How Globalization Will Affect Culture, Economy and Education In Future - Coursework Example

How Globalization Affect Culture, Economy and Education In Future By Insert Name Institution Instructor Date Globalization Introduction Globalization has become a buzzword in today’s social circles. The reason why the concept of globalization is becoming a primary topic of discussion in social circles is because the concept is a powerful force that touches on various aspects of life (Nguyen 2012). With the rate at which the economies of the world are becoming integrated, it is expected that in the near future, globalization is going to affect all social aspects including economics, education and culture. By definition, globalization is a concept that comes as a result of a multiplicity of international strategies aimed at making the world smaller than it has been for millennia (Lum et al 2006). The factors behind globalization are such things as technology and international politics. Currently, scholars do estimate that not long from now globalization is going to be the factor at the center of education systems, world economies and cultural diversity. This paper seeks to explain why globalization is good for individuals and bad for humanity. Globalization Is Good For Individuals But Bad For Humanity According to Lum et al (2006) culture is one aspect of human life that is bound to be affected most significantly by globalization. According to the scholars, globalization essentially refers to the extent to which the wealthy western nations influence the east and the third world nations as a whole. Some social scientists and critics argue that, in essence, globalization is westernization of the world. While this presumption holds a great deal of truth, globalization is bound to affect the culture of the world populations through wiping away cultural diversity. Lum et al (2006) notes that globalization brings about cultural syncretism – something that has seen the unification of cultural practices. Unification of cultural practices means that the differentiating characteristics among cultures tend to get lost as the world adopts one culture – the western culture (Nederveen 2000). Perhaps the most prominent example to illustrate this is the current McDonaldization of the food industry. McDonaldization refers to the fast food culture that has its roots in the United States. Currently, fast food restaurants have become so commonplace including in the third world. Such cultures have replaced the reserved nature of taking meals from home, previously common in the east and Africa. It is therefore anticipated that in the future, cultural diversity will fade as the cultures of the world get inclined to the western culture through syncretism (Carlson 2012). These effects of globalization on humanity are particularly negative, especially considering that culture is one among the factors that define human identity – a very important aspect of social relationships and interactions. Another primary aspect of humanity is the collectivity of economic factors that define the ties among nations. Currently, internationalization of the firm is among the most common topics in the circles of business. Bardan et al (2004) projects that in the future, the world economy will be integrated. With the rate at which globalization is taking root, it is likely that not many years from now, the world will be operating under one economy or a few regional economic regimes. The most prominent example and explanation for this phenomenon is the current state of European economies. The European Union, arguably the most powerful economic integration in the world, is a depiction of what should be expected of all other regions of the world with regard to the economy. Bardan et al (2004) argues that such economic integrations are likely to reshape the world economy, especially considering that currencies are being integrated as well. In the European Union, the euro is used as the sole legal tender. Such integration has seen the creation of the Euro Area – a group of countries using the euro. Globalization is also bound to take businesses to the international level through such efforts as franchising. The most notable example of a firm that has been highly internationalized is Wal-Mart, which is the biggest private sector employer. The internationalization of such firms as a result of globalization affects humanity adversely. How, one may wonder. When such firms go to the international scene, the local firms in the third world nations become the sacrificial lambs. They become the cost of globalization. This essentially means that all stakeholders that rely on the local firms get affected negatively. For instance, the owners of such enterprises may run out of business, the customers may lack variety and the employees of the organizations may lose jobs. This way, the entire society feels the negativity of the phenomenon. The powerful western firms control the economies in all modest countries – a situation that can be translated as neo-colonialism. This is definitely a backward step to humanity as a whole. Globalization has had many notable effects on the cities of developing nations in terms of life, family structure, society and politics (Carroll 2004). Talking about society, globalization in world cities has widened the gap between the rich and the poor. Fundamentally, this is because the market forces are never in favor of social equality. This is why the developing countries are characterized by extremely rich suburbs and pitiable slums. South Africa, for instance, has the most magnificent cities in Africa, such as Johannesburg. Similarly, it houses the largest slum in the world – Soweto. Globalization has instigated a situation where the income of the average person is low (Mott 2004). This has affected the family structure in the sense that people have to raise smaller families for sustainability purposes. Globalization has caused the spread of neo-liberalism, which has increased the levels of unemployment in developing nations – a situation that has precipitated social evils such as prostitution and crimes such as mugging (Nafziger & Nafziger 2005). This has caused the government to intervene by providing security and calling for mass community policing. Neo-liberalism has seen the private sector dominating most sectors of the economy, causing such public utilities as hospitals and schools to become inaccessible to the poor, especially the well performing private schools – yet another detrimental effect on the human race. Notably, globalization is good for the individual because it upholds the concept of individualism and neo-liberalism, which are at the core of capitalism. It is important to mention that in a capitalistic society, the individual is deemed more important than the society. The economy is practically controlled by individual businesses and ventures. Unlike the socialist societies, the capitalistic societies associated with capitalism seek to empower individuals. This means that with time, globalization will make the gap between the rich and the poor so big that there will be two classes – the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. In such a society, it will be exceptionally difficult to merge the interests of the two groups. With such difficulty, it will be a world of the rich individual and the poor society (Mitschow & 2002). This brings back the rule of the jungle – the survival of the fittest. Summarily, therefore, globalization is good for the individual because it can enable a financially strong individual access and reap the fruits of global integration. The notion that globalization is good for the individual is supported by an observation of the trends in education. Considering the effects of globalization on education, the most noteworthy effect is the reality that higher education has been highly internationalized. Currently, a student in the United Kingdom can comfortably enroll for further studies in a Chinese university. This, according to Sinagatullin (2006) is because higher education has been internationalized through such concepts as distance learning, home schooling and open learning. It is anticipated that in the future, globalization or internationalization of education will see people move from the conventional approaches to the digital approaches of the US and other wealthy western nations such as the UK. Globalization is as well likely to boost literacy levels in the world since, with internationalization, people who would not have gone to school because of the inefficiencies of conventional education, can easily access education through online learning (Weyzig 2009). This is as well likely to reduce paperwork in the education system, as technology will seek to provide new methods of storing academic material such as cloud computing methods. Of essence is the fact that globalization is not necessarily negative. On the contrary, the concept is positive in some aspects of life. However, the negativity or otherwise of the concept depends greatly on the capability of an individual. Essentially, a person that is financially weak may not be in a position to reap from the entirety of globalization (Lam 2002). This creates the concept of individualism. Individualism is a concept that has adverse effects on humanity, but helps individuals access certain privileges. Notably, the topic of this paper revolves around individualism and collectivism with regard to the advantages and demerits of globalization. Conclusion In conclusion, it is noteworthy that, from the foregoing, globalization will shape the directions of culture, the economy and education in the world. While this is the case, it is also expected that globalization will reduce distances – both politically and culturally in a bid to unify the world in terms of social-cultural practices. From the foregoing discussion, the most notable points are: the possibility of cultural syncretism, internationalization of higher education and integration of world economies. The most prominent examples the above points are: the case of the European Union and the euro area, distant learning and westernization of daily practices such as the consumption of fast foods. Overall, it is expected that globalization will make the world a smaller place through various effects, both good and harmful. 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