Globalization basically refers to the increase of the interaction of people, countries and states all in the interest of the growth of the international flow of money, ideologies and other cultures in line. Globalization is based on the economic process of integration which has social and some cultural aspects from all angles as well. It also does involve a number of goods and services and to some extent also the process of integration which has the inclusivity of the resources capital, technology and data as well. In the quest for all this, there have been very recent innovations that also come in line with all these and they include the steam locomotive, steamship, the jet engine and even to the last extent the container ships as well; these are some of the main advances that are made in the means of transport which do rise the telegraph and also the modern offspring and the internet as well (Stromquist, 21-34). The invention of the mobile phone is also a part of all this as it is used to make communications across all the sectors and hence make the world a far much better place at the end of the day as well. All these developments that people are actually enjoying in this modern era have been considered to be very major factors in globalization and have also been able to generate some extent of independence of economic and even to a good extent the cultural activities as well.
This is a concept that is well related to business and also the manner in which people relate best in the modern day society. At the moment, we have the kind of society which has benefited in terms of business and that the level of relationships that have been established to date is at the peak as such. Globalization is the beginning of global markets such that we have a state where people can be able to understand where they can sell their commodities even when it is not within their common reach in any sense as well (Stromquist, Pp. 34-56). At the end of it all, we need to understand that the global markets have brought in a certain type of relation that looks as though it is a completely foreign world that is being discussed of as such.
What is globalization?
Globalization is the tendency of the international trade, investments and information technology to weave out some of the economies of diverse countries together. When it comes to business and finance, it is the economic integration of the global markets. It is also used in describing the socio-cultural integration existent between the countries. Aside from all these, globalization has also had effect of the markedly increasing both the international trade and the cultural exchange at the end of the day. It has also been credited with the helping shift wealth to the less developed countries. However, it has also be blamed for the decrease in employment availability in the developed nation as the corporations in those countries have shifted the manufacturing process and jobs to other countries where they can access them at a cheaper sense in the name of saving on costs; some critics have also mentioned that this does weaken the national sovereignty of the people at any one point as such.
The main aim of globalization is basically to offer the organizations some sense of competitive advantage through lowering the costs of operations and also gaining greater numbers of products, services and even consumers at any one point as such. This is usually aimed at ensuring that the companies in question can be able to operate at an international level and also maintain their global name as well. It is very important that we get to understand that globalization makes all persons to belong to a certain blessing/circle that they can all relate to far much easily than they ever think of as such. At the end of the day, the target is to ensure that the people gain and at the same time the companies are also able to find it easier to operate from the onset as such. It is aimed at making small companies grow internationally and also be able to have a reliable means that they can use to run those companies without much technicality as such. The aim of it all is to ensure that we can all be able to attain fiscal independence which at times can be termed as global economic independence. This has also reduced the influence that the companies have on the rest of the companies and hence made it easier for the companies to manage themselves at any one point.
One of the most important ways that this is also done is through the diversification of resources and opening up of the additional markets. It is also bettered through accessing new raw materials which makes it way easier for the businesses to operate at the end of the day. This has indeed brought this whole continent together hence creating a number of multinational corporations and international conduct of business and the sale of goods and services across the whole planet. A good example is where we have a car company that is located in Japan having a number of auto parts that are manufactured in a number of developing countries, then also shipping the parts to a different country for assembly; the end of this all is when they also sell the finished car to several nations across the globe. This is a perfect example of what is there in the modern day business world. The aim of this all is to ensure that we have running businesses that can inspire us to work all through.
Globalization cannot merely be termed as a modern concept as it has been growing for a long time. Since the rise of companies such as Coca Cola, the belief of globalization being existent has been so much alive from the onset. It is very clear to all of us that indeed we live in a time when people understand that we should all just integrate as a globe and also be able to know that as a globe, it is all intermittent because we look forward to a more successful society from the onset. The globe has been preparing to make it even more acceptable and that with the introduction and the wide spread of the internet, we have been able to get to the peak of everything else. Globalization requires that we understand the law of other countries and that all the other countries should also be able to understand the habits and the conducts of all the other countries as well. It is easier today to transact business over the internet as compared to doing it on a face to face platform. The peak of globalization has also been seen through the use of the mobile phones especially in this modern day society where we find people relying exclusively to communicate via the mobile phones. With the changes that we have experienced in this field, it is equally right to say that the globe has not got to where it is heading to in terms of globalization but then we are so close to the peak of it all. This is all premised on the ease of doing business that we can see in the modern day society as such.
How globalization was initially theorized prior to anthropologists
Globalization is not a very new concept in the modern day society. It started as far back as ancient times. In those times, the caravans travelled vast distances all in order to obtain valuables such as salt, gold and spices. They again travelled and sold them back to their home countries. It was all based on good will and there was no specific document that tied territories to do business. At this point in time, it was all based on good will alone and nothing more past that as well. At the end of it all, it was based more on communities and regions that had developed good ties and needed commodities that came from other regions as well. They would take in their commodities and bring them back to their home countries and sell their commodities. At the end of it all, they would trade them for other goods which they are needed back home. Even with the advent of the Industrial Revolution in 19th Century, there were advancements that were done in communication and this was the beginning of anthropology in globalization which in return also brought in good communication and transportation services that also helped in lessening the borders and increasing the economic ties that are there between nations from the onset. In the last few decades after we have seen anthropologists being involved even more, we have noted that it has been occurring at an unprecedented pace and scope as well.
