What is globalization?——JIANGJIASHAN(강가삼)

 

Summary of the Reading 

Traditionally, globalization has been defined as a process through which the economic, cultural, and social lives of countries around the world become increasingly interconnected through the cross-border flow of capital, goods, services, information, and people. It is typically divided into several dimensions:


· Economic globalization: This is the core dimension manifested in the integration of international trade, cross-border investment (FDI), global supply chains, and financial markets. A company's products may be designed in California, with chips manufactured in Taiwan, assembled in Vietnam, and ultimately sold to global consumers.

· Cultural Globalization: Global tastes exhibit a certain degree of homogenization through the dissemination of films, music, social media (such as TikTok and Netflix), fashion, and food culture. Hollywood blockbusters are airing simultaneously worldwide, with sushi and latte coffee readily available in major cities around the globe.

· Technological Globalization: The rise of the internet and digital technologies has been the biggest accelerator of recent globalization, eliminating physical barriers to information transmission and making remote collaboration, instant messaging, and global knowledge sharing possible.

· Political Globalization: Countries coordinate and cooperate through international institutions such as the United Nations, World Trade Organization (WTO), and World Health Organization (WHO) to address global challenges like climate change and public health crises.


 New, Interesting, or Unusual Insights

The internet was meant to be a forum for promoting global understanding and dialogue. But algorithmic recommendations and social media often confine people to information cocoons and "echo walls." People with similar views continually reinforce each other's biases, making dialogue between different camps even more difficult. This has led to a divide at the informational level of globalization: we share the same technological platform but inhabit a world that is isolated, even hostile, from one another. Global interconnected technologies unexpectedly became tools for exacerbating social divisions and the rise of populism.

 

Identify at Least One Question or Concern 

Who is ruling this globalized world? To whom is its power accountable? This is the issue of the "global governance deficit."
The core drivers of globalization—transnational capital and large tech companies—often act and make decisions that exceed the regulatory capabilities of single nation-states. They can flexibly transfer assets, optimize tax burdens, and evade regulation on a global scale. When a country's government tries to raise environmental standards or labor rights, businesses may threaten to shift their industries to regions with lower standards. This has led to a severe democratic dilemma:
Citizens authorize their government to manage the country and safeguard public interests through voting. But when major decisions that truly affect their lives (job opportunities, data privacy, environment) are made by boards of multinational corporations or international financial markets that are far away and not accountable to any single citizen, the chain of democracy breaks. Voters feel powerless, the government feels constrained, which has sparked widespread political frustration and a strong backlash against globalization.  

 

Conclusion

Globalization is neither a linear process destined for integration nor a past that can be simply reversed. It is a powerful and dialectical force that creates connections and divisions, prosperity and inequality, understanding and conflict.

The new landscape it brings—such as the "Island World," cultural fusion, and digital echo walls—requires us to abandon black-and-white judgments. Globalization is not a binary choice between "good" and "bad," but a complex reality that needs to be continually shaped and guided.

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