THE

CONTEMPORARY
WORLD
A Modular Approach

Angeline G. Regalado, Ph.D.  Aphrile L. De Angel

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Preface
The CTCW, The Contemporary World, is a three-unit course that focuses on the
examination of the multifaceted phenomenon of globalization. Using the various
disciplines of the social sciences, it examines the economic, social, political,
technological, and other transformations that have created an increasing awareness of the
interconnectedness of peoples and places around the globe.

The core to the study of the world is the concept of globalization. The first
module will tackle this concept further. As the study of globalization progresses, we will
bring your concentration intentionally away from the Philippines. Many of the core
courses of the new GE curriculum, e.g., Philippine History, Rizal, Understanding
Self, ask questions about yourself in a national context. However, this course will
challenge you to think beyond your country and ask what it means to be a citizen of the
world.

After each lesson, we provide questions to test your understanding and lesson
retention which you may wish to answer before the class. While you answer these
questions on your notebook or yellow paper, please do not lose the sight of the main
question of the course: What does it mean to be a citizen of the world? Please keep in
mind as well that your answers will be graded including your outputs. The assessment
rubrics are found in the appendices page. As for classroom activities, it will be up to your
professor to integrate, conduct, and facilitate them.

The majority of the materials you will discover are new and unfamiliar; this
course will be challenging! In spite of this, we hope that you will enjoy using this
instructional material and taking this course. May this material pose as a challenge to
you, to go beyond the limit of our country, and as you travel along the lessons, we
encourage you to think of yourselves as a citizen of the world.

 The Authors

The Contemporary World: A Modular Approach A.Regalado &

A.DeAngel
 Table of Contents
Page

Module 1: Structures of Globalization

Lesson 1: Defining Globalization 6
Lesson 2: The World Economics and Globalization 10
Lesson 3: Global Politics: History to International Order 22
Lesson 4: The Contemporary Global Governance 35
Lesson 5: A World of Regions 43

References 53

Module 2: A World of Ideas: Cultures of Globalization

Lesson 6: The Globalization of Religion 57
Lesson 7: Global Media Culture 69
Lesson 8: The Global City 79

References 88

Module 3: Mobility & Sustainability

Lesson 9: Global Demography 90

Lesson 10: Global Migration 105

Lesson 11: Towards a Sustainable Development 117
Lesson 12: Global Citizenship 128

References 136

Appendices
Assessment Rubrics 138
 MODULE 1
Structures of Globalization

Module 1 will present you the different forces of the globalization process, with
specific focus on economics and politics as there are big institutions that create large-
scale changes. This module will first trace the emergence of these institutions historically.
How they affect the countries and people today will then further explain.

Module 1 Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. Distinguish the different current strong forces of globalization; and

2. Evaluate the emergence of global economic and political systems.
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Lesson 1:Defining Globalization

 Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Specify the conceptions of globalization; and

2. Provide a personal experience of globalization.

 Time: 3 hours

A Working Definition Globalization

Globalization, in most accounts, is viewed as primarily an economic process.
When a newspaper reports that nationalists are resisting “globalization,” it
usually refers to the integration of the national markets to a wider global
market signified by the increased free trade. When activist refer to the “anti-
globalization” movement of the 1990s, they mean resisting the trade deals
among countries facilitated and promoted by global organizations like the World
Trade Organization.
Many are sympathetic to the critique of economic globalization. Academic differ
from journalists and political activists, however, because they see globalization in much
broader terms. They view the process through various lenses that consider multiple
theories and perspectives. Academics call this an interdisciplinary approach, and it is this
approach used by the general education (GE) courses that you will be taking alongside
this one.
The description of globalization, considered the best one by globalization
scholars, is provided by Manfred Steger (2005) who described the process as “the
expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across world-time
and across world-space.” Expansion refers to “both the creation of new social
networks and the multiplication of existing connections that cut across traditional
political, economic, cultural, and geographical boundaries.” These various
connections occur at different levels.

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 6

Social media, for example, establish new global connections between people, while
international groups of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are networks that
connect a more specific group – social workers and activists – from different corners of
the globe.
Not only the global connections multiplying, but they are also becoming more
closely-knit and expanding their reach. For example, there are always been a strong
financial market connecting London and New York. With the advent of electronic
trading, however, the volume of that trade increases exponentially, since traders can now
trade more at higher speeds. The connection is this accelerating. Apart from this
acceleration, however, as the world becomes more financially integrated, the intensified
trading network between London and New York may expand and stretch to cover more
and more cities. After China, committed itself to the global economy in the 1980s, for
example, Shanghai steadily returned to its old role as a major trading post.
It is not only financial matters that you can find these connections. In 2012, when
the monsoon rains flooded much of Bangkok, the Honda plant making some of the
critical car parts temporarily ceased production. This had a strong negative effect on
Honda-USA which relied heavily on the parts being imported from Thailand. Not only
was it unable to reach the sales targets it laid out, but the ability of the service centers
nationwide to assist Honda owners also suffered. As a result, the Japanese car
company’s global profits also fell (BBC News, 2012).
The final attribute of this definition relates to the way people perceive time
and space. Steger notes that “globalization processes do not occur merely at an
objective, material level but they also involve the subjective plane of human
consciousness.” In other words, people begin to feel that the world has become a
smaller place and distance has collapsed from thousands of miles to just a mouse-
click away. One can now e-mail a friend in another country and get a reply
instantaneously, and as a result, begins to perceive their distance as less
consequential. Cable TY and the internet has also exposed one to news from
across the globe, so now, he/she has this greater sense of what is happening on
other places.
Steger’s definition of globalization must be differentiated with an ideology he
calls globalism. In globalization represents the many processes that allow for the
expansion and intensification of global connections, globalism is a widespread belief
among powerful people that the global integration of economic markets is beneficial for
everyone, since it spreads freedom and democracy across the world (International
Monetary Fund Staff, 2008). It is a common belief forwarded in media and policy circles.

