GLOBALIZATION AS Mcworld
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Economic Development: a Case for Visionary Leadership by Paul Weisenfeld
Economic Development: A Case for Visionary Leadership by Paul Weisenfeld Paul Weisenfeld is mission director at the U.S. Agency for International Development in Zimbabwe. The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of USAID. ince 9/11/01, efforts to identify the causes of persistent poverty and despair in the developing world have expanded, largely focused on Scultural factors, especially in Middle Eastern cultures. There is no question that cultural attitudes and practices have an impact on economic development. Culture, however, does not evolve in isolation. It is only one of many factors that impede economic growth. Geography, environment, and history influence the evolution of culture and have served as significant obstacles to growth in low-income countries. The failure to recognize these other factors leads us to underestimate the enormity of the challenges facing poor countries and, consequently, to devise prescriptions for overcoming poverty that are unrealistic and unlikely to succeed. Prior to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, life for most Europeans and Americans who were not born into the landed elite was similar to that of the poor in the developing world today: nasty, brutish, and short. This was before the unprecedented creation of wealth brought about by democratic capitalism. In fact, Europe was the technological, cultural, and economic backwater of Eurasia for most of history, importing virtually all of its ideas and technologies from the Middle East and Asia. Europe’s distinctive geography and history allowed for an era of increasing innovation between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, creating the conditions that ultimately transformed European culture and its American spin-off into the vibrant cultural and economic powerhouses of today. -
The Globalization of Nothing
The Globalization of Nothing THE GLOBALIZATION OF NOTHING GEORGE RITZER University of Maryland WITH MICHAEL RYAN University of Maryland In this essay,1 we will argue that we are witnessing the globalization of nothing.2 Note that we are not arguing that globalization is nothing; indeed it is clear that the process is of enormous significance. Rather, the argument is, using a term borrowed from Weber, that there is an elective affinity between globalization and nothing. That is, one does not cause the other, but they do tend to vary together. Thus, globalization tends to involve the spread of nothing throughout the world. Of course, what is pivotal is the meaning of nothing. By nothing, we mean (largely) empty forms that are centrally conceived and controlled and relatively devoid of distinctive content. Conversely, something is defined here as (largely) full forms that are indigenously conceived and controlled and relatively rich in distinctive content. Thus, it is easier to export empty forms (nothing) throughout the globe than it is forms that are loaded with content (something). The latter are more likely to be rejected by at least some cultures and societies because the content is more likely to conflict with local content and be found offensive by more of the natives. In contrast, empty forms are less likely to come into conflict with local forms and since they are devoid of distinctive content, it would be difficult for them to arouse anxiety in the natives. In addition, empty forms have other advantages from the point of view of globalization including the fact that since they are so minimalist, they are easy to replicate over and over 51 Social Thought & Research and they have a cost advantage since they are relatively inexpensive to reproduce. -
The Mcdonaldization of Medicine
Opinion VIEWPOINT The McDonaldization of Medicine E. Ray Dorsey, MD, AsputforthinTheMcDonaldizationofSociety,“theprin- length of patient visits can result in equal care that does MBA ciples of the fast-food restaurant are coming to domi- not address individual needs. Department of nate more and more sectors of American society,”1 The final dimension of McDonaldization is control Neurology, University including medicine (Table). While designed to produce of humans by nonhuman technology,1 which is increas- of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, a rational system, the 4 basic principles of McDonaldiza- ingly applied to both physicians and patients. In fast- New York. tion—efficiency,calculability,predictability,and control— food restaurants, machines, not workers, control cook- often lead to adverse consequences. Without mea- ing. In medicine, resident physicians now spend far more George Ritzer, PhD, sures to counter McDonaldization, medicine’s most time with computers (40%) than with patients (12%).4 MBA cherished and defining values including care for the Billing codes and policies, which specify the length and Department of Sociology, University of individual and meaningful patient-physician relation- content of visits, dictate the care that patients receive, Maryland, College Park. ships will be threatened. influence clinicians, lead to unnecessary procedures, and McDonaldization’sfirstdimensionisefficiency,orthe can adversely affect patient health. The electronic medi- effort to find the optimal means to any end. While cal record controls interactions between physicians and efficiency is “generally a good thing,”1 irrationalities patients by specifying what questions must be asked and develop in the march toward ever-increasing efficiency. what tasks must be completed, thereby substituting the For example, while the drive-through window is effi- judgment of a computer for that of a physician. -
