Glossary of Globalization G7.

Group of seven major economic powers (US, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Canada), engaged in regular consultation on financial stability and economic gr owth (occasionally G8 in deference to Russia; see University of Toronto G8 Infor mation Centre) Globalization. Expansion of global linkages, organization of social life on glob al scale, and growth of global consciousness, hence consolidation of world socie ty. 1. "[T]he inexorable integration of markets, nation-states, and technologies to a degree never witnessed before-in a way that is enabling individuals, corporati ons and nation-states to reach around the world farther, faster, deeper and chea per than ever before . . . . the spread of free-market capitalism to virtually e very country in the world " (T.L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, 1999, p. 7-8). 2. "The compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole . . . . concrete global interdependence and consciousness of t he global whole in the twentieth century" (R. Robertson, Globalization, 1992, p. 8). 3. "A social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultura l arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that they ar e receding (M. Waters, Globalization, 1995, p. 3). 4. "The historical transformation constituted by the sum of particular forms and instances of . . . . [m]aking or being made global (i) by the active disseminat ion of practices, values, technology and other human products throughout the glo be (ii) when global practices and so on exercise an increasing influence over pe ople's lives (iii) when the globe serves as a focus for, or a premise in shaping , human activities" (M. Albrow, The Global Age, 1996, p. 88). 5. Integration on the basis of project pursuing "market rule on a global scale" (P. McMichael, Development and Social Change, 2000, p. xxiii, 149). 6. "As experienced from below, the dominant form of globalization means a histor ical transformation: in the economy, of livelihoods and modes of existence; in p olitics, a loss in the degree of control exercised locally . . . . and in cultur e, a devaluation of a collectivity's achievements . . . . Globalization is emerg ing as a political response to the expansion of market power . . . . [It] is a d omain of knowledge." (J.H. Mittelman, The Globalization Syndrome, 2000). For vie ws related to 5. and 6., click here or here. Global governance. Rules and institutions for managing and regulating actions or processes of global import; specifically, object of international reform effort s pursuing design of democratic transnational institutions and control over econ omic activity (see also Issues, #6) Glocalization. Process by which transsocietal ideas or institutions take specifi c forms in particular (i.e., local) places. H (back to the top) Human Rights. Rights of persons to freedom of speech and conscience, equal treat ment, work and health, among others, as defined in Universal Declaration adopted by UN in 1948, supplemented by 1960s Covenants on social, economic, political, and civil rights. Variously interpreted by states, hence subject of global debat e. For Declaration, click here. Hybridization. Mixing of elements (e.g., musical styles) from different cultures or origins in particular contexts; used to express active and creative engageme nt of groups in distinctively adapting global ideas or products