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In the next lesson, you will realize why it is problematic.
It is essential note is that when activists and journalists criticize
“globalization,” they are, more often than not, criticizing some manifestations
of globalism. Often, these criticisms are warranted. Nevertheless, it is crucial to
insist that “globalization as a process refers to a larger phenomenon that cannot
simply be reduced to the ways in which global markets have been assimilated.

Conclusion
These intersecting processes may be confusing. It is difficult to assess
globalization or comment on it because it is so diffuse and almost fleeting. Some scholars
have, therefore, found it simpler to avoid talking about
globalization as a whole. Instead, they want to discuss “multiple
globalizations,” instead of just one process.

According to Arjun Appadurai, an anthropologist, different kinds of

globalization occur on multiple and intersecting dimensions of integration that he
calls “scapes.” An “ethnoscape,” for example, refers to the global
movement of people, while a “mediascape” is about the flow culture. A
“technoscape” refers to the circulation of mechanical goods and software; a
“financescape” denotes the global circulation of money; and an “ideoscape” is the
realm where political ideas move around. Although they intersect, these various
scapes have differing logics. They are thus distinct windows into the broader
phenomenon of globalization.
The argument is simple: there are multiple globalizations. Hence, even if one
does not agree that globalization can be divided into the five “scapes,” it is hard
to deny Appadurai’s central thrust of viewing globalization through various
lenses.
A different dynamic/s may emerge, depending on what is being
globalized. So while it is important to ask “What is globalization?” it is
likewise to ask “What is/are being globalized?” Depending on what is being
globalized, the vista and conclusions change.
 8

 COMPREHENSION CHECK
Date

Name Course, Year, & Section

DISCUSSION
Instructions: On this answer sheet, answer the following questions. Five (5) points
each number. Please be guided by the rubrics for short answer test .

1. How have you experienced globalization? Please narrate your

experience.

2. Why it is important to emphasize that the concepts of globalization vary?

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3. What is the difference between globalization and globalism?

“IS yoUR home globalized?”

Steps:

1. Do a list of everything you have in your living room, for example, TV, sofa,
magazines, etc.

2. Classify to your list into two types: first “things” that are made in the
Philippines and second, those that are foreign brands. List the countries of
origin of your foreign-brand items.

3. Do the same thing for the kitchen and bedroom.

4. On your paper, preferably on a long bond paper, write and determine which
countries make the most household and personal needs you and your families
have. Make a similar list for Philippine-made stuff.

5. Lastly, discourse why certain items are made in the Philippines while others are
from abroad.

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Lesson 2: The World
Economics and
Globalization
 Lesson
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Restate the definition of economic globalization;

2. Point the driving force that facilitate economic globalization; and
3. Report a short history of global market integration in the twentieth century.

 Time: 4 hours

Economic globalization is a historical process representing the result of human

innovation and technological progress according to the International Monetary Fund
(IMF, 2008). It is characterized by the increasing integration of economies around the
world through the movement of goods, services, and capital across borders. These
changes are the products of people, organizations, institutions, and technologies. As with
all other processes of globalization, there is a qualitative and subjective element to this
definition. How does one define increasing integration? Is there a particular threshold?

The IMF and ordinary people grapple with the difficulty of arriving at precise
definitions of globalization, they usually agree that a drastic economic change is
occurring throughout the world. The value of trade (goods and services) as a percentage
of world GDP increased from 42.1percent in 1980 to
62.1 percent in 2007 (IMF, 2008). Increased trade also means that investments are
moving all over the world at faster speeds. According to the UN Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD, 2014), as cited by Fernandez, Purog, Betarmos, et al.
(2018), the amount of foreign direct

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 11

investments flowing across the world was US$57 billion in 1982. By 2015, that number
was $1.76 trillion. These figures represent a dramatic increase in global trade in the span
of just a few decades. It has happened not even after one human lifespan!

Apart from the sheer magnitude of commerce, we should also note the increased
speed and frequency of trading. These days, supercomputers can execute millions of
stock purchases and sales between different cities in a matter of seconds through a
process called high-frequency trading. Ten years ago, buying books or music indicates
acquiring physical items. Today, however, a “Book” can be digitally downloaded to
read with an e-reader, and
a music “album” refers to the 15 songs on mp3 format you can purchase and
downloaded from iTunes.

International Trading Systems

The oldest known international trade route was the Silk Road – a network of
pathways in the ancient world that spanned from China to what is now the Middle East
and to Europe. This can be said then that the International trading systems are not new.

The Silk Road was called as such because one of the most profitable products
traded through this network was silk, which was highly prized especially in the area that
is now the Middle East as well as in the West (Europe today). Traders used Silk Road
regularly from 130 BCE when the Chinese Han Dynasty opened trade to the West until
1452 BCE when the Ottoman Empire closed it.

However, while the Silk Road was international, it was not truly “global”
because it had no ocean routes that could reach the American continent. So when did
full economic globalization begin? According to historians Dennis Flynn and Aruro
Giraldez, the age of globalization began when all important populated continents
began to exchange products continuously – both with each other directly and
indirectly via other continents – and in values sufficient to generate crucial impacts
on all trading partners. Flynn and Giraldez trace this back to 1571 with the
establishment of the galleon that connected Manila in the Philippines and Acapulco
in Mexico (Flynn & Giraldez, 1995). This was the first time that the

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Americas were directly connected to Asian trading routes. For Filipinos, it is
crucial to note that economic globalization began on the country’s shores.

