Globalisation Theory

8/11/2019 Globalisation Theory

1/68

Navigating the Global:

The Theory behind Globalisation


2/68


3/68

CONNECT & EXTEND

For EACH of the 8 theories, fill out 2

Post-Its:

CONNECT: What did I already know or

have a vague idea about?

EXTEND: What is new information to me?


4/68


5/68

- Changed the way the modern, Western world

viewed and understood the primitive or tribal worldby observing similarities between the two.

- Emphasised that the "savage" mind has the same

structures as the "civilised" mind & that human

characteristics are the same everywhere regardless

of race.

- As a survival strategy, human beings fundamentally

think in binary oppositions (good/bad, us vs. them)but also believe in their unification.


6/68

- A family or tribe acquires its identity only through its

relations with other families or tribes (this is why wemarry & cross-breed).

"There is today a frightful disappearance of living

species, be they plants or animals. And it's clear that

the density of human beings has become so great, if

I can say so, that they have begun to poison

themselves. And the world in which I am finishing

my existence is no longer a world that I like."

"The world began without the human race and will

certainly end without it." 1955


7/68

How can this theory be applied to Heaney's poetry

and/or The Mosquito Coastin terms ofunderstanding the relationship between an individual

and the globalised world?

Examples:


8/68


9/68

THEORY 2: Gayatri Chakravorty

SPIVAK1942

Indian philosopher & literary theorist


10/68

- Studied post-colonialism, especially the post-

colonial perspective in literature.

- Interested in the often denied perspective and

experience of the minor or "other" character (often

repressed by the main/dominant character

representing the coloniser) in a text, usually thenon-white, the working class or women.

Key Term:

SUBALTERNsomeone who is socially, politically or

geographically outside of the hegemonic power

structure of the colony & mother country.


11/68


and/or The Mosquito Coastin terms ofunderstanding the relationship between an individual


Examples:


12/68


13/68


14/68

- Believes the worldwide spread of liberal

democracy & free market capitalism of the West

& its lifetstyle may signal the end point ofhumanity's sociocultural evolution & become the

final form of human government.

- Emphasises the global triumph &universalisation of Western liberal democracy &

political & economic liberalism.

- This is the endpoint of man's ideologicalevolution.


15/68

Expressed anti-Bush sentiment and disparaged

the idea of America as a "super power" because

it:

- overstates the threat of other ideologies to the

US

- fails to foresee negative social reaction to the US

& increases anti-Americanism

- misjudges what is needed to bring peace towarring countries & is over optimistic about the

success with which the social engineering of

Western values can be applied to other countries


16/68


and/or The Mosquito Coastin terms of

understanding the relationship between an individual


Examples:


17/68


18/68

THEORY 4: Pierre BOURDIEU

1930-2002

French sociologist, anthropologist & philosopher


19/68

- Studied dynamics of economic power relations in

social life.

- Emphasised the role of economic capital in social

positioning.

- Rejected the idea of one form of "high intelligence"or an "intellectual prophet" as he believed judgments

of intellectual taste are related to one's social

position or are themselves acts of social positioning.


20/68

When reading an individual (in real life or in a

narrative) we must consider not only:

- the subjective experience of the individual

but also

- the external social structure present at the time.


21/68

Key Term:

CULTURAL CAPITAL

- non-financial social assets that promote social

mobility beyond economic means, e.g.

education, intellect, style of speech, dress,physical appearance, gender, health, family

dynamic, demography, geography, race,

ethnicity, environment, attitude

- accumulated cultural knowledge that confers:

power + status = success


22/68

3 types of cultural capital:

Embodied:both consciously acquired and passively

inherited, e.g. one's attitude toward education, work

and travel

Objectified:physical objects/possessions, e.g.

money, house, food, car (owning a Mercedes or BMW

is (or used to be) a status symbol)

Institutionalised:academic or other

credentials/qualifications


23/68





Examples:


24/68


25/68

POSTMODERNISM

- Fredric Jameson

- Marshall McLuhan

- Jean-Franois Lyotard

- Jean Baudrillard


26/68

Key Terms

Postmodernism:a cultural movement following that

of modernism. It is thought to have emerged after

WWII although some argue it didn't emerge until the

1980s.

Postmodernity: the state or condition of being

postmodernafter or in reaction to that which is

modern, as in postmodern art, for example.

Modernity is defined as a period or condition looselyidentified with the Progressive Era, the Industrial

Revolution, or the Enlightenment.


27/68

- One "project" of modernity is said by to have been

the fostering of progress by incorporating principles

of rationality and hierarchy into public and artistic

life. Postmodernism seeks to question, challenge or

reject that.

