Fact Sheet - Globalisation and How it's Affected Our Ways of Thinking

Definition

Many see globalisation as a primarily economic phenomenon, involving the increasing interaction of nation through the growth in international trade, investment and capital flows. But by creating a 'borderless world" of people, capital, and information, globalisation has transformed the world into a single social system as the growing tiers of interdependence (social, political, cultural, technological and economic) condition the fate of people everywhere.

How it came about

Development of Globalisation can be traced back to the 16th century with the aggregation of capital in Europe by trade and plunder. It is a natural outcome of the logic of modernity beginning in the late 17th century. Gradually, through improved communications and standardised ways of calculating distance, weights, money, and the establishment of world time zones, there has emerged a consciousness that we all belong to one world and share the same space.

Communications acts as the catalyst needed for Globalisation to occur.

Woodward’s History of Wales is shown open to the...

Globalization

Globalization to the advantage - 2010-09-16

Although Europeans have long recognised the existence of alternate cultures, their differences were 'preordained by God' and favouring the Europeans. It's not until mass communication began to construct the global village that these cultures ceased to be wild and distant, that differences between humans stopped being 'natural', but shaped by one's social-historic situation. Today, television, telephone, and internet increase the speed and quantity of information that flows through the globe, making it feel smaller, as localised events impact immediately on communities worldwide.

Impact on ways of thinking

Thanks to globalisation, we have no longer the luxury of making assumptions based on the notion of an absolute truth. Assailed from all sides by contradictory facts, images, and ideas, we're beginning to accept a world of multiple realities. This new mode of thinking has greatly influenced our social outlook, literary criticism, and identity.

The 'free-flow' of information and ideas has...