Acting Locally in a Flat World: Global Citizenship and the Democratic Practice of Service-Learning Richard M
© Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, Volume 13, Number 2, p. 89, (2009) Acting Locally in a Flat World: Global Citizenship and the Democratic Practice of Service-Learning Richard M. Battistoni, Nicholas V. Longo, Stephanie Raill Jayanandhan Abstract This article suggests ways to frame the democratic practice of service-learning in the context of a global society, and reports on emerging efforts at three universities to act globally through local community engagement. The article concludes with prac- tical lessons for promoting global citizenship through service- learning in higher education. Democracy must begin at home, and its home is the neigh- borly community. —John Dewey, The Public and Its Problems The world is being flattened. I didn’t start it and you can’t stop it, except at a great cost to human development and your own future. —Thomas Friedman, The World Is Flat Introduction uilding on the ideas of John Dewey, service-learning has always sought to embed educational experiences within local contexts, relationships, and community institutions. BBut this education is taking place in an increasingly interconnected, global world, which has an impact on every aspect of community life. The “flattened world,” as Thomas Friedman has popularly termed the rise of globalization, has important implications for educators who aim to implement Dewey’s vision of building demo- cratic, neighborly communities. To continue to be relevant, service-learning needs to respond to the new realities of student and community life in -
The Internet, Web 2.0, and Beyond
33 The Internet, Web 2.0, and Beyond Nathan Jurgenson and George Ritzer Technology changes rapidly, often transforming the social world in the process. The internet, Web 2.0 in particular, is a perfect, even an extreme, example of this fact. This chapter focuses on the changes in the last half-decade that have radically transformed the web, creating what many now describe as Web 2.0 (succeeding the largely earlier Web 1.0). This new version of the internet is defined by the explosion in user-generated content. Because so many people are actively involved in this, as well as in the internet in general, their social lives have changed, sometimes dra- matically. Furthermore, new, very active, social worlds have been, and are being, created on the internet; users are actively creating a more richly social internet. Because of its impact on the larger social world, and because of the social worlds that it is creating, Web 2.0, as well as whatever form the web takes in the future (Web 3.0), should (must) be of increasing concern to sociologists. Technology is social: an inTroducTion To social Technologies online Barry Wellman (Wellman, Salaff, Dimitrova, Garton, Gulia & Haythornthwaite 1996; Wellman & Gulia 1999a, 1999b; Wellman, Haase, Witte & Hampton 2001; Wellman & Haythornthwaite 2002) has argued that computer networks can be social (see especially Wellman et al.’s [1996] article, “Computer Networks as Social Networks: Collaborative Work, Telework, and Virtual Community”). One of his early insights is that virtual communities are based more on shared interests The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Sociology, First Edition. -
In a Flatter World Characterized by Rugged and Diverse Terrain, The
JULY 2012 THE GLOBAL NETWORK FOR ADVANCED MANAGEMENT Motivation: In a flatter world characterized by rugged and diverse terrain, the Global Network for Advanced Management is an innovative approach to enable those involved – faculty at business schools around the world, enterprises in all sectors, and students at various stages of professional development – to connect and address the leadership challenges facing business and society. Enterprises in all sectors need leaders who understand how markets and organizations work in increasingly diverse and complex contexts. Leadership teams must understand and contribute to the big issues facing societies around the world as well as be able to work effectively in and across regions and sectors, to adapt to the different roles of governments in economies, to master increasingly complicated financial arrangements, and to draw upon ever-closer connections in the modern world. Other important considerations for leaders include an appreciation of a broad range of diversity issues, e.g., the highly variable roles of women in business, and divergent approaches to the environment and education. Leaders also must attend to fundamental questions about enterprise objectives and effective means of aligning incentives and motivating sustained effort in these extraordinarily challenging and exciting times. The development of the Global Network for Advanced Management is a vital response to this diverse landscape as well as to limitations in the ways that business schools and other academic institutions are organized. As Thomas Friedman explained in compelling fashion,1 the world has flattened over the last three decades, as over three billion people have joined the world’s market- oriented economy and businesses have become more global, in large part due to technological advances. -