- Lyotard understood modernity as a culturalcondition characterised by constant change in the

pursuit of progress. Postmodernity then represents

the culmination of this process where constant

change has become the status quo (the norm) andthe notion of progress has become obsolete.


28/68

- Those who generally view modernity as obsolete

or an outright failure, a flaw in humanity's evolutionleading to disasters like the Holocaust and atomic

bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki, see

postmodernity as a positive development.


29/68

Postmodernityis a condition or a state of being

associated with changes to institutions and

conditions and with social and political results and

innovations, globally but especially in the West since

the 1950s.

Postmodernism is an aesthetic, literary, political orsocial philosophy, the "cultural and intellectual

phenomenon", especially since the 1920s' new

movements in the arts.


30/68

- Both of these terms are used by philosophers,

social scientists and social critics to refer to aspectsof contemporary culture, economics and society

that are the result of features of late 20th century

and early 21st century life, including the

fragmentationof authority and thecommoditisationof knowledge (where knowledge

becomes a commodity).


31/68

- The postmodern period has had diverse political

ramifications: its "anti-ideologicalideas" appearto have been positively associated with the

feminist movement, racial equality movements,

gay rights movements, most forms of late 20th

century anarchism and even the peace movementas well as various hybrids of these in the current

anti-globalisation movement.


32/68

- The first phase of postmodernity overlaps the

end of modernity. Television became the primarynews source, manufacturing decreased in

importance in the economies of Western Europe

and the United States but trade volumes increased

within the developed core.

- In 1967-1969 a crucial cultural explosiontook

place within the developed world as the baby

boom generation, which had grown up with

postmodernity as their fundamental experience of

society, demanded entrance into the political,

cultural and educational power structure.


33/68

- A series of demonstrations and acts of rebellion -

ranging from non-violent and cultural, through to

violent acts of terrorism - represented the

opposition of the young to the policies andperspectives of the previous age.


34/68

- Opposition to the Algerian War and the

Vietnam War, to laws allowing or encouraging

racial segregation and to laws which overtly

discriminated against women and restricted

access to divorce, increased use of recreational

drugs, the emergence of pop cultural styles ofmusic and drama, and the ubiquity of stereo,

television and radio, helped make these

changes visible in the broader cultural context.


35/68

- The second phase of postmodernity is defined by"digitality" - the increasing power of personal and

digital means of communicationincluding fax

machines, modems, cable and high speed internet

via computers and mobile phones, which has altered

the condition of postmodernity dramatically: digital

production of informationallows individuals to

manipulate virtually every aspect of the media

environment.


36/68

- This has brought producers into conflict with

consumers over intellectual capital and intellectualproperty and led to the creation of a new economy

whose supporters argue that the dramatic fall in

information costs will alter society fundamentally as

we become a more participatory culture (e.g.Wikipedia, WikiLeaks).


37/68

THEORY 5: Fredric JAMESON

1934

Literary critic & Marxist political theorist


38/68

- Described the postmodern movement as the reshaping

of culture under the pressure of organised capitalism &

as the cultural logic of late capitalism.

- Saw postmodern architecture, film, storytelling and art

as pastiche (a hodge-podge collage) & as evidence ofa crisis in finding meaning & historicity (accuracy in the

retelling of history).

- Rejected a moralistic opposition to postmodernism asthe movement is historically grounded.


39/68





Examples:


40/68


41/68


42/68

- In the early 1960s, McLuhan wrote that the visual,

individualistic print culture would soon be brought

to an end by what he called electronic

interdependence: when electronic media replace

visual culture with aural/oral culture.

- In this new age, humankind will move fromindividualismand fragmentationto a collective

identity, with a tribal base. McLuhan's coinage

for this new social organizationis the global

village.


43/68

- Key to McLuhan's argument is the idea that

technology has no moral bent - it is a tool thatprofoundly shapes an individual's and, by

extension, a society's self-conceptionand

realisation.

- For instance, McLuhan contrasts the considerable

alarm and revulsion that the growing quantity of

books aroused in the latter 17th century with the

modern nostalgic concern for the end of the book.


44/68

- If there can be no universal moral sentence

passed on technology, McLuhan believes that

there can only be disaster arising fromunawarenessof the causalities and effects

inherent in our technologies.

- Though the Internet was invented 10 years after

his death, McLuhan eerily prophesied the web

technology seen today as early as 1962:


45/68

The next medium, whatever it is - it may be the

extension of consciousness - will includetelevision as its content, not as its environment,

and will transform television into an art form.

