Positive And Negative Effects Of Globalisation

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Disaffection, animosity, and perhaps fear are the words that some would use to describe their emotions towards the phenomenon known as “globalisation” for they theorize that it has led to a staggering increase in social inequality in nation-states, both internally and externally, increases unemployment, social exclusion and threatens the living standards of many, among other things (Shiva, 2005). Others argue that globalisation renders extensive opportunities and advancements to the whole world (Shiva, 2005). Globalisation is said to be instrumental in bridging the gap between the wealthy and the poor, the technologically-advanced and those lagging behind technologically but most importantly, it is unifying the world into a “global village”…show more content…
Multinational corporations (MNCs) are able to expand their companies as earth becomes more globalised and, therefore, there is an increase in free trade agreements among countries and regions, which will then improve the flow of capital across the world (therefore redistributing wealth to poor countries), and improve the standard of living for many people. Some corporations and states consider globalisation as the future of our world economy and vital in the process of alleviating poverty (UN, 2011). Foreign investments create employment opportunities and also allow for the growth of exports, which in turn, could better the Growth Domestic Product of respective countries. (Kotilainen and Kaitila, 2002) For example, in 2012, McDonald’s Corporation had 35 000 outlets in 119 countries and has over 440 000 employees worldwide (Yahoo Finance, 2012 and Macroaxis, 2014). The statistics of this American-based company show that globalisation can have a positive impact on countries such as creating jobs. However, other theorists argue that economic globalisation has adverse effects such as human rights violations, super-exploitation, and unemployment. The trade agreements benefit the MNCs and not the workers – the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The gap between the wealthy and the poor has greatly increased (Pilger, 2001). Labour is…show more content…
Technological globalisation has escalated the degree of integration among countries with the invention of the Internet, telecommunications and with physical advancements such as transport and infrastructure. The world is virtually more connected and in-touch with one another. The barriers caused by space, time and physical locations are gradually becoming irrelevant (Harvey, 1989). People can share information and communicate with anyone, anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds due to innovations like social media and telecommunications (“timeless time”); and the invention of jet planes enable people to travel from one country to another in a couple of hours and geographical barriers are decreasing (‘the space of flows’) (Castells, 1997) – this supports the notion of time-space compression (Harvey, 1989). For example, during the voyages of discovery, it took Christopher Columbus approximately three months to travel from Europe to the Americas (EyeWitness to History.com, 2004), but today it would take one less than 24 hours to make the same trip as Columbus (360TravelGuide.com, 2014). Although, technological globalization connects millions of people around the world, it has disconnected and marginalised a vast majority of people in developing countries. Those who have technology have access to information and this information provides them with the means to accumulate ridiculous wealth and

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