The galleon trade was part of the age of mercantilism. From the 16th century to the
18th century, countries, primarily in Europe, competed with one another to sell more
goods as a means to boost their country’s income. To defend their products from
competitors who sold goods more cheaply, these regimes (mainly monarchies) imposed
high tariffs, forbade colonies to trade with other nations, restricted trade routes, and
subsidized exports. Mercantilism was thus also system of global grade with multiple
restrictions.

A more open trade system emerged in 1867 when, following the lead of the UK,
the US and other European nations adopted the gold standard at an international
monetary conference that would allow for more efficient trade and prevent the
isolationism for the mercantilist era. The countries thus established a common basis for
currency prices and a fixed exchange rate system – all based on the value of gold.

Despite facilitating simpler trade, the gold standard was still a very restrictive
system, as it compelled countries to back their currencies with fixed gold reserves.
During World War I, when countries depleted their gold reserves to fund their armies,
many were forces to abandon the gold standard. Since European countries had low gold
reserves they adopted floating currencies that were no longer redeemable in gold.

The gold standard, though once common, has proven to be very restrictive
form of globalizing trade.
 Returning to a pure standard became more difficult as the global economic crisis
caked the Great Depression started during the 1920s and extended up to the 1930s,
further emptying government coffers. This depression was the worst and longest
recession ever experienced by the Western world. Some economists argued that it was
largely caused by the gold standard, since it limited the amount of circulating money and,
therefore, reduces demand and consumption. If governments could only spend money
that was equivalent to gold, its capacity to print money and increase the money supply
was severely curtailed.

Though more indirect versions of the gold standards were used until as late as the
1970s, the world never returned to the gold standard of the early 20 th century. Today, the
world economy operates based on what are called fiat currencies – currencies that are not
backed by precious metals and whose values is determined by their cost relative to other
currencies (Eichengreen, 2008). This system allows governments to freely and actively
manage their economies by increasing or decreasing the amount of money in circulations
as they see fit.

Neoliberalism
From the 1980s onward, neoliberalism – a new form of economic thinking –
became the codified strategy of the of the US Treasury Department, the World Bank, the
IMF, and eventually the World Trade Organization (WTO) – a new organization founded
in 1995 to continue the tariff reduction under the GATT. The policies they forwarded
came to be called the Washington Consensus.

The Washington Consensus dominated global economic policies from the 1980s
until the early 2000s. Its advocates pushed for minimal government spending to reduce
government debt. They called for the privatization of government-controlled services
like water, power, communications, and transport, believing that the free market can
produce the best results. Finally, they pressured governments, particularly in the
developing world, to reduce tariffs and open up their economies, arguing that it is the
quickest way to progress. Advocates of the Washington Consensus conceded that, along
the way, certain industries would be affected and die, but they considered this “shock
therapy” necessary for long-term economic growth.
 The appeal of neoliberalism was in its simplicity. Its advocates like US President
Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher justified their reduction in
government sending by comparing national economies to households. Thatcher, in
particular, promoted an image of herself as a mother who reined in overspending to
reduce the national debt.

The problem with the household analogy is that governments are not households.
For one, governments can print money, while households cannot. Moreover, the constant
taxation systems of governments provide them a steady flow of income that allows them
to pay and refinance dents steadily.

Despite the initial success of neoliberal politicians like Thatcher and Reagan, the
defects of the Washington Consensus became immediately palpable. A good early
example is that of post-communist Russia. After Communism had collapsed in the 1990s,
the IMF called for the immediate privatization of all government industries. The IMF
assumed that such a move would free these industries from corrupt bureaucrats and pass
them on to the more dynamic and independent private investors. What happened,
however, was that only individuals and groups who had accumulated wealth under the
previous communist order had the money to purchase these industries. In some cases, the
economic elites relied on easy access to government funds to take over the industries.
This practice has entrenched an oligarchy that still dominates the Russian economy to
this very day.

The Neoliberalism on the Global Financial Crisis

The global financial crisis of 2007-2008, the neoliberalism came under significant
strain during this time when the world experienced the greatest economic downturn since
the Great Depression. The crisis can be traced back to the 1980s when the US
systematically removed various banking and investment restrictions.

Paving the way for a brewing crisis, the scaling back regulations continued
until the 2000s. In their attempt to promote the free market, government authorities
failed to regulate bad investment occurring in the US housing market. According to
Geeta Nair (2009), taking advantage of “cheap housing loans,” Americans began
building houses that were beyond their financial capacities. To mitigate the risk of
these loans, banks that were
lending houseowners’ money pooled these mortgage payments and sold them
as “mortgage-backed securities” (MBSs). One MBS would be a combination of
multiple mortgages they assumed would pay a steady rate.

As there was so much surplus money circulating, the demand for MBSs increased
as investors clamored for more investment opportunities. In their haste to issue these
loans, however, the banks became less discriminating. They began extending loans to
families and individuals with dubious credit records – people who were unlikely to pay
their loans back. These high-risk mortgages became known as sun-prime mortgage. Even
if many of the borrowers were individuals and families who would struggle to pay, a
majority would not default. Moreover, banks thought that since there were so many
mortgages in just one MBS, a few failures would not ruin the entirety of the investment.

