Globalization Theories Research Paper

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Globalization Theories

Introduction. The main theories of development – dependency, globalization and modernization, have been joined by a number of other theories that seek to explain how our world and society have developed. The most prominent among these is world systems theory, but world culture theory and world society theory also exist, using different frames of references to support their views. These frameworks provide an interesting perspective on the many different ways we study development, and as such as are worth of scholarship and understanding, even the minor ones that have yet to enjoy much uptake in the scholarly community on development.

World Systems Theory

Immanuel Wallerstein proposed the world systems theory in the 1970s. As he explains (2013), world systems theory was created out of rejection for the study of sociology as it had existed since the 19th century. The aim, therefore, was to replace sociology with a theory that had greater explanatory power for the world as he observed it. By rejecting sociology, Wallerstein intended to create a system of analysis that broke down the traditional barriers between different social sciences, and instead analyzed the world and its nations as a complex system.

Wallerstein brought to his discussion his own concept of modernization, one that explicitly rejects modernization theory (Skocpol, 1977). Among the direct issues Wallerstein has with modernization theory is that it is focused on the nation-state; Wallerstein's theory traces the origins of modern society back through feudal times, predating the nation-state and rejecting the idea that the nation-state is the only relevant unit of analysis. He also argues that there are multiple different paths of development, contrary to modernization theory, which holds that all nations must follow the same path, albeit at different times. Further, Wallerstein brings to his world systems analysis transnational structures. These were actually nascent in the 1970s, but have come to play a much larger role in global development since that time.

Wallerstein has continued to build out his theory since he first developed it. The theory was brought to light originally with a number of flaws, which proved fodder for critics (Skocpol, 1977). But his theory gained traction as at the very least an alternate system for analysis. These critiques have allowed Wallerstein to not only defend his work, but to build on it. Robertson & Lechner (1985) offered a critique with respect to how the theory treated culture, but that provides an opportunity to flesh out the theory and address the weakness.

There are several similarities between world systems theory and dependency theory, and in part that has allowed world systems theory to maintain relevance. There are several world systems theory scholars, and many of its ideas have become accepted.

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In part, doubtless, this is because Wallerstein is still alive and contributing to the discourse. However, world systems theory does not outshine competing theories in terms of adherents; it is well-known but not widely accepted as the dominant theory to explain global development.

One key similarity, for example, is that Wallerstein has the core-periphery relationship in world systems theory. Core nations take cheap labor and raw materials from periphery nations, and then with those inputs create high profit consumption goods that can then be sold to the periphery (Moyer, 2016). There is a semi-periphery as well, which serves as evidence that some nations can move from periphery to core, but unlike in modernization theory there is no clear path for this, and not all nations that move into the semi-periphery are destined to further move into the core; the lack of predictability in development pathways is a key element in world systems theory, and may differ somewhat from the understanding under dependency theory as well.

World Culture Theory

World culture theory has been described as a "neo-institutionalist theory of global isomorphism" (Takayama, 2012), meaning that the cultures of the world, while disparate at present, are moving towards a universal world culture. This is a relatively new theory, and remains minor at the present moment. One of the reasons is that it has a lot of relevance for analyzing globalization and its impacts, but where many other development theories look to the past to see how the world has arrived at its current state in order to extrapolate potential future states, this theory is more focused on the future, and making the case that the convergence path we are presently on will continue until there is one world culture.

Three primary authors in world culture theory are Roland Robertson, Arjun Appadurai and Ulf Hannerz. This theory is relatively recent, and focuses on the convergence of cultures around the world. For example, people are "becoming aware of the new global reality – the problem of how to live together in one global system" (ILS, 2006). This theory is used to evaluate the current processes of globalization, which are said to be "compressing" the world into a single entity. While there are currently many unique and distinct cultures, this view holds that the uniqueness and distinctiveness of different cultures is being reduced. If globalization is the endpoint for other global development theories, it is the beginning point for world culture theory, and the end of this story will be written much further down the road when there is truly one world culture.

World culture theory is at this point a relatively minor theory, but it has been applied to….....

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