THE SYSTEMIC DIMENSION OF GLOBALIZATION Edited by Piotr Pachura The Systemic Dimension of Globalization Edited by Piotr Pachura Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2011 InTech All chapters are Open Access articles distributed under the Creative Commons Non Commercial Share Alike Attribution 3.0 license, which permits to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the work in any medium, so long as the original work is properly cited. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published articles. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Niksa Mandic Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic Cover Designer Jan Hyrat Image Copyright Varina and Jay Pate, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com First published July, 2011 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from [email protected] The Systemic Dimension of Globalization, Edited by Piotr Pachura p. cm. ISBN 978-953-307-384-2 free online editions of InTech Books and Journals can be found at www.intechopen.com Contents Preface IX Part 1 Globalization and Complex Systems 1 Chapter 1 Sustainability by Interrelating Science, Society and Economy in Embedded Political Economy – an Epistemological Approach 3 Masudul Alam Choudhury and Lubna Sarwath Mohammad Chapter 2 Globalization of Software Development Teams 27 M. Rita Thissen, Susan K. Myers, R. Nathan Sikes, Jean P. Robinson and Valentina Grouverman Chapter 3 Bilateral Home Bias: New Perspective, New Findings 51 Crina Pungulescu Chapter 4 Professional Skills: The Globalization Equalizer 67 Ronald Welch Part 2 Globalization and Social Systems 91 Chapter 5 Demistifying Globalization and the State: Preliminary Comments on Re-Commodification, Institutions and Innovation 93 Hector Cuadra-Montiel Chapter 6 Media Globalization and the Debate on Multiculturality 119 Josu Amezaga-Albizu Chapter 7 Explaining Global Media: A Discourse Approach 135 Ulrika Olausson Chapter 8 Cultural Globalization and Transnational Flows of Things American 149 Mel van Elteren VI Contents Chapter 9 Recognition of Real-World Activities from Environmental Sound Cues to Create Life-Log 173 Mostafa Al Masum Shaikh, Keikichi Hirose and Mitsuru Ishizuka Part 3 Globalization and Natural Systems 191 Chapter 10 Biodiversity, Ecosystem and Commodities in Amazonia 193 Peter Mann de Toledo, Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira, Gilberto Câmara, Roberto Araújo, Andrea Coelho and Sergio Gomes Chapter 11 Globalization: Ecological Consequences of Global-Scale Connectivity in People, Resources, and Information 211 Debra P.C. Peters Chapter 12 Brightness and Austerity of the Globalization Theory: The Ideological Foundations of Cognitive Capitalism 233 Zlatan Delic Chapter 13 Tourism: Analysis of a Global Phenomenon from a Perspective of Sustainability 267 Juan Ignacio Pulido-Fernández and Yaiza López-Sánchez Preface Steward Kauffman remarks that the 21st century science will head towards ordered complexity, also in the field of theories concerning social and economic sciences (The orgins of Order: Self-Organizations and Selection in Evolution, Oxford univ. Press, 1993). Efforts will be made to attempt to “crystallize” complex systems, that is to transform them into structures characterized by a high degree of order. This book The Systemic Dimension of Globalization that consists of a variety of approach- es and topics was connected throughout the main message - the system conception. System approach can be counted among most explored theories in the contemporary science, including social and socio-economic sciences. It seems that such concepts as catastrophe theory, chaos theory, synergetic theory or fractal theory will constitute a strong inspiration for research in contemporary global world. The main common element of these theories is that according to them, systems are non-linear and unstable complexes. Other characteristics of system thinking is a chang- ing “routine” of scientific approaches: from reistic thinking to phenomenological thinking (thing – phenomena); from mechanistic thinking to process thinking; from linear models to the creation of network models; from scientific metaphor such as “tower” to scientific metaphor such as “network”. The genesis of this release results from INTECH mission of interdisciplinarity in scien- tific publications. Today science is moving in the direction of synthesis of the achieve- ments of various academic disciplines. The idea to prepare and present a multidimen- sional and systematic approach to the globalization phenomenon to the international academic milieu was an ambitious undertaking. The book The Systemic Dimension of Globalization consists of 14 chapters divided into three sections: Globalization and Complex systems; Globalization and Social systems; Global- ization and Natural systems. The Authors of respective chapters represent the great di- versity of disciplines and methodological approaches as well as a variety of academic culture. I am convinced that this is the value of this book and I hope that it will be ap- preciated by a global scholar audience. X Preface As editor of this book I would like to express gratitude for the trust was endowed by the Publisher, but most of all I would like to express my appreciation for the Authors of all chapters. June 2011. Piotr Pachura Częstochowa Part 1 Globalization and Complex Systems 1 Sustainability by Interrelating Science, Society and Economy in Embedded Political Economy – an Epistemological Approach Masudul Alam Choudhury1 and Lubna Sarwath Mohammad2 1College of Commerce and Economics, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman and International Chair, Postgraduate Program in Islamic Economics and Finance, Trisakti University, Jakarta, 2Faculty of Economics (Islamic Economics and Finance), Trisakti University, Jakarta, Indonesia 1. Introduction Sustainability is a far wider concept than in the environment context. Besides, when ecology is invoked to establish sustainability the concept assumes a wider field of ethical and social evaluation. Such an evaluative domain involves embedding among a wide field of interactive subsystems. The systems learn by synergy and unify in the midst of the good things of life. The learning and choice of the good things of life through the interactive systemic synergy conveys the essential meaning of ethicality. Systemic learning as an embedded phenomenon in a unification framework of human ecological setting establishes the substantive meaning of sustainability (Hawley, 1986). Indeed, the South Commission (1990, p.13) defines development as such an embedded process in the following words: "To sum up: development is a process of self-reliant growth, achieved through participation of the people acting in their own interests as they see them, and under their own control." Yet the context of learning by synergy is not prevalent in this definition of development. The process of choice by participating individuals in the light of their own interests could very well be a ruthless experience in competition and self-interest -- if not of individuals then of collusive groups. In the sustainability debate we find such a conflict to be entrenched. Consider the conflict between global corporation and small enterprises. One complains of the other for their individual impediments to growth (Barbier, 1986). Yet it is a fact that enterprises must necessarily survive within the reality of markets, an institutional regulatory framework, and participatory mechanism (Kim & Mauborgne, 2005). Besides, there is also the conflict between the present and future generations, whereby the magnitude of financial and physical resource allocation problem between the present and future generations remains indeterminate. The savings problem is unresolved in the intertemporal case (Phelps, 1989). In fact, there is no participation between the present and far future generation. These two are not contiguous, and hence cannot co-determine, participate and interrelate. Thereby, there does not exist a discounting for such indeterminate future preferences and the resource allocation linked with such out-of-bound resource allocation points beyond 4 The Systemic Dimension of Globalization overlapping generations (Choudhury, 2011). Consequently, the expressed ethical problem of intertemporal resource allocation to maximize the associated discounted utilities of future non-overlapping generations fails in the methodological problem of valuation of a resource bundle. Only the mystical shade of ethical feeling at the cost of ethical reality prevails (Inglott, 1990). Neither the South Commission Report nor the Brundtland Report on sustainable development addresses the intergenerational ethical problem of resource allocation even though a certain form of collusive participation involving community, national and social collusion,