Housing process would continue to increase as banks assumed. Therefore, even if

homeowners defaulted on their loans, these banks could simply reacquire the homes and
sell them at a higher price, turning a profit. Sometime in 2007, however, home prices
stopped increasing as supply caught up with demand. Moreover, it slowly became that
families could not pay off their loans. This realization triggered the rapid reselling of
MBSs, as banks and investors tried to get rid of their bad investments. This dangerous
cycle reached a tipping point in September 2008, when major investment banks like
Lehman Brothers collapsed, thereby depleting major investments.

The predicament spread beyond the US since many investors were foreign
governments, corporations, and individuals. The loss of their money spread like wildfire
back to their countries. These series of interconnections allowed for a global multiplier
effect that sent ripples across the world. For example, Iceland’s banks heavily
depended on foreign capital, so when the crisis hit them, they failed to refinance
their loans. As a result of this credit crunch, three of Iceland’s top commercial
banks defaulted. From 2007 to 2008, Iceland’s debt increased more than seven-
fold.

Spain and Greece are heavily indebted until now, almost like Third World
countries, and debt relief has come at a high price. Greece, in particular, has been forced
by Germany and the IMF to cut back on its social and public spending. Affecting services
like pensions, health care, and
 16

various forms of social security, these cuts have been felt most acutely by the poor.
Moreover, the reduction in government spending has slowed down growth and ensured
high levels of unemployment.

Thanks to a large stimulus package that President Barack Obama pushed for in his
first months in office, the US recovered relatively quickly. The same cannot be said for
many other countries. In Europe, the continuing economic crisis like Marine Le Pen’s
Front National in France have risen to prominence by unfairly blaming immigrants for
their woes, claiming that they steal jobs and leech off welfare. With utter hatred and
racism, these
movements blend popular resentment.

The Current Economic Globalization

It will take decades to resolve this global financial crisis. The solutions
proposed by certain nationalist and leftist group of closing national economies to
world trade, however, will no longer work. The world has become too integrated.
Whatever one’s opinion about the Washington Consensus is, it is undeniable that
some form of international trade remains essential for countries to develop in the
contemporary world.

In the past, those that benefited the most from free trade were the advanced
nations that were producing and selling industrial and agricultural goods. The US, Japans,
and the member-countries of the European Union were responsible for 65 percent of
global exports, while the developing countries only accounted for 29 percent. When more
countries opened up their economies to take advantage of increased free trade, the shares
of the percentage began to change. By 2011, developing countries only accounted for 29
percent. When more countries opened up their economies to take advantage of increased
free trade, the shares of the percentage began to change. By 2011, developing countries
like the Philippines, India, China, Argentina, and Brazil accounted for 51 percent of
global exports while the share of advanced nations – including the US – has gone down
to 45 percent. The WTO-led reduction of trade barriers, known as trade liberation, has
profoundly altered the dynamics of the global economy.

In the recent decades, partly as a result of these increased exports,

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economic globalization has ushered in an unprecedented spike in global growth rates.
According to the IMF, the global per capita GDP rose over five- fold in the second half of
the 20th century. It was this growth that created large Asian economies like Japan, China,
Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Yet, economic globalization remains an uneven process, with some countries,

corporations, and individuals benefiting a lot more than others. The series of trade talks
under the WTO have led to unprecedented reductions in tariffs and other trade barriers
but these processes have often been unfair.

First, developed countries are often protectionists, as they repeatedly refuse to lift
policies that safeguard their primary products that could otherwise be overwhelmed by
imports from the developing world. The example of this standard is Japan’s
determined refusal to allow rice imports into the country to protect its
farming sector. Japan’s justification is that rice is sacred. Ultimately, it is its
economic muscle as the third largest economy
that allows it to resist pressures to open its agricultural sector.

The US likewise fiercely protects its sugar industry forcing consumers and sugar-
dependent businesses to pay higher process instead of getting cheaper sugar from
plantations of Central America.

Conclusion
At the center of globalization is the international economic integration. Much of
globalization is anchored on changes in the economy. Global culture, for example, is
facilitated by trade. Filipinos would not be as aware of American culture if not for the
trade that allows locals to watch American movies, listen to American music, and
consume American products. The globalization of politics is likewise largely contingent
on trade relations. These days, many events of foreign affairs are conducted to cement
trading relations between and among states.

Given the stakes involved in economic globalization, it is perennially important

to ask hoe this system can be made more just. Although some elements global free trade
can be scaled back, policies cannot do away with it as a whole. International
policymakers, therefore, should strive to think of ways to make trading deals fairer.
While ensuring that its benefits accrue for everyone, governments must also continue to
devise ways of cushioning the most damaging effects of economic globalization.
 19

> COMPREHENSION CHECK

Date

Name Course, Year, & Section

DISCUSSION
Instructions: On this answer sheet, answer the following questions. Five (5) points each
number.

1. Why is Silk Road called as such?

2. How do economic forces facilitate the deepening of globalization?

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 20

3. How is the Philippines central to the history of economic globalization?

4. What are the assumptions of the Washington Consensus?

5. What is Neoliberalism? Identify its discontents.

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 21

6. Identify at least three global economic crises discussed in this lesson. How are
these resolved?

“The Global InStiTUTIonS”

Steps:

1. Choose one international economic organization or an international company.

2. Gather as much as information as you can.

3. On your paper, write the history of the institution you have chosen; map the
international connections it has created; identify the major country-leaders of this
institutions; and locate the Philippines in this map of interrelationships.

4. Lastly, answer this question: How does this institution affect global economic
movement?

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Lesson 3:Global Politics: History to
International Order

 Lesson
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Distinguish major events in the emergence of international relations;

2. Contrast internalization from globalization; and
3. Discuss the history of international politics.

 Time: 4 hours

Although it is a major part of globalization, internationalization does not equal

globalization. Still, it is important to study international relations as a facet globalization,
because states/governments are key drivers of global process. Although this course is
about the contemporary world, we cannot avoid history.

