by Nicholas Greenwood

Created on: September 14, 2010

The term globalization was coined in the late 1960s. At its most basic level, the word describes the interconnected nature of the modern world. This refers to the economies, politics, cultures, ideologies and technology of all of the states around the world becoming more in line with each other, thus creating a global community of cooperative governments.

The history of globalization can be traced far into the past. Goods such as food and textiles have been traded for thousands of year, if not globally, then at least throughout the known world. However, following the periods of exploration in the early-modern period, and the industrial revolution, technology relating to communications and transport advanced exponentially. This allowed the globe to become increasingly connected and now, just over a century on from the invention of the first telephone, one click of a button will mean anybody in the world can read this article. The invention of the internet meant that globalization was facilitated in a previously unthinkable manner.

As already alluded to, globalization now affects almost every area of our lives. Culturally, it affects the TV and films we watch. Politically, it has brought much of the world together to try to spread democracy and to try to topple dictatorships and so-called rogue states. In communications, it has effectively linked the world together with phone lines, internet cables and social networking websites. Environmentally globalization has allowed attempts at a concerted effort to limit climate change. These are just examples; globalization affects people’s lives in so many ways that they are too numerous to fit here.

This does not mean that globalization is freely accepted worldwide without its detractors. Like everything, it has both its proponents and its critics. A brief summary of the arguments put forth by each is given below.

Those who speak against globalization argue that it creates too much interdependency between states. The current global economic crisis, for example, may not have hit certain parts of the world as hard as it has if the world’s economies were not so closely entwined. They also argue that globalization is detrimental to the protection of local cultures. A further argument on this side is that it does not actually solve global inequalities; capital still just goes where it is needed. A final key argument against globalization is that it is causing the deindustrialisation of the Western world, as industry

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