What Is Globalization - Coursework Example

Name) (Instructor) (Institution) (Course code) (Date) What is globalization? Introduction It is the process by which the world is becoming more unified due to increased cultural exchange and trade. Globalization is brought about by integration and integration not only among people but also different governments, companies. The chief driver of globalization is trade and investment (Robertson, & White, 2007, pp.54-66). It is important to note that information technology has led to the proliferation of globalization. The process touches on many sectors including, environment, economic development, political systems, culture and human well-being in societies around the global. The process of globalization has taken hundreds of years but it speeded up tremendously after the Second World War. Globalization growth has been contributed by policy and technological advancements leading to increased investment, cross-border trade and migration (Narula, & Dunning, 2010, pp.263-287). As a result, production of goods and services has increased in the process; national companies are now multinational corporations having opened subsidiaries across the globe. Sound policies put in place that opened economies were a key driver of globalization. Such policies included free trade market increasing production and hence creating opportunities for the global market. These opportunities include trade and investment. Governments also played a critical role in the globalization process. They negotiated for the reduction of barriers to trade. The governments came up with international agreements creating an enabling environment for the investments. Due to the enabling environment for trade and businesses, the international corporations and business took the advantage by opening businesses and building factories and industries (Narula & Dunning, 2010). Globalization issue has been controversial. Those who support it argue that it gives the developing countries and their citizens an opportunity to grow economically leading to improved living standards. Globalization has had its share of the spoils as well. Its opponents have argued that it led to the unregulated free market benefiting international corporations in the developed countries while local companies and businesses are at the advantage. It is also argued that the common people and local culture are at stake due to erosion resulting from globalization. It is for this reason that globalization has faced resistance as the governments are forced to manage the situation by regulating goods, labor and the flow of capital among other aspects that constitute to globalization (Collins, 2010) Negative impacts of globalization on African cultures and values Africa as ad its fair share of the spoils resulting from the globalization. The effects of globalization have been felt uniformly particularly in the Sub-Saharan African. Globalization in African can be traced back to the colonial and slavery period (Yankuzo, 2014, pp.1-8). Africans were forced to adopt the European way of life at the expense of African culture and traditions. As a result, African has been in a cultural dilemma since then. Since then many of the African countries, communities have been in a position to able to independently articulate or chart their own destiny, identity, culture and history Globalization disrupted the African educational system. Prior to globalization, the African education was fundamentally functional. The African education system was meant to prepare a person to tackle everyday challenges faced by the community (Mufwene, 2002, pp. 162-193). In contracts, the colonial system of education was to meant to alienate an individual from his or her culture. An African was a result meant to abandon his or her language as well as manual work. The new system of education would change the perspective as a liberation from village life to white collar jobs in urban settings. This brought about rural-urban migration in the continent (Cooper, 2001, pp. 189-213). The adverse effect of this colonial system to the African society is that the new system of education stressed on the acquisition of skills at the expense of a character. Prior to globalization in Africa, the education systems were largely communistic meant to advance harmony and unity of communal experiences (Mufwene, 2002, pp. 162-193). This is because a person was viewed as an important unit of the society. As mentioned earlier, the African education was all about character formation while the colonial system was all about the acquisition of skills at the expense of character. The colonial system of education was later adopted by the African leaders upon attaining of independence without integration the African form education. As a result, there has been massive decay in the morals of the society as it is currently. It is important to note that there is excessive materialism, rampant corruption in public life as well as the collapse of family values among the so-called educated elite (Mufwene, 2002, pp. 162-193). The elites in African society are often respected. It is worth noting that the elite blindly adopted the western culture without considering that every cultural system is ethnocentric. Positive African culture has been abandoned. The education sector is worst hit by this problem as Africans are mentally and materially exploited. The educated members of the society detest manual jobs in favor of white-collar jobs. It is worth noting that the Africa needs vocational to enable it grow faster as well as effectively tackle the challenges it faces. The educated lot are not of much help hence cannot fulfill their intended roles in the communities. Due to the neglect of African traditional education values, has resulted in the collapse of agricultural sector – Africa’s economic backbone. The educate elite considers agriculture as degrading (Meagher, 2005, pp. 217-238). Many of the youths have moved to the urban centers leaving behind the older generation in the rural areas. The agricultural production has therefore declined. The urban dwellers depend on the rural dwellers for food production (from the aging population). The production is no longer sufficient to feed the ever growing population in African countries. In the olden days, everyone ideally a farmer regardless of their profession. This is no longer the same. Governments in Africa spend a large proportion of their foreign earning along with development aid to import food for their citizens (Meagher, 2005, pp. 217-238). Globalization has dealt a big blow to indigenous African cultures and traditions. The globalization has eroded some languages. Valuable indigenous knowledge has been pushed away. Important indigenous knowledge like effective traditional has been abandon for the conventional ones (Igoe, 2006, pp.399-420). Other traditional rituals have disappeared thanks to the introduction of Christianity and Islam religions. African languages have been rendered useless and hence can no longer be used for scientific research. Currently, African languages are solely being used for artistic performances. With the current state of mass media, it is predicted that the world will be mono-lingual. English, the dominant language will be used by everyone across the globe (Cooper, 2001, pp. 189-213). Other languages that may survive will be reduced to vernacular status Conclusion The currents trends are gearing towards homogenous thanks to globalization. This is contributed by the world shifting to liberal democracy. Globalization has its own advantages as well as disadvantages. So far in Sub-Saharan African, globalization has had negative impacts due as demonstrated in this work Reference Birol, Ö.H., 2012. Globalization in historical perspective. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(8). Collins, M., 2010. The pros and cons of globalization. Advantage Business Media, 28. Cooper, F., 2001. What is the concept of globalization good for? An African historian's perspective. African affairs, 100(399), pp.189-213. Cooper, F., 2001. What is the concept of globalization good for? An African historian's perspective. African affairs, 100(399), pp.189-213. Igoe, J., 2006. Becoming indigenous peoples: difference, inequality, and the globalization of East African identity politics. African Affairs, 105(420), pp.399-420. Meagher, K., 2005. Social capital or analytical liability? Social networks and African informal economies. Global Networks, 5(3), pp.217-238. Mufwene, S., 2002. Colonization, globalization, and the future of languages in the twenty-first century. International Journal on Multicultural Societies,4(2), pp.162-193. Narula, R. and Dunning, J.H., 2010. Multinational enterprises, development and globalization: some clarifications and a research agenda. Oxford Development Studies, 38(3), pp.263-287. Narula, R., 2014. Globalization and technology: Interdependence, innovation systems and industrial policy. John Wiley & Sons. Robertson, R. and White, K.E., 2007. What is globalization. The Blackwell companion to globalization, pp.54-66. Yankuzo, K.I., 2014. Impact of Globalization on the Traditional African Cultures. International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences (ILSHS),4, pp.1-8. Read More