A computer as a research and communication

instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce

mass library organisation, retrieve the individual's

encyclopedic function and flip into a private line

to speedily tailored data of a saleable kind.


46/68

- McLuhan emphasised the results of living in a

media culture and argued that participation in a

mass media culture both overshadows actual

content disseminated and is liberating because it

loosens the authority of local social normativestandards.


47/68





Examples:


48/68

THEORY 7 J F i


49/68

THEORY 7: Jean-Francois

LYOTARD1924-1998

French sociologist, philosopher & literary theorist


50/68

- Interested in postmodernism and the narrative

(story telling).

- Rejected the universal, all encompassing "grand

theories" of e.g. Marx & Freud.

Key Term:GRAND NARRATIVE

Rejected "grand narratives" in their attempt to

explain life, history & existence, e.g. 'the progressof history', the knowability of everything by science,

the striving for 'world peace' and 'absolute freedom',

the 'story of mankind'.


51/68

- These grand narratives are not adequate or

realistic enough to represent and contain us.

- No one agrees on what is real & why we

are here, rather that everyone has their own

perspective & unique story.

- In the 20th & 21st centuries we are alert to

this difference & diversity & more progressive

societies value this diversity.

- But...


52/68

- This can result in chaos in the form of a collapse

of ethics (this is why we have laws & the conceptof justice).

- Lyotard acknowledged that universality is a

condition for something to be a properly ethicalstatement, e.g. "Thou shall not steal" is only

ethical if it rests on universal acceptance.


53/68

- Also a fan of Romantic and Modernist art, especially

that which shows the human being encountering the

sublime world.

Key Term:

SUBLIME

the experience of awe and pleasurable anxiety that

we experience when confronting wild and threatening

sights in nature, e.g. bungee jumping off a cliff,

experiencing a thunder storm, walking near a

volcano.


54/68


55/68


56/68





Examples:


57/68

THEORY 8: Jean


58/68

THEORY 8: Jean

BAUDRILLARD1929-2007

French sociologist & philosopher


59/68

- Studied the way technological progressaffects

social changeincluding consumerism, gender

relations & understanding of history & science.

Key Term:

HYPERREALITY

The (human) subject may try to understand the (non-

human) object, but because the object can only be

understood according to what it signifies (and

because the process of significationimmediatelyinvolves a web of other signsfrom which it is

distinguished) this never produces the desired

results.


60/68

- Believed societies are always searching for a

sense of meaning or a "total" understanding of the

world that remains elusive. The excessive,fruitless search for total knowledge leads almost

inevitably to a kind of delusionor hyperreality.

- This is not to say that the world becomes unreal,but rather that the faster and more

comprehensively societies begin to bring reality

together into one supposedly coherent picture,

the more insecureand unstableit looks and themore fearful societies become. Reality, in this

sense, "dies out".


61/68

- Meaningor valuemeaning is created through

difference- through what something is not (so

"dog" means "dog" because it is not "cat" & one

thing's prestige relates to another's mundanity).

- Meaning is therefore self-referential and one thing

or object's meaning is only understandable through

its relation to the meaning of other things.


62/68


63/68

- The symbolicrealm is seen as quite distinct from

that of signs and signification. Signscan be

exchanged like commodities; symbols, on theother hand, operate quite differently: they are

exchanged like gifts, sometimes violently.

- The "global" society is without this "symbolic"

element and is therefore symbolically (if not militarily)

defenseless against acts such as the September 11

2001 terrorist attacks against the US and its military

establishment.


64/68


65/68

- Baudrillard criticised Marx's economic conceptof

valueas mere "use". Instead, proposed 4 waysof an

object obtaining value:

1. The functional valueof an object: its instrumental

purpose, e.g. a pen writes, a refrigerator cools.

2. The exchange valueof an object: its economic

value, e.g. 1 pen may be worth 3 pencil, 1 refrigerator

may be worth the salary earned by 3 months of work.


66/68

3. The symbolic valueof an object: a value that a

subject assigns to an object in relation to another

subject, e.g. a pen might symbolise a student'sschool graduation gift or a commencement

speaker's gift; a diamond may be a symbol of

publicly declared marital love.

4. The sign valueof an object: its value within a

system of objects, e.g. a particular pen may, while

having no added functional benefit, signify prestige

relative to another pen; a diamond ring may have nofunction at all, but may suggest particular social

values, such as taste, class or status.


67/68



understanding the relationship between an individualand the globalised world?

Examples:


68/68

Globalisation Theory

Documents