What international relations are today is largely defined by events that occurred as
far back as 400 years ago. We will eventually discuss contemporary world politics, but to
do that, we need first to work backward. In doing so, you will have a solid foundation to
understand the major issues of global governance in the next lesson.

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 23

The Global System Today

There are four key attributes in today’s world politics. First, there are
countries or states that are independent and govern themselves. Second, these countries
interact with each other through diplomacy. Third, there are international organizations,
like the United Nations (UN), that facilitate these interactions. Fourth, beyond simply
facilitating meetings between states, international organizations also take on lives of their
own. The UN, for example, apart from being a meeting ground for presidents and other
heads of states, also has task-specific agencies like the World Health Organization
(WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

What started this system? A good start is by unpacking what one means when
he says a “country” or what academics also the nation-state. This concept is not a
simple as it seems. The nation-state is a relatively modern phenomenon in human history,
and people did not always organize themselves as countries. A different parts in the
history of humanity, people in various regions of the world have identified exclusively
with units as small as their village or their tribe, and at other times they seem
themselves as
members of larger categories like “Christendom” (the entire Christian world).

The nation-sate is composed of two non-interchangeable terms. Not all state are
nations and not all nations are state. The nation of Scotland, for example, has its own flag
and national culture, but still belongs to a state called the UK. Closer to home, many
commentators believe that the Bangsamoro is a separate nation existing within the
Philippines but, although their elites, recognizes the authority of the Philippines state.
Meanwhile, if there are states with multiple nations with multiple states. The nation of
Korea is divided into North and South Korea, whereas the
“Chinese nation” may refer to both the People’s Republic of China (the
mainland) and Taiwan.

What then is the difference between nation and state?

In layman’s terms, state refers to a country and its government,

i.e., the government of the Philippines. A state has four attributes. First, it exercises
authority over a specific population called citizens. Second, it governs a specific
territory. Third, state has a structure of government that

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crafts various rules that people (society) follow. Fourth and the most crucial, the state has
sovereignty over its territory. Sovereignty here refers to internal and external authority.
Internally, no individuals or groups can operate in a given national territory by ignoring
the state. This means that groups like churches, civil society organizations, corporations,
and other entities have to follow the laws of the state where they establish their parishes,
offices, or headquarters. Externally, sovereignty means that a
state’s policies and procedures are independent of the interventions of other states.
Russia or China, for example, cannot pass laws for the Philippines and vice versa.

The nation, on the other hand, according to Benedict Anderson (1993) as cited
by Fernandez, Purog, Betarmos, Garciano, and Garciano (2018), is an “imagined
community.” It is limited because it does not go beyond a given “official boundary,”
and because rights and responsibilities are mainly the privilege and concern of the
citizens of that nation. Being limited means that the nation has its boundaries. This
characteristic is in stark contrast to many religious imagined communities. Anyone,
for example, can become a Catholic if one chooses to. In fact, Catholics want more
people to join their community. But not everyone can simply become a Filipino. An
American cannot simply
go to the Philippine Embassy and “convert” into Philippine citizen. Nations often
limit themselves to people who have imbibed a particular vulture, speak a common
language, and live in a specific territory.

Calling it “imagined” does not mean that the nation is made-up. Rather,
the nation allows one to feel a connection with a community of people even if he/she
will never meet all of them in his/her lifetime. When you cheer for a Filipino athlete
in the Olympics, for example, it is not because you personally know that athlete.
Rather, you imagine your connection as both members of the same Filipino
community. In a given national territory like the Philippine archipelago, you rest in
the comfort that the majority of people living in it are also Filipinos.

Nation and state are closely related because it is nationalism that facilitates state
formation. In the modern and contemporary era, it has been the nationalist movements
that have allowed for the creation of nation-state. States become independent and
sovereign because of nationalist sentiment that clamors for this independence.
 Sovereignty is, thus, one of the fundamental principles of modern state politics.
Understanding how this became the case entails going back as far as 400 years ago.

The Interstate System

The present-day concept of sovereignty can be traced back to the Treaty of
Westphalia, which was a set of agreements signed in 1648 to end the Thirty Years’
War between the major continental powers of Europe. After a brutal religious war
between Catholics and Protestants, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, France, Sweden, and
the Dutch republic designed a system that would avert wars in the future by recognizing
that the treaty signers exercise complete control over their domestic affairs and swear not
to meddle in each other’s affairs. The Westphalian system provided stability for the
nations of Europe, until it faced its first major challenge by Napoleon Bonaparte.

Bonaparte believed in spreading the principles of the French Revolution – liberty,

equality, and fraternity – to the rest of Europe and thus challenged the power of kings,
nobility, and religion in Europe. The Napoleonic Wars lasted from 1803-1815 with
Napoleon and his armies marching all over much Europe. In every country they
conquered, the French implemented the Napoleonic Code that forbade birth privileges,
encouraged freedom or religion, and promoted meritocracy in government service. This
system shocked the monarchies and the hereditary elites of Europe, and they mustered
their armies to push back against the French emperor.

Finally, Anglo and Prussian armies defeated Napoleon on the Battle of

Waterloo in 1815, ending the latter’s mission to spread his liberal code across
Europe. To prevent another war and to keep their systems of privilege, the royal
powers created a new system that, in effect, restored the Westphalian system. The
Concert of Europe was an alliance of “great power”- the UK,
Austria, Russia, and Prussia – that sought to restore the world of monarchical,
hereditary, and religious privileges of the time before the French Revolution and the
Napoleonic Wars. More importantly, it was an alliance that sought to restore the
sovereignty of states (Encyclopaedia Britannica, n. d.). The concert’s power and
authority lasted from 1815 to 1914,
at the dawn of World War I, under this Metternich system (named after the Austrian
diplomat, Klemens von Matternich, who was the system’s main architect).