Historically, it has also been traced even before the European Age of Discover and the voyages of the New World. To some extent, it is also well premised on the millennium BC. This was purely at the time when it was done as far as in a barter trade means and not in the form of currency. In these days, people would travel far distances with commodities to venture into new territories that had what they were looking for and lacked what they had at the time. In the late 19th
Century and the early 20th Century, the connectivity that was there in the world economies and the cultures grew very quickly. As at that time, we only had the concept in that line and the term was not yet existent. This was basically a means of doing business and not a well-known term as at that time as well. People treated it as a means of doing business and not as a way of life; at the time before the anthropologists, there were very few people who were involved in international trade which was actually the source means of globalization that is well spread in the modern day society. At the end of the day, the thought was merely to improve on business doing and also increase the scope of thought as well.
It was finally made better in 200 when there was the International Monetary Fund that identified a total of four basic issues of globalization. In that case, they highlighted the issue of trade and transactions. Further we also involved the addition of capital and investments movements, the migration and movements of the people and also the dissemination of the knowledge as such. There were also other environmental challenges that came along with all this and this included the issue of global warming, the cross boundary water, air pollution and even over fishing that is being done on the ocean. In comparison to globalization as manifested before the anthropologists, there was an immense amount of respect that was shown to the people with regard to the country and also basing it on the good relations that the society ensured that they maintained. Through it all, the main aim was to ensure that in business doing, they remained able to create a good standard and relation that would actually attract them to maintain being in the same position even later on in life as such. Back then, globalization was basically economic and political; political in the sense that we had countries conquering each other and the result of take overs that were seen even as early as the 15th Century. There have been political wars and territorial take overs that we have witnessed for the longest time possible and all this has been premised more on the fact that there was an understanding between countries and territories even back then as such.
Contribution of anthropologists to the study of globalization
In the quest for the study of globalization, anthropologists have been at the forefront of everything. We have to keep in mind that initially all this was considered to be a very new concept that had just dawned the world but then it stagnated for a long time until such a time that anthropologists were involved all along. At the end of the day, the more focus was even placed on trying to understand how globalization is supposed to work amongst the people. It is also the anthropologists who were responsible for coming up with the new structure of globalization and also helping people understand how the whole concept is supposed to work amongst the people. We all work in a society where we can be able to relate better and even work better towards the betterment of the general society as such. At the end of the day, the most important thing is to try and understand how anthropologists were able to make the rest of us get to know that globalization is all about international relations rather than just basing it all on the local markets in place at any one point. The determination here is to try and understand the aim of globalization and the focus of it all as well. Anthropologists are set there to make sure that we can be able to achieve the epitome of globalization as well; at the end of the day, we must just understand that all this is premised on understanding a foreign concept across the whole world.
Legal colonialism is one of the major concepts that have come out in the modern day development and it is also a good part of globalization that must be taken into account. Just as colonialism, globalization has never been seen to be a new thing according to the anthropologists. From the time the first hominins left the continent Africa around 1.8 million years ago, the concept of colonization has been running the whole world for a very long time ever. At times that kind of movement that is also set across the globe did involve people encroaching on areas that are already inhabited by other human beings. The archaeologists have been a good part of this process because they have been responsible for documenting the movement of people across the whole prehistory and also all along historical context. This is through the use of a good variety of data that was all used to reconstruct what the interactions may have also looked like. Anthropologists were a key component at the time when we were actually focusing on colonialism and were amongst the technocrats that were involved in planning the whole thing and how it will work. Colonialism has been well defined as the domination of one culture, nation or even society by another country. This is placed in the context of modern globalization and even to oversimplify matters, colonialism has been referred better in education as the western European domination over much of the world starting straight from the 15th Century. Anthropologists have been able to note how the Asians have taken dominance in African business as a part of modern globalization which has seen people do business in different areas without the fear of being treated exactly like foreigners. It is merely to say that in the modern day, people look objectively to business and do not place optimum concentration to the negation that might also come with it at the end of the day as such.
What are global markets?
Global markets involve the buying and selling of commodities and services in all the countries of the world or the value of the said goods that are sold across the continent. This is a very important concept that has been introduced in the modern day business which does basically involve imploring companies to work within a certain market that does allow them to sell commodities across the world without any much problems. It is a theory that allows people to do business anywhere across the world. In any global market, the rules of international trade are the ones that are put to application rather than the local law. A global market is not created by any specific country but rather by the forces of demand and supply that make the need for a commodity in a certain region need to be satisfied by someone else who comes from a different region as well. In that case, the force that is placed here is to make sure that the business can be able to put in sufficient reliance on the market to satisfy their needs as such.
