Globalization Impact over the Understanding of the Concept of Community - Term Paper Example

 Globalization’s Impact over the Understanding of the Concept of Community Table of Contents Introduction 2 Changing Trends of Community with regard to Globalisation 3 Community Empowerment 3 Community Capacity 4 Community Competence and Action 5 Social Impacts of Globalization of Community 6 Effects of Globalization on Community 8 Evils of Globalization 10 Conclusion 12 References 13 Bibliography 14 Introduction Globalization is generally referred in terms of economy in the international market. But then globalization has also effect upon the social and cultural life. In other words, globalization has both positive as well as negative impacts upon the economy as well as upon the society. Globalization also frequently includes the impact to the community. As globalization have both positive as well as negative impacts, the effect upon quality of the community also is believed to vary accordingly. The people living together in an area or who interact and work together for the common interest and share the effects, tend to form community. Each community have there own culture, values and ethics. The globalization impacted upon their culture, values and ethics resulting to form changes in the community. The development of community is linked with globalization. New perceived ideas, actions, culture, motivation tends to develop the community. Also there are certain factors that affect the community in a negative way. Globalization has the capacity in influencing any community that is exposed to it. Communities are composed of different people sharing the same culture. There are possibilities of getting affected slowly through people who adopt the changing variables present in the community and at the end; it is the community in whole that is affected. Globalization has made the general traditional society a modern global society. The loss of community is due to weak association with altering modes of social interaction and local places (Bateman, n.d.). Changing Trends of Community with regard to Globalisation The impact of globalisation on the community can be studied with three sub – heads namely community empowerment, community capacity and community actions. Community Empowerment Community empowerment is the aptitude of the community to react efficiently to the collective troubles. These occur when both as a whole and as an entity, it has adequate power to achieve considerable acceptable outcomes. Community empowerment is both the outcome of prearranged members as well as the progression gaining control over their lives. The community empowerment is usually conceptualized as community mobilization and contribution. Community empowerment is the process of fast influence over circumstances that substance to people who share common experiences and concern. The empowerment suggests that the ability of the people to gain understanding and control over social, personal, political and economic forces in order to take action to develop their life circumstances. The collective problem solving and the resource sharing, influence the broad social system along with the ability to obtain equitable resources. Globalization transform these societies into a global society as people get influenced by the open culture and tries to control and gain understanding in the new environment which change their course of action towards their personal life, political life as well as towards the economy. Individuals try to contribute, mobilize and influence from their understandings and the conflicts in the understanding creates misunderstandings that effects decision process. Community Capacity The community capacity is reflected in the resources, obligation and skills brought in by the community members to solve problems and building assets to the community. On being threatened or inspired due to globalization, the community capacity can be judged by the issues that are dealt with proper knowledge, skills, leadership, and trust worthy relationship, sense of efficiency and culture of learning. Community capacity is the characteristics affecting the community’s facility to recognize and solve problem and its development and use of resources towards the identification of the factors affecting the community due to globalization. The dimension of the community capacity includes solutions of the problems that are generated through globalization by effective operation of individual contribution; inter networking, intellect of community, leadership skills, community influence, community standards and critical indication. Community Competence and Action The community competence is the individual ability to collaborate effectively in identifying the changes and needs of the community. The identification of the objectives and priorities needs to be conducted, factors are to be analyzed in effecting the community and requisite actions are to be undertaken to enhance the overall development of the community. The competence of the community lies in the commitment of the people of the community, self awareness and also upon the awareness in the changing culture due to globalization. The perceptions and the values that individual carry influence the decision of the community. It is the social support that is gained from the members of the society or community in looking forward to accept the changes or reject the changes that might benefit or hamper the community as a whole. Community competence provides the members the capacity to evaluate and create the conditions required for the change of the community due to the effects of the globalization. The effect of the globalization may be positive or negative. The community or the members of the community decides about the reaction upon the changes that takes place. The members need to show positive leadership quality towards the changing environment that is affecting the cultural boundaries and values of the community, the capacity that individual holds in making decision in respect to the effects of globalization upon the community. Social Impacts of Globalization of Community The globalization has immense and diversified effect upon