Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
corporations to utilize international sources of capital and labour.
Globalization of the spheres of production, trade and commerce, and
of associated transportation, accounting and data logistical systems,
has greatly benefitted corporate capital accumulation. This geo-
economic transformation is now worldwide in terms of its national
origins, yet transnational in economic reach and penetration.
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Ecological globalization
The growing, international activism by
'Green' parties, human rights groups and non-governmental agencies
(NGOs) is collectively referred to as 'civil society'. As a people-centred
institutional mix of NGOs, it seeks to resist the global forces contrib-
uting to the environment's degradation and reducing Earth's capac-
ity to sustain people, animals and the biosphere.
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Globalization of labour
There has been a dramatic increase of
cross-border mobility of all classes of people from the dispossessed,
impoverished, and desperate, low-skilled 'migrant workers' to the
transnationally mobile, middle and upper classes and highly-skilled
professional classes. This global circulation is answering opportunities
provided by transnational corporations, emerging nations' business-
world expansions and global capitalism's needs for 'the brightest and
the best'.
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Illegal globalization
The growth and spread of such international
crimes as narcotics trade, arms smuggling, money laundering, human
trafficking of children and women, illegal immigration, refugee smug-
gling and slavery, has accompanied globalization. Many in this illegal
domain use global institutions and informal commercial networks to
further the underworld's profit, influence, bribery and corruption.
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Cultural globalizing
There has been a rapid diffusion and consump-
tion of commodities globally, which is often characterized as a
Western/modernizing, homogenizing spread and penetration of such
commercial products as Coca-cola and rock-and-roll music. But,
there are reversals of global acculturation flows, as reggae and soca
music and rhythms from the Caribbean penetrate popular music
culture in the US, Canada and the UK, for example.
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Globalization of militarization, conflict and 'fear'
Post-Cold War
rationales have continued by building upon post-9/11 tensions to
heighten domestic, regional and global fears over 'homeland protec-
tion' and 'national security'. As a result, the dangers of global terror-
ism have been fomented such that the spectre of endless war has
become imposed upon global social imaginations.
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Globalization from below
Global, national and local resistance and
human rights movements have emerged as activist opponents of
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