Global markets offer a stable and reliable market that the rest of the community can rely on to do business. For the business world, this is a very positive thing that can be relied upon and that for many it is also a means of attracting the right markets at the right time as well. At the end of it all, we all know that the global markets are the source of good understanding that exists between the users of the markets and also acts as a good center of attraction for those who would like to venture into the business world. Before one gets to an international business, they have to ensure that there is a global market that they will be acting on or rather they will be dealing in a vacuum and an unregulated business. In the global markets, the target consumer market is well known and also helps in reducing the burden that is there on the business owners to develop a good market and a plan. The essence here is to make sure that the interested parties in doing international business have a platform that they can start on and have a framework in the form of a market where they can find counterpart; this is what the market entails and the good thing about it is that it offers any member whether it is the seller or the buyer the opportunity to operate better and also get commodities with far much more ease than they would have imagined. International trade is not as well regulated as the local one and the global market is what brings in the concept of good will because once you find out that the businessman belongs to that global market, then there is some element of trust that is dawned all in the belief that the party comes from the entrusted forum.
Contribution of anthropologists to the theorization of global markets
Globalization in the first case has been considered to be the development and the proliferation of the complex and the interdependent connections that are created through movement of capital, culture, natural resources and a good number of people all across the borders as well. This in most cases usually involves cross border interactions that are meant to attract business or aimed at making profits. On one hand, we cannot forget the amount of effort that the anthropologists have made towards the theorization of the global market. Initially the best that was known to people was the practical part hence through the further studies that have also been done on the same issue have been able to bring in the understanding of the theoretical part of all this. Being that it is a practical concept and people would only see it working, there was a lot of work that had to be done to make it way easily understandable as such.
They have been able to bring in the understanding of the social and cultural resistances plus to some extent the receptions that are there to some of the specific movements that are made available at any point in time as well. This has led to some good levels of marked anthropological and well set out allied disciplines research that examines and even unpacks the concept of globalization from the onset. It even gets to use the structural plus the theoretical concepts that are used to examine specific known case studies. This has also largely transformed the whole issue of globalization into the whole ubiquitous framework or even the concepts as such. From all these, they have been able to bring in a lot of success and made it possible for the society to come out and even understand this whole concept of global market better than ever before (Knight, Pp. 76-89). It might seem complicated but then that has been the theory and the manner in which reality has been brought down to all the people. In business world, we cannot afford to place aside the consequences that have come along with trying to understand and bring into application the whole idea wholesomely as such. At the end of the day, this group has been able to solidify the whole concept and made it way easier for the rest of the people to know what they really want as such. Most of the work which the anthropologists do within the study of globalization studies does inform and it is also informed by the research in various fields such as economics, sociology and even human geography just to be able to name a very few as such.
There are also a number of interdisciplinary and the interdisciplinary networks which are characterized by the anthropological research in the whole globalization as well. Just as the bibliographic sources demonstrate, the real study and the processes that make up globalization are not well demarcated from other areas of research nor are they even taken up unproblematic by the selection of the anthropologists through the whole collection of things as they turn out to be. The debate that has been set for the anthropologists has often been more about how to come up with the definition of the field of study and at the same time also determine the transnational processes which are very crucial in the foundation of globalization as well. Anthropologists have also debated well this whole concept and have come to the conclusion that it is really what the society has been in need of to make the whole globe a better place to rely on in the near future as such (Mundy, Pp. 32-56). These people have also broken the bridges by being able to also debate the globalization of the heuristic relevance that is there in research and also the value of specific theoretical frameworks when determining the contours and the effects that are there on the social, political and economic contexts that are there at the start of the times as well.
Conclusion
Globalization is the concept that is responsible for doing business in different parts of the world without necessarily being a citizen of those countries. It is the special concept that has been set out to help people also understand the role of the special companies in the whole global market. We also have global markets which are special positions that allow companies to operate in the globe and be able to sell their commodities across. Companies usually resolve to come down and also help the rest of the society in the understanding of how best they can make business better at the first instance as such. This has been relied upon by a host of businesses because they are now fully aware that they can make businesses stable enough across the globe.
Works Cited
Burbules, Nicholas C., and Carlos Alberto Torres. "Globalization and education." The RoutledgeFalmer reader in science education (2004): 15.
Stromquist, Nelly P., and Karen Monkman, eds. Globalization and education: Integration and contestation across cultures. R&L Education, 2014.
Knight, Jane. "Updated definition of internationalization." International higher education 33 (2015).
Mundy, K., et al. "Introduction: The globalization of education policy–key approaches and debates." The Handbook of Global Education Policy (2016): 1-20.
Stromquist, Nelly P., and Karen Monkman. "Defining globalization and assessing its implications for knowledge and education, revisited." Globalization and education: Integration and contestation across cultures 1 (2014).
Stromquist, Nelly P., and Karen Monkman. "Defining globalization and assessing its implications for knowledge and education, revisited." Globalization and education: Integration and contestation across cultures 1 (2014).