the community, affecting the social aspect of the community. Sometimes people have to change their life style or living ways due to the influence of globalization. Because of globalization, there have been more job opportunities in the open market, affecting the income status (inequality), reducing the poverty and changing the lifestyle of the people. As the economy is becoming open, more people are getting out of community for better job, better quality of life i.e. to enhance their standard of living. Though it is good for the development of the individual but also it is affecting the values and culture of the community that individual belongs to. The open economy provides opportunity for few individuals and it affects the inequality of income distribution changing the standards of living for the people. This affects the community in terms of community power, community capacity and community empowerment. The individual with high standard of living holding better income status have larger influencing power upon the community. Globalization brings in the international culture as well as provides opportunity in the international market but the fact is only a few individuals from the community are benefited. The community as a whole is divided into two categories forming differences in the perceived values. The individual who has adopted the new culture, values from the global society as it becomes difficult for this individual to follow the communities’ perceived attitude, beliefs and values. As a result, there are possibilities or chances of clashes to occur between the members of the community. Differences are natural to occur when there are two social peripheries are present (the own community and the global community). The globalization has rational and irrational reactions. With the involvement of huge mass media in current world, it is very easy to access the other’s culture or community with out getting effected in their own community values and culture. Technological development made possible for the world to be a social community with less effect upon the individual community. It might be the fact that the world is decreasing in a corporeal and a chronological sense through the excessive use and contact of technology while diverging in the political, financial, and in a digital sense both between and within nations as Zyl observed, “through discussions and meetings like these we are shrinking the differences in our understanding and our acceptance of the cultural and social complexity” (Zyl, 2001). Effects of Globalization on Community A community is comprised of certain factors and the basic five factors are culture, society, politics, economy and environment. So, to understand the effect of globalization on the community, it is required to understand its effect under separate heads to have a proper knowledge of the current situation. Globalization has brought a tremendous change in the culture of people as a whole. The major change which has been brought about with the advent of globalization is the growth of cross-cultural contacts. As the world is becoming a global village, people of various cultures, communities, religions and nations are coming together and mixing with people of different groups and nations which make people open to newer ideas and which in turn develops the world as a whole. Again globalization has brought about advent of new categories of consciousness and identities which embodies cultural diffusion. Even with the rapid changing lifestyle of people and with shortening of horizons, the desire to increase one's standard of living and enjoy foreign products and ideas has made a buzz all around the globe. Globalization leads to adoption of newer technology and practices, and participate in a “world culture”. Therefore, it is observed that globalization has contributed a lot when the question of development of culture is raised (Boli & Lechner, n.d.). Also, globalization plays an active role in development of the society. Globalization has contributed a lot in expansion of the governmental organization as well as non-governmental organization including humanitarian aid and developmental effort. Globalization has uplifted the society by eradicating poverty, increasing the income ratio and has contributed a lot in having literacy rate. Even in different circumstances globalization has played pivotal role in eliminating conflicts in a society by the extended and enlarged interrelations of a variety of religious groups and practices thereby, making the world a better place to live in (Sharma, n.d.). With regard to globalization’s contribution to the political scenario, the result is striking and commendable. Many of the scholars use “globalization” to denote the conception of a world management which regulates the associations among governments and ensures the human rights arising from social and financial aspects. There is little doubt that the United States has relished a spot at the topmost place among the world powers, because of its strong and wealthy economy, with the influence of globalization. But with the changing phase, Europe, China and India are also becoming major players. The fact is that competition is not the major issue that globalization addresses as there are major other issues that are addressed by various nations’ formulating policies which are targeted at benefitting the nation and the world as a whole (Berger, n.d.). Advancement of economy is an integral part for the development of a nation. A weak economy means a weaker nation whereas a strong economy is a sign of a stronger and powerful nation. Globalization has helped in understanding of a global general market, based on the autonomy of trade of goods and capital. The interconnectivity of these markets however confirms that an economic collapse in any one given country could not be restricted in that country. A recent example could be that of the sublime crisis originated from the USA that hit the whole world. Again, globalization leads to emergence of worldwide economic markets and better entrance to external financing for borrowers (Hiscox, 2001). Globalisation has brought about a massive change in the information sector as a