globalization, globalisation — English

The term is self-explanatory in that it indicates that some phenomenon or activity regards the world as one place. The main globalising factors are economics and trade, and technological developments that increase and simplify world-wide human interaction. Since the late 19th century new transport technology has been unifying the world into one global entity. Initially large companies established close trade ties with different countries, thus becoming multinational corporations (MNCs) with branches all over the world. Famous brands like Macdonalds are today equally at home in Moscow and in New York. Travel time between any two places on Earth has “shrunk” so much that one could get to nearly any place on Earth in a few hours. Of course, the world has not really shrunk, but transport technology has improved. Jules Verne’s famous 1873 novel entitled Around the World in 80 Days could now become “around the world in 8 days” or, at a push, 80 hours! The internet plays an enormous role in globalising the world and has become indispensible for world-wide international communication and interconnectedness. It is important to note that during the collapse of the large political entities such as the British and French empires and the Russian Soviet Union (USSR), global interconnectivity was extending and improving so that members of those erstwhile entities are today more closely connected than ever before. Cultural and social globalisation followed hard on the heel of economic globalisation and has already replaced the large political unifications. Today all over the world (except in India and China) the American blue jean is more or less standard street dress and almost everybody in the world knows who James Bond is. Globalisation has become a way of doing and thinking; that is, the paradigm of “the flat world”, which has already generated a large literature.

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