Prosperity Without Growth?Transition the Prosperity to a Sustainable Economy 2009
Prosperity without growth? The transition to a sustainable economy to a sustainable The transition www.sd-commission.org.uk Prosperity England 2009 (Main office) 55 Whitehall London SW1A 2HH without 020 7270 8498 [email protected] Scotland growth? Osborne House 1 Osbourne Terrace, Haymarket Edinburgh EH12 5HG 0131 625 1880 [email protected] www.sd-commission.org.uk/scotland Wales Room 1, University of Wales, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3NS Commission Development Sustainable 029 2037 6956 [email protected] www.sd-commission.org.uk/wales Northern Ireland Room E5 11, OFMDFM The transition to a Castle Buildings, Stormont Estate, Belfast BT4 3SR sustainable economy 028 9052 0196 [email protected] www.sd-commission.org.uk/northern_ireland Prosperity without growth? The transition to a sustainable economy Professor Tim Jackson Economics Commissioner Sustainable Development Commission Acknowledgements This report was written in my capacity as Economics Commissioner for the Sustainable Development Commission at the invitation of the Chair, Jonathon Porritt, who provided the initial inspiration, contributed extensively throughout the study and has been unreservedly supportive of my own work in this area for many years. For all these things, my profound thanks. The work has also inevitably drawn on my role as Director of the Research group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment (RESOLVE) at the University of Surrey, where I am lucky enough to work with a committed, enthusiastic and talented team of people carrying out research in areas relevant to this report. Their research is evident in the evidence base on which this report draws and I’m as grateful for their continuing intellectual support as I am for the financial support of the Economic and Social Research Council (Grant No: RES-152-25-1004) which keeps RESOLVE going. -
Global Studies Capstone Course -- HIST 1005-1280 Fall 2013
Global Studies Capstone Course -- HIST 1005-1280 Fall 2013 GLOBALIZATION: Impacts, Approaches, Struggles Instructor: Roger Rouse Wednesdays, 6.00-8.30pm 103 Allen Office Hours: M noon-2.30pm in 4106 Posvar; or by appt. Phone: 412-251-0327; e-mail: [email protected] OVERVIEW What is globalization? How has it been changing? And what does it mean for the ways people around the world relate to one another and their shared environment? In recent years, scholars, journalists, and artists have increasingly used the term “globalization” to register the sense that we are in the midst of a rapid intensification and reorganization of the processes through which people interact with one another and with nature beyond the boundaries of the states in which they live. Yet there are significant debates about how to evaluate these transnational developments and more profoundly about how to understand them. Such debates are often closely linked to major disagreements and disputes about whether globalization should continue or more commonly about the forms that it should take. 2 LEARNING OBJECTIVES In this course, we will focus on enhancing your ability to understand and evaluate these developments, debates, and conflicts, giving particular emphasis to: • the varied and changing impacts of contemporary globalization on people in different parts of the world and on the processes through which their experiences are connected and divided • the contending approaches that scholars, journalists, and artists are taking to conceptualizing these developments, investigating -
An Introduction to Mcdonaldization
Ritzer-ch01.qxd 1/22/02 11:05 AM Page 7 1 An Introduction to McDonaldization George Ritzer cDonald’s is the basis of one of the most influential developments in Mcontemporary society. Its reverberations extend far beyond its point of origin in the United States and in the fast-food business. It has influenced a wide range of undertakings, indeed the way of life, of a significant portion of the world. And that impact is likely to expand at an accelerating rate. However, this is not . about McDonald’s, or even about the fast-food business. Rather, McDonald’s serves here as the major example, the paradigm, of a wide-ranging process I call McDonaldization—that is, the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world. As you will see, McDonaldization affects not only the restaurant business but also . virtually every other aspect of society. McDonaldization has shown every sign of being an inexorable process, sweeping through seem- ingly impervious institutions and regions of the world. Editor’s Note: Excerpts from “An Introduction to McDonaldization,” pp. 1–19 in The McDonaldization of Society, 3rd ed., by George Ritzer. Copyright © 2000, Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, CA. Used with permission. 7 Ritzer-ch01.qxd 1/22/02 11:05 AM Page 8 8 Basics, Studies, Applications, and Extensions The success of McDonald’s itself is apparent. “There are McDonald’s everywhere. There’s one near you, and there’s one being built right now even nearer to you. -
