This paper examines competing definitions and models of globalization, drawing on Sklair (1999) and Held & McGrew (2003) to explore how globalization extends beyond economic exchange to shape social norms, cultural identity, and human rights discourse. The paper includes two peer-response posts that discuss free trade agreements such as NAFTA, misconceptions about globalization, and the tension between political power and ordinary citizens. A research journal entry then focuses on pipeline controversies — particularly the Dakota Access Pipeline — as a case study for exploring indigenous rights, environmental justice, environmental racism, and global capitalism within a post-colonial framework. The paper argues that a single policy issue like pipelines can illuminate multiple dimensions of globalization theory simultaneously.
Globalization can be loosely defined as trade networks between disparate geographic regions, leading to the exchange of goods, people, and ideas. Improved technology and transportation tools, industrialization, and advancements in market economies have created a world in which globalization has become inevitable. As Held & McGrew (2003) point out, the evolution of physical, normative, and symbolic infrastructure has facilitated globalization since the industrial age, giving rise to banking systems, normative trade policies including tariffs, and the use of English as a global language (p. 3). Globalization has entered public discourse relatively recently and is "a relatively new idea in the social sciences" (Sklair, 1999, p. 1), but globalization has been a part of human civilization for over a thousand years — the Silk Road and other long-distance trade routes have created links between cultures that have been transformative as well as irreversible.
Defining globalization can be tricky, as there are many different models of globalization and perceptions of it, depending on the cultural and historical conditions in which its systems take place. Globalization also does not affect all people in all societies equally; the ages of colonization and imperialism prove that globalization can easily become a system of exploitation based on abuse of power rather than on mutual benefit. The postmodern models of globalization may be shifting gradually toward more egalitarian forms of trade, but there are still important issues that need to be taken into account, including the way globalization has the potential to erode the languages and cultures of less powerful entities, and the way globalization is linked to environmental exploitation as well as labor exploitation. Whether globalization is focused solely on trade and economic exchange or on other factors like cultural imperialism and appropriation also impacts how the term is defined. Globalization affects the creation and identification of social issues and social problems because of the way worldviews and cognitive schemas are changed as a result of the process of exchange.
Social science has moved beyond a simplistic understanding of globalization that focuses only on political and economic issues, and now seeks to observe and measure the effect of globalization on discourse — especially on how social issues and problems are conceptualized and addressed. For example, globalization discourse has an impact on social norms and moral relativism, allowing for the emergence of universal human rights.
Freedom in cross-border trade is a significant but not sole part of the definition of globalization. There is no absolutely unfettered trade; trade is constrained by any number of factors, from tariffs to supply and demand. Globalization is more about the potential for trade to occur, and that trade is not just material in nature — it can be an exchange of ideas and culture as well. When "free trade" agreements like NAFTA are in place, they may be useful for cross-border trade on a large scale but end up having little to no effect on the movement of ordinary citizens. For example, NAFTA never allowed Canadians, Mexicans, and Americans to freely move and find work between the party nations as citizens can within the European Union. Globalization almost inevitably leads to clashes between those who possess political and economic power to make trade agreements and those who are most affected by those agreements — such as indigenous people or ordinary citizens who have no real power in matters like oil pipelines.
"Misconceptions and broader social effects"
"Indigenous rights, environment, and global capitalism"
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