal violence and also to some addictive habits into which children indulge easily. Thus, not only affecting the economy but also affecting youth of the society. The final significant effect of globalization is the difficulty of competition. With globalization, trade between the countries has become far more easily and ultimately without any much barriers. This situation of enterprises has prepared the ground to be in constant competition with not only national competitors but also international competitors. Therefore, business requires being in a more rigorous and challenging competitive atmosphere to maintain continuity and development. Rising of monopole companies and trough among production costs are the main effects of this hard competition in business. It is a common sight, in order to maintain the sales with profit in hard competitions, entrepreneurs start manufacturing low quality products, indirectly harming the society and economy.

WHERE ARE WE WITH GLOBALIZATION?
Studies show that in the previous century more advances have been seen in global prosperity and more people have been lifted out of poverty than in all ancient history. There are a major number of reasons for this achievement, but globalization has played an important catalytic role. World poverty has fallen dramatically in the past 30 years. For example, from the past forty to fifty years the development in India and china has played an important role in the lessening of the world poverty. However, economic growth is not that balanced across the globe. Many countries have witnessed immense growth and others have fallen in deep hole of poverty. For example the Sub-Saharan Africa requires greater focus to deal with poverty (Barro 2002). According to Shanta Sharma , “The uneven economic growth trend in the present has widened the gap between developed and developing countries. According to economic forecasts if the current pattern of uneven economic growth continues, the poorest countries of the world will grow even poorer while the richest countries will become even richer. For example it is estimated that by 2030, global production will triple. However in Sub-Sahara Africa, per capita income will fall to just $32 a year, whereas in high-income countries, average per- capita income will approach $40,000. Many of the countries of East Asia are expected to catch up to the high-income countries in terms of per-capita income. By2050, china’s per capita income is not likely to approach that level until at least 2080, and India’s will not reach the $40,000 per capita mark until about 2130 the twenty second century (United Nations Development Programme 1996). The present world unbalanced and uneven economic growth has raised a question can this gap between the rich and poor nations will be narrowed rather than widened in the future? This question has made professionals and global society to rethink about the impact globalization and future of rich and poor countries (Renzetti and Curran 1998).”
Conclusion
This paper thus shows that state is still effective in a global era and is congruent with the increasing “deterritorialization of society”. Just like Shaw states, “It does not make sense to purpose that economic or cultural globalization could by themselves undermine the nation-state, without specifically political transformations actively influencing the process.” (Shaw 2000)
In the modern era the State relations are not linked to national or international boundaries but it is considered in a unified way, that is, the basic structure of all forms of social relations has changed on a global scale. Many traditional concepts (like state-society, economy-culture, and national-international) are not that clear and thus it is surpassed by globality. In this way, we can say that the different level of social relations (modern theory) replaces the classical concepts of sociological framework. I have stated, though it needs more explaining and content, as to how the modern approach is different and better than the already existing classical theories and concepts as these theories take a wider understanding into account. In the end, most of the approaches to globality does not pay much attention to sociological terms and problems like social integration and solidarity.

References
• Bauman. Z (1998) ‘Europe of Strangers’ Transnational Communities Programme
WPTC 98-03 http://www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk/working%20papers/bauman.pdf
• Beck. U (2000) what is Globalization? Cambridge: Polity Press
• Holmes. S (2001) ‘Introduction to “From Post communism to Post-September 11”’ East European Constitutional Review Winter pp 78-81
• Ray. L (2005) ‘Globalization and the future of the ‘social’, Published by the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Canterburry,CT2 7NY,UK.
• Scholte. J A ‘What Is Globalization? The Definitional Issue – Again’ CSGR Working
Paper No. 109/02 December 2002 http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/csgr/research/workingpapers/2002/wp10902.pdf/ • Shaw. M (2000) Theory of the Global State Globality as Unfinished Revolution
Cambridge University Press
• Urry J (2000) ‘Mobile Sociology’ British Journal of Sociology 51, 1:185-203

References: • Bauman. Z (1998) ‘Europe of Strangers’ Transnational Communities Programme WPTC 98-03 http://www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk/working%20papers/bauman.pdf • Beck. U (2000) what is Globalization? Cambridge: Polity Press • Holmes • Ray. L (2005) ‘Globalization and the future of the ‘social’, Published by the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Canterburry,CT2 7NY,UK. Cambridge University Press • Urry J (2000) ‘Mobile Sociology’ British Journal of Sociology 51, 1:185-203