03 Section A, Key question 1 - Defining globalisation (part 1)

Worldwide connections and social change

Globalisation describes a change in the connections between people, institutions and places across the world.

This is a useful broad working definition rather than a definition accepted by every sociologist. Interconnectedness means that people and activities are linked; interdependence means that what happens to one can affect what happens to another. The connections may involve goods, money, people, ideas, rules or communication. The sociological question is how such connections alter relationships, opportunities and ways of living.

Consider an original illustrative example. A clothing workshop supplies retailers in several continents. A fall in orders from one region leads its manager to cut shifts. Workers who have never visited that region lose income, and some delay moving into their own homes. The chain of reasoning is overseas demand → changes to local employment → changes to household choices. Calling this globalisation explains a connection between distant economic decisions and local social life. Merely saying “the workers use foreign products” would tell us much less about the relationship.

Globalisation is a process, so its extent can change. It does not mean that every person has a direct relationship with every country, or that all societies have reached the same final condition. A person may be affected indirectly through employment or prices even without travelling abroad. Likewise, connections can be interrupted or restricted; their existence does not guarantee that they will always grow.

The sociologist Anthony Giddens argued in his 1999 Reith lecture that globalisation includes several interacting processes and reaches into everyday personal life. He opposed an account limited to economic systems. This is a theoretical interpretation, rather than the result of a single representative survey. Giddens, Globalisation, BBC Reith lecture, 7 April 1999, pp. 2–3.

Social change means alteration in social relationships, institutions or patterns of behaviour over time. In the workshop example, distant demand changes the workers’ choices, but family expectations and employment law may still shape their responses. A global connection becomes part of a local social situation; it does not replace everything already there.

Dimensions of globalisation

Global connections can change economic activity, culture, political organisation and technology together.

The economic dimension concerns production, trade, investment and employment across the world. For example, an original fictional business might design a product in one country, obtain components from others and sell it in several continents. Decisions made within that network can affect the jobs and incomes of different groups. An imported object is evidence of a connection; a continuing production network shows how activities depend on connections.

The cultural dimension concerns the circulation of meanings, values, symbols and practices. Films, music, languages and ways of presenting identity can reach audiences in distant societies. Audiences may adopt, reject or reinterpret them. Circulation is therefore different from cultural homogenisation, which means cultures becoming more alike. Sharing a cultural product does not establish that people give it the same meaning or abandon their previous identities.

The political dimension concerns power, collective decisions and rules that connect societies. States may coordinate responses to a problem, while organisations and campaigns act across borders. In an original example, campaigners in several countries coordinate demands about working conditions in a worldwide supply network. National law still matters: one government may change its rules while another declines to do so. Cooperation across borders does not itself establish a single world government.

The technological dimension concerns systems that enable connections, including transport and communication. A digital platform may allow people in distant places to coordinate activities rapidly. Technology makes a connection possible, but institutions and users shape its actual use. A network does not determine what people believe, whom they contact or how much influence they have.

Giddens explicitly treated globalisation as economic, political, technological and cultural. These dimensions are an analytical way of examining connections, rather than four separate stages that every society must pass through. Giddens, 1999, p. 2.

Comparing two arrangements

The following comparison is an original teaching scenario, not a report of an actual community or a historical study.

Both arrangements contain cross-border connections. B shows a wider network, more frequent interaction and greater influence on routine decisions. It provides stronger evidence of an intensifying process than simply noting that a foreign object is present. However, B does not show that everyone participates or that the town has become culturally identical to other towns. Its language adaptations show why connection and uniformity must be investigated separately.

The dimensions can interact: the platform enables coordination, overseas sales affect employment, and performers circulate cultural meanings. Explaining this interaction is more informative than assigning every object to just one category. These connections prepare us to investigate digital communication in detail, without assuming that globalisation began with the Internet.

Why definitions differ

Different definitions draw attention to different kinds of connection and make different claims about social change.

One approach emphasises growing connections between societies. Another asks whether social activity is being organised in a new way, with distance and territorial borders becoming less decisive for some relationships. A definition can therefore affect which evidence a researcher looks for and what they regard as a major change.

Jan Aart Scholte’s 2002 theoretical paper defines globalisation through connections across the planet, particularly supraterritorial connections: relationships that cannot be understood solely through bounded territorial places and distances. His account gives the concept a meaning beyond increased exchanges between countries. He nevertheless stresses that territory continues to matter. Scholte, What Is Globalization? The Definitional Issue – Again, University of Warwick, pp. 13–15 and 24–25.

For an original application, imagine a discussion maintained by participants in many countries, who respond to one another through a shared online space. Their relationship is organised around the discussion rather than one town. This makes the supraterritorial emphasis useful. Yet the participants still require physical devices and infrastructure, and their national laws may restrict access. “Less dependent on distance” does not mean “free of geography”.