whole. People are connected on the go all the time. There has been a technical change with the arrival of fiber optic communications, satellites, and enhanced accessibility of telephone and internet. Communication has become much easier than what it was few decades ago. It is perceived that ecologically globalization has done more harm than benefits. But also, it is true that only with globalization, this problem can be addressed. With the arrival of worldwide ecological challenges, may be solved with global cooperation, such as weather change, cross-boundary water and air pollution and over-fishing in the ocean. As many factories are built in developing nations with less ecological regulations, globalism and open trade may increase contamination. But still, economic expansion historically requires a “dirty” developed stage, and it is stated that developing countries should not, via regulation, be stopped from increasing their means of livelihood and to live life in a better way (Wenz, n.d.). Evils of Globalization Along with many positive changes, globalization also has certain ill effects attached with it. Globalization is treated as a major threat to the democracy as a whole. It also has propagated rising flow of skilled and non-skilled labourers from developed to developing nations as companies seek out the cheapest labour and as overseas companies attract a lot of human capital which affects the productivity of a single nation, leads to a greater displeasure among the under developed/developing countries which may result in increased chances of inferiority complex among these nations, increased likelihood of economic disturbances in one country effecting all countries. Also it is perceived that because of globalisation, the corporate power of the nation-states remotely exceeds that of social cultural organizations. Globalization also has the risk that it might limit intellectual expression of smaller organizations by the large corporations. Major scope of reactions for globalization being aggressive in an effort to conserve cultural heritage, larger threat of diseases being transmitted unintentionally between two states, decreasing environmental unity as polluting companies take benefit of weak regulatory policy in developing countries are some of the most common adverse effects of globalisation. To sum it up, it is thus clearly understandable that globalization has affected the community in both ways, positive as well as negative. But for some hazards or problems that globalization has inflicted on the world the greater positive influences of globalization cannot be underestimated. Globalization is thus really the new buzz word of today’s world (Herman, n.d.). Conclusion The definition of community has come over ages with the advent of globalization. Previously, by the word ‘community’, it was understood as a group or a set of people having similar characteristics but with time the meaning has changed by leaps and bounds. Now, the world is considered as a global community, where people of various groups, races, cultures and communities come together and reside in harmony. Thus, there has been a rapid transition in the behavior of the people affecting total change in the whole system and subsequently people has been more open towards other cultures and societies. There has been a transformation of the culture and scattering multiculturalism in the world which may help in promotion of peace and people of different backgrounds will be able to gel together easily. Community, by and large, have benefitted from globalization by various means such as growth of business and cultural exchanges. For example, sporting events like the FIFA World Cup and Commonwealth Games help in removing diversities and develop friendly attitude towards nations. It not only brings about the feeling of friendship but also unity which can be felt when any natural calamity strikes a particular country, people all over the world tries to remain beside those who are affected by it. For these reasons, though there have been major setbacks in the past and turbulences which shook the confidence of people on globalization but still the support of globalization remains strong in all parts of the world. To conclude, it can be said that community itself has been affected by globalization. Community was believed to be fragments of the society or the world in the recent past but now in the present time, ‘community’ is considered as a whole. It would not be wrong to say that globalization has played pivotal role in shaping the modern day community. References Berger, S., No Date. Globalization and Politics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. . [Online] Available at: http://web.mit.edu/polisci/research/berger/globalizationandpolitics.pdf [Accessed Aug 06, 2010]. Boli, J & Lechner, F. J., No Date. Globalization and World Culture. Institute of Social and Behavioral science. [Online] Available at: http://www.sociology.emory.edu/jboli/isb408026.pdf [Accessed Aug 06, 2010]. Herman, E. S., No Date. The Threat of Globalization. [Online] Available at: http://ww3.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue26/herman26.htm [Accessed Aug 06, 2010]. Hiscox, M. J., March 2001. The Effects of Globalization on Incentives to Alter the Structure of Governance. University of California. [Online] Available at: http://web.mit.edu/polisci/polecon/www/HiscoxGG.pdf [Accessed Aug 06, 2010]. Sharma, S., No Date. Impact of Globalization on World Society. Academic Forum 22. [Online] Available at: http://www.hsu.edu/uploadedFiles/Faculty/AFO/22/Sharma.pdf [Accessed Aug 06, 2010]. Wenz, P.S., No Date. Journal of Political Ecology. University of Illinois. [Online] Available at: http://jpe.library.arizona.edu/volume_6/yearlyvol6.htm [Accessed Aug 06, 2010]. Zyl, O.V., Sept 2001. Globalization and its Social & Cultural Impact. ISOCARP. [Online] Available at: http://www.isocarp.org/pub/events/congress/2001/keynotes/van_zyl.pdf [Accessed Aug 06, 2010]. Bibliography Hopper, P., Understanding Cultural Globalization. Polity, 2007. Pieterse, J. N., Globalization & Culture. Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. Waters, M., Globalization. Routledge, 2001. Read More