Several months ago I posted an analysis of the UN Millennium Declaration (UNMD). One of the things I mentioned was the stated goal of the UNMD, to promote globalization in a positive light and to ensure that everyone benefits equally from it. I went on to provide a very brief definition of “globalization”, just enough to serve my purposes at the time. Nevertheless, it’s clear that globalization is a very complex concept that requires more attention (probably even more than I may ever have the opportunity to devote to the subject). What I would like to do now is to present a brief overview of my current understanding of the concept based on recent literature. This is certainly not the only definition of globalization, but I believe it is one of very few ways of defining it in a manner that is consistent with the goals of the UNMD. (Note: references are incomplete. I’ll fix this in the next couple of days.)
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The concept “globalization” is often characterized as a hopelessly vague concept that can, and will be used to justify any number of ideologies or world views. While there are those that feel that this is sufficient reason to abolish the concept, others see this as an indication of healthy discourse contributing to the formulation of a meaningful concept (Bartelson, Robertson & Khondker). What is being suggested by the latter group is that concepts like “globalization” do not refer to ‘things’ that we can identify or point to. Rather, that they attempt to capture the current conceptual state of our attempts to construct meaningful expressions about the world around us through our discourse. As such, these concepts are constantly undergoing change both through our attempts to apply them and our attempts to understand them. This is certainly consistent with what has already been said about globalization as it is construed in the UNMD, where globalization is portrayed as something that can, and presumably will be, ultimately understood as a positive force for all citizens of the world. Therefore by setting such goals, the signatories of the UNMD have committed to encouraging and enabling discourse amongst all citizens of the world to shape our ultimate understanding of globalization.
There is a tendency to define globalization in terms of metaphorical relations with past and current elements of changing international relations. Scholte (cite) has identified typical definitions that follow this model:
1. Globalization as internationalization – In this context, globalization is identified with increasing interdependence between nation-states primarily in the form of economic transactions. As such, Scholte sees this as simply placing a “globalization