Chapter Iii Values in Jean Baudrillard's Theory Of
CHAPTER III VALUES IN JEAN BAUDRILLARD’S THEORY OF CONSUMER SOCIETY A. Biography1 Baudrillard was born in Reims, northeastern France, on 27 July 1929. He told to the interviewers that his grandparents were peasants and his parents were civil servants. During his high school studies at the Reims Lycée, he touched with pataphysics (via the philosophy professor Emmanuel Peillet), which was said to be crucial for understanding Baudrillard's later thought. He became the first of his family who attended university when he moved to Paris to attend Sorbonne University. There he studied German language and literature which led him to begin teaching these subjects at several different lycées, both Parisian and provincial, from 1960 until 1966. While teaching, Baudrillard began to publish reviews of literature and translated the works of such authors such as Peter Weiss, Bertolt Brecht, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Wilhelm Emil Mühlmann. During his time as a teacher of German language and literature, Baudrillard began to transfer to sociology field, eventually completing his doctoral thesis Le Système des objets (The System of Objects) under the dissertation committee of Henri Lefebvre, Roland Barthes, and Pierre Bourdieu. Subsequently, he began teaching sociology at the Université de Paris-X Nanterre, a university campus outside of Paris which would become heavily involved in the events of May 1968. During this time, Baudrillard worked closely with Philosopher Humphrey De Battenburge, who described Baudrillard as a “visionary”. At Nanterre he took up a position as Maître Assistant (Assistant Professor), then Maître de Conférences (Associate Professor), eventually becoming a professor after completing his accreditation, L'Autre par lui- même (The Other by Himself). -
Efficiency and Calculability
3 Efficiency and Calculability Consumers 1 distribute or hapter 2 dealt largely with the organizations and systems that have been C the precursors of the process of McDonaldization. As we saw, they include bureaucracies, concentration camps, industrial organizations, suburban communities, shopping centers, and, of course, fast-food restaurants. Needless to say, people exist in these settings.post, It is the norm to distinguish between two types of people in these settings: consumers (or customers, clients) and produc- ers (or workers). We will adhere to that norm in the next four chapters. This chapter and the next will deal with consumers, while Chapters 5 and 6 will be devoted to producers. However, more and more scholars are rejecting the binary distinction betweencopy, producers and consumers and thinking more in terms of “prosumers,” or those who both produce and consume.1 We will have more to say about prosumers at several points in this book, but for the time being we will set that concept aside and deal separately with consumers and producers.not This chapter deals with consumers in terms of two of the four basic dimen- sions of McDonaldization: efficiency and calculability. Chapter 4 does the same withDo the other two dimensions of McDonaldization: predictability and control. While the focus is on the consumer, workers—the producers—will inevitably be touched on in these chapters and discussions. We will deal with a wide array of consumers in the next two chapters includ- ing tourists, students, campers, diners, patients, parents, mothers-to-be, shop- pers (including cybershoppers), dieters, exercisers, and those looking for dates (or for only sex). -
The World Is Flat: a Brief History of the Twenty First Century
THE WORLD IS FLAT: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY By Thomas L. Friedman. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. 488pp Thomas Friedman has won the Pulitzer Prize three times for his work at the New York Times, where he writes a regular syndicated column. He is also the author of numerous books, including the popular 1999 book on globalization, “The Lexus and the Olive Tree.” Friedman’s premise is that computing and telecommunications technologies have done more than speed up the world—they have transformed the nature of commerce and society. This transformation has huge implications for business, geopolitics, and individual survival in a world that now operates by a new set of rules. I no longer compete only with those in my industry who are located nearby. A large company can lose out to a small company a world away. An individual in Indiana can lose a job to an individual in India or South Africa. No government, business, or individual is immune to these forces, so we had better understand them. Numerous examples of companies operating around the world were sited. In one section he recounts an order placed for a Dell laptop computer. Each part of the computer is listed below and it’s country of origin: Dell Inspiron 600m Notebook: Part/Function Mfg/Assembly Online order to Penang Malaysia Assembly Penang Malaysia Intel processor Philippines. Costa Rica, Malaysia or China Memory Korea (Samsung) Taiwan (Nanya) Germany (Infineon) Japan (Elpida) Graphics Card China (MSI or Foxconn) Cooling Fan Taiwan (CCI or Auras) Motherboard