Question

Please answer the questions that you find below, be sure to include 4 readings that I uploaded to support your arguments, you must include page references to the reading you cite in the answer within parentheses, e.g., (Acemoglu, and Robinson, p. 78), within the text of your answer. Q: How does the process of globalization affect identity and citizenship? Why is cultural heritage an integral to the concept of identity, and how, in turn, is it related to the process of globalization? Do borders play a role in fostering a shared identity? if so, how does the spatial transformation resulting from globalization affect the nation-state as a container of social, economic, political and cultural process? Please follow the instructions strictly and carefully.

Answer

Globalization

Contents

Introduction. 1

Globalization, Culture and Identity. 1

Cultural, Heritage and Identity. 2

National Borders and Spatial Transformation. 3

Works Cited. 4

Introduction

Globalization has been popularized as the oneness and unification of economic, political and social factors from different cultures and regions. It is a cyclic process that has been taking place in phases over the centuries. Though it has been severely generalized in meaning in recent times, globalization is a complex form of social order that is reflected and executed through efforts towards international integration (Mazlish 97). This essay examines the globalization process in terms of its effects on identity and citizenship. It also examines the role of spatial transformation in reorienting the social-economic, political, and cultural processes that constitute globalization.

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Globalization, Culture and Identity

Global economic integration has been a core component of globalization. It has created a ripple effect particularly in regards to patterns of political and social integration. The European Union offers an example of ongoing efforts by societies to create integrated and united regions. Established with political integration as its basic goal, the EU has gone a step further by achieving economic integration through the creation of the European Monetary Union. Alongside the parent union, this monetary union has successfully created a single currency, reduced trade regulations and it is even moving towards creating a single fiscal policy for all its member states. In most cases, globalization is deemed efficient through the identification of differentiating factors and implementing systems to even out these differences with the objective of creating one common and centralized system. The goal of regional unions which double as economic and political unions is to create a global system of governance.

This elimination of differences has affected national sovereignty, identity and citizenship in a profound way. Nations are slowly being forced into abandoning their distinctive cultural identities in preference for assimilated cultural practices (Sassen 14). Naturally, identity tends to be shaped along national meaning that it is somewhat co-dependent with citizenship. Regulations for the normally differ from one country to another except in situations where globalization strategies have been implemented to make dual citizenship a reality. Thus, globalization is successfully creating global citizenship identity along the lines of social and cultural similarities. These new cultural identities are as a result of economic influences, technology and the merging of different cultures (Berger 1). These developments are not limited to geographical regions but rather, are manifested globally.

Cultural, Heritage and Identity

Cultural heritage is a mash-up of legacies, artefacts and structures of socialization for a social group. These legacies and practices are is usually inherited and passed down to generations in a way that ensures preservation and continuity of that particular group and its culture. Cultural heritage has openly created the distinct cultural identities that are dominant and well-known globally. These physical and abstract factors influence interactions and the way of life of a certain group of people which then affects their social, political and economic order. This identity is greatly related to globalization in its aim to eliminate social distance. In this regard, identity politics can be analyzed from a negative or positive angle in relation to globalization (Cvetkovich and Kellner 39). By extension, globalization has created a strong element of localization for countries, religious systems and cultures.

The biggest shortcoming of identity politics in globalization is the inequality that it promotes. It emphasizes the unequal distribution of resources in a manner that magnifies these differences. In most cases, privileged groups gain more favor in globalization efforts with their priorities and situations overriding and overshadowing those of the disadvantaged groups. This relationship between identity and globalization creates a delicate cause-and-effect situation.

National Borders and Spatial Transformation

Borders have always been a common phenomenon as a component of territorial sovereignty even before the emergence of today’s national borders. They can be viewed as popular markers that people use to create bounds of common identity. These borders are being used to identify areas characterized by common markets, trading relations, language norms, and laws. They constitute an evolution of traditional kingdoms and empire borders. In these contexts, identity is developed based on the political, social and legal regulations established within defined national borders.

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However, globalization is increasingly redefining this conception of national identity. It is broadly being conceptualized through hyper-globalist, skeptical and transformationalist views. According to transformational theories, globalization entails the spatial re-structuring and re-organization of economic, political, military and social power. The main point of concentration for spatial transformation is the distribution and operations of power systems (Sassen 27). Accordingly, globalization is said to have caused a shift of power and social organization in all regions of the world. This power creates inter-connectivity among regions and cultures such that activities in region have a direct and indirect effect on other separate regions.

Meanwhile, spatial transformation has greatly restructured economic globalization. Although globalization cannot be solely observed based on economic integration, it appears to have blurred the economic and market borders between nations. The world’s most prominent economic regions such as Western Europe are in a process of creating a free trade markets and fiscal regimes that are not regulated by national trade and legal restrictions. In future, a global economy operated from a centralized point will emerge, leading to the adoption of economy-oriented governance as a replacement to today’s politics-oriented global environment.

Works Cited

Berger, Peter. “Four Faces of global culture.” The National Interest, 49 (1997): 1-4. Print.

Kellner, Douglas &  Cvetkovich, Ann. Articulating the global and the local. Colorado: Westview Press, 1997. Print.

Mazlish, Bruce. “The global and the local.” Current Sociology, 53.1 (2005): 93–111. Print.

Sassen, Saskia. Deciphering the Global: Its scales, spaces and subjects. London: Routledge, 2008. Print.