Klemens Von Metternich was the architect of the “Concert of Europe.”

Present-day international system still has traces of this history despite the
challenge of Napoleon to the Westphalian system and the eventual collapse of the
Concert of Europe after World War I. Until now, state are considered sovereign, and
Napoleonic attempts to violently impose systems of government in other countries are
frowned upon. Moreover, like the Concert system “great powers” still hold significant
influence over world politics. For example, the most powerful grouping in the UN, the
Security Council, has a core of five permanent member, all having veto powers over the
council’s decision making process.

Internationalism
Since the existence of the interstate system, there have been attempts to
transcend it. The Westphalian and Concert systems divided the world into separate,
sovereign entities. Like Bonaparte, directly challenged the system by infringing on
other states’ sovereignty, while others sought to imagine other systems of
governance that go beyond, but do not necessarily challenge, sovereignty. Still,
others imagine a system of heightened interaction between
various sovereign states, particularly the desire for greater cooperation and unity among
states and peoples. This desire is called internationalism.

Internationalism comes in different forms, but the principle may be divided into
two broad categories: liberal internationalism and socialist internationalism
(Hoolbraad, 2003).

The first major thinker of liberal internationalism was the late 18th century
German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kant likened state in a global system to people
living in a given territory. If people living together require a government to
prevent lawlessness, shouldn’t that same principle be applied to states?
Without a form of world government, he argued, the international system would be
chaotic. Therefore, states, like citizens of countries, must give up freedoms and
“establish a continuously growing state consisting of
various nations which will ultimately include the nations of the world.” In
short, Kant imagined a form of global government.

Writing in the late 18t century as well, British philosopher Jeremy

Bentham (who coined the word “international” in 1780), advocated the
creation of “international law” that would govern the inter-state relations.
Bentham believed that objective global legislators should aim to propose
legislation that would create “the greatest happiness of all nations taken
together.”

The first thinker to reconcile nationalism with liberal internationalism was the 19 th
century Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini. Mazzini was both an advocate of the unification
of the various Italian-speaking mini-states and a major critic of the Metternich system. He
believed in a Republican government (without kings, queens, and hereditary succession)
and proposed a system of free nations that cooperated with each other to create an
international system. For Mazzini, free, independent states would be the basis of an equal
free, cooperative international system. He argued that if the various Italian mini-states
could unify, one could scale up the system to create, for example, a United States of
Europe. Mazzini was a nationalist internationalist, who believes that free, unified nation-
states should be the basis of global cooperation.

Mazzini influenced the thinking of US President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921),

who became one of the 20th century’s most prominent
 28

internationalist. Like Mazzini, Wilson saw nationalism as a prerequisite for

internationalism. Because of this faith in nationalism, he forwarded the principle
of self-determination – the belief that the world’s nations had a right to a free, and
sovereign government. He hopes that these free nations would become democracies,
because only by being such would they be able to build free system of international
relations based on international law and cooperation. Wilson, in short, became the
most notable advocate for the creation of the League of Nations. At the end of
World War I in 1918, he pushed to transform the League of into a venue for
conciliation and arbitration to prevent another war. For his efforts, Wilson was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.

American Resident Woodrow Wilson became the most prominent

advocate for the creation of the League of Nations.

One of Mazzini’s biggest critics was German socialist philosopher Karl Marx
who was also an internationalist, but who differed from the former because he did not
believe in nationalism. He believed that any true form of internationalism should
deliberately reject nationalism, which rooted people in domestic concerns instead of
global one. Instead, Marx placed premium on economic equality; he did not divide
the world into countries, but into classes. The capitalist class referred to the owners
of factories, companies, and other “means of production.” In contrast, the
proletariat class included those who did not own the means of production, but
instead, worked for the capitalists.

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 Marx and his co-author, Friedrich Engels, believed that a socialist revolution
seeking to overthrow the state and alter the economy, the proletariat had no nation.
Hence, their now-famous battle cry, “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing
to lose but your chains.” They opposed
nationalism because they believed it prevented the unification of the world’s
workers. Instead of identifying with other workers, nationalism could make workers
in individual countries identify with the capitalists of their countries.

Marx died in 1883, but his followers soon sought to make his vision concrete
by establishing their international organization. The Socialist International (IS) was a
union of European socialist and labor parties established in Paris in 1889. Although
short-lives, the SI’s achievements included the declaration of May 1 as Labor Day
and the creation of an
International Women’s Day. Most importantly, it initiated the successful
campaign for an 8-hour workday.

The SI collapsed during World War 1. After this, a more radical version emerged.
In the so-called Russian Revolution of 1917, Czar Nicholas II was overthrown and
replaced by a revolutionary led by the Bolshevik Party and its leader, Vladimir Lenin.
This new state called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USST.

Unlike the majority of the member parties of the SI, the Bolsheviks did not
believe in obtaining power for the working class through elections. Rather, they exhorted
the revolutionary vanguard parties to lead the revolutions across the world, using
methods of terror if necessary. Today, parties like this are referred to as Communist
parties.
 30

Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin founded the Comintern to spread

socialist revolutions across the world.

To encourage these socialist revolutions across the world, Lenin establish the
Communist International (Comintern) in 1919. The Comintern served as the central
body for directing Communist parties all over the world. This International was not only
more radical than the Socialist International, it was also less democratic because it
followed closely the top-down governance of the Bolsheviks.

Many of the world’s state feared the Comintern, believing that it was
working in secret to stir up revolutions in their countries (which was true). A problem
arose during World War II when the Soviet Union joined the Allied Powers in 1941.
The US and the UK would, of course, not trust the Soviet Union in their fight
against Hitler’s Germany. These countries wondered if the Soviet Union was
trying to promote revolutions in their backyards. To appease his allies, Lenin’s
successor, Joseph Stalin, dissolved the Comintern in 1943.

After the war, however, Stalin re-established the Comintern as the Communist
Information Bureau (Cominform). The Soviet Union took over the countries in Eastern
Europe when the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Great Britain divided the war-
torn Europe into their respective spheres of influence. The Cominform, like the
Comintern before it, helped direct the various communist parties that had taken power in
Eastern Europe.

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 31

With the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, whatever existing
thoughts about communist internationalism also practically disappeared. The IS managed
to re-establish itself in 1951, but it influence remained primarily confined to Europe, and
has never been considered a mjot player in international relations to this very day.
However, for the postwar period, liberal internationalism would once again be
ascendant. And the best evidence of this is the rise of the UN as the center of global
governance.

Conclusion
The roots of the international system was discussed in this lesson. A short history
of internationalism was provided in tracing these roots. Internationalism is but one
window into the broader phenomenon of globalization. Even so, it is a very crucial aspect
of globalization since global interactions are heightened by the increased interdependence
of states. This increased interdependence manifests itself not just through state-to-state
relations.

Increasingly, international relations are also facilitated by international

organizations that promote global norms and policies. The most prominent example of
this organization is the United Nations.

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 32

> COMPREHENSION CHECK

Date

Name Course, Year, & Section

DISCUSSION
Instructions: On this answer sheet, answer the following questions. Five (5) points each
number.

1. Identify the important roots of international system.

2. Using your own words, what is an international system?

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 33

3. What remnants of the Westphalian system can still be felt today? In what sense
has the world gone beyond the Westphalian system?

4. What are differences between liberal and socialist internationalism? What are
their strengths and weaknesses?

5. Do you think internationalization erodes the sovereignty of states?

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 34

“Google Interview”
Steps:

Choose one among these prominent figures: Giuseppe Mazzini, Woodrow

Wilson, Karl Marx, or Vladimir Lenin. Conduct an imaginary interview with one of
them. In interview, have your selected figure the following questions:

1. What do you think of nationalism?

2. What is necessary for the development of an international order?

3. What do you think of the League of Nations?

4. What is the role of revolution in internationalism?

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Lesson 4: The Contemporary
Global Governance

 Lesson
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Explain global governance;

2. Discuss the functions of the United Nations; and
3. Determine the challenges of the contemporary global governance.

 Time: 4 hours

There is no one organization that various states are accountable to, and no
organization can militarily compel a state to obey predetermined global rules. There is
however, some regularity in the general behavior of states. For example, they more or
less follow global navigation routes and, more often than not, respect each other’s
territorial boundaries. Moreover, when they do not – like when Russia invaded Crimea
in 2014 – it becomes a cause for global concern and debate. The fact that states in an
international order continue to adhere to certain global norms means that there is a
semblance of world order despite the lack of a single world government. Global
governance refers to the various intersecting process that create this order.

The global governance has many sources. States sign treaties and form
organizations, in the process legislating public international law. International non-
governmental organizations (NGOs), though, not having formal state power, can lobby
individual states to behave in a certain way (for example, an international animal
protection NGO can pressure).

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 36

This will focus primarily on the United Nations (UN) as the most prominent
intergovernmental organization today, and further examine how global governance is
articulated by intergovernmental organizations as one lesson will not be able to cover the
various ways global governance occurs.

The International Organization

The UN or institutions like the IMF and the World Bank, are usually called
international organizations (IOs). Although international NGOs are sometime
considered as IOs, the term is commonly used to refer to international intergovernmental
organizations or groups that primarily made up of member-state.
International relations scholars Michael Barnett and Martha Finnemore (1999), as
cited by Claudio and Abindes (2018), listed the following powers of IOs.
First, IOs have the power of classification. Because IOs can invent and apply
categories, they create powerful global standards. For example, it is the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that defines what a refugee is, and since state are
required to accept refugees entering their borders, this power to establish identity has
concrete effects.
Second, IOs have the power to fix meanings. This is a broader function
related to the first. Various terms like “security” or “development” need to be well-
defined. States, organizations, and individuals view IOs as legitimate sources of
information. As such, the meanings they create have create have effects on various
policies. For example, recently, the UN has started to
define security as not safety from military violence, but also safety from environmental
harm.
Finally, IOs have the power to diffuse norms. Norms are accepted codes of
conduct that may not be strict law, but nevertheless produce regularity in behavior. IOs
do not only classify and fix meanings; they also spread their ideas across the world,
thereby stabling global standards. Their members are the “missionaries” of our time.
Their power to diffuse norms stems from the fact that IOs are staffed with independent
bureaucracies, who are considered experts in various fields. For example, World Bank
economists come to be regarded as experts in development and thus carry some form of

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 authority. They can, therefore, create norms regarding the implementation and
conceptualization of development projects.
Because of these immense powers, IOs can be sources of good and great
harm. They can promote relevant norms like environmental protection and human
rights. But, like other entrenched bureaucracies, they can become sealed-off
communities that fail to challenge their beliefs. For example, the Nobel Prize-
winning economist Joseph Stiglitz famously criticized the IMF for using a “one-size-
fits-all” approach when its economists made recommendations for developing
countries.

The United Nations

The main headquarters of the UN in New York

After the collapse of the League of Nations at the end of World War II, countries
that worried about another global war began to push for the formation of a more lasting
international league. The result was the creation of the UN. Although the organization is
far from perfect, it should be emphasized that it has so far achieved its primary goal of
averting another
global war. For this reason alone, the UN should be considered a success. The UN is
divided into five active organs.
The General Assembly (GA) UN’s main deliberative policy making and
representative organ. Decisions on important questions, such as those on peace and
security, admission of new members, and budgetary matters, require a two-thirds
majority of the General Assembly. Decisions on other questions are done by simple
majority. Annually, the GA elects a GA President to serve a one-year terms of office. All
member states (now at 193)
have seats in the GA. The Philippines played a prominent role in the GA’s early
years when Filipino diplomat Carlos P. Romulo was elected GA president from
1949-1950 (United Nations, Main Organs, n.d.).

Chinese President XI Jinping addresses the UN General Assembly.

Although the GA is the most representative organization in the UN, many

commentators consider the Security Council (SC) to be the most powerful. According to
the UN, this body consists of 15 members. The GA elects ten of these 15 to two-year
terms. The five-sometimes-referred to as the Permanent 5 (P5) – are China, France,
Russia, the UK, and the US. These states have been permanent members since the
founding of the UN, and cannot be replaced through election. The SC takes the lead in
determining
the existence of a threat to the peace or an act of aggression. It calls upon the parties to a
dispute to settle the act by peaceful means and recommends methods of adjustment.
In some cases, it can resort to imposing sanctions or even authorizing the use
of force to maintain or restore international peace and security. Because of these
powers, states that seek to intervene military in another state need to obtain the
approval of the SC. With the SC’s approval, a military intervention may be
deemed legal. Much attention has been placed on the SC’s P5 due to their permanent
seats and because each country holds veto power over the council’s decisions. It
only takes one veto from P5 member to stop an SC action dead in its tracks. In
this sense, the SC is heir to the tradition of “great power” diplomacy that began with
the Metternich/Concert of Europe system.
In 2018, a dynamic is evident in Syria, which is undergoing a civil war. Russian
has threatened to veto any SC resolution against Syria; thus, the UN has done very little
to stop state-sanctioned violence against opponents of the government. Since Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad in an ally of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, the latter has
shied away from any policy that could weaken the legitimacy of the former. As a result,
the UN is ineffectual amid a conflict that has led to over 220,000 people dead and 11
million displaced.
It remains important for the SC to place a high bar on military intervention.
The UN SC has been wrong on the issue of intervention, but it has also made right
decisions. When the US sought to invade the Iraq in 2001, it claimed that
Iraq’s Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that threatened
the world. However, UN members Russia, China, and France were unconvinced and
vetoed the UB resolution for intervention,
forcing the US to lead a small coalition of the willing with its allies. It has since been
discovered that were no weapons of mass destructions, and the invasion of Iraq has
caused problems for the country and region that last until today.
Conclusion
International organizations are highlighted in this lesson as they are the most
visible symbols of global governance. Global governance is indeed such a complex issue.
The UN, in particular, is the closest to a world government. What is important to
remember is that international institutions like UN are always in a precarious position. On
the other hand, they are groups of sovereign states. On the other, they are organizations
with their own rationalities and agendas. It is this tension that will continue to inform the
evolution of these organizations.
There are many institutions, groups, and ideas that hold international and global
politics together. You may want to explore these topics on your own in your own time.
 41

> COMPREHENSION CHECK

Date

Name Course, Year, & Section

DISCUSSION
Instructions: On this answer sheet, answer the following questions. Five (5) points each
number.

1. Why global governance multi-faceted?

2. How to international organizations take on “lives of their own?”

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 42

3. What are the challenges faced by the UN in maintaining global security?

“The Keeper of Peace”

Steps:

1. Research in Google what the UN peacekeepers are, the countries that send
peacekeepers, their responsibilities, and the place where they have been involved
in the last 50 years.

2. On your paper, write what you have researched on following the format of
introduction, discussion, and conclusion. Please include as well your personal
reflection.

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Lesson 5: The World of
Regions

 Lesson
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Contrast between regionalization and globalization;

2. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of regionalism; and
3. Discuss the reasons leading to the integration of the Asian region.

 Time: 3 hours

Did the Philippines come to identify itself with the Southeast Asian region? Why
is it part of a regional grouping known as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN)?
Governments, associations, societies, and groups form regional organizations
and/or networks as a way of coping with the challenges of globalization. Globalization
has made people aware of the world in general, but it has also made Filipinos more
cognizant of specific areas such as Southeast Asia.
While regionalism is often seen as a political and economic phenomenon, the term
actually encompasses a broader area. It can be examined in relation to identities, ethics,
religion, ecological sustainability, and health. Regionalism is also a process, and must be
treated as an emergent, socially constituted phenomenon. It means that regions are not
natural or given; rather they are constructed and defined by policymakers, economic
actors, and even social movements.
This lesson will look at regions as political entities and examine what brings them
together as they interlock with globalization. The other facets of

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 44

regionalism will then be explored, especially those that pertain to identities, ethics,
religion, ecological sustainability, and health. The lesson will conclude by asking where
all these regionalisms are bringing us as members of a nation and as citizens of the world.

Regions and Globalization

Edward D. Mansfield and Helen V. Milner (1993) in Claudio and Abindes (2018),
state that economic and political definitions of regions vary, but there are certain basic
features that everyone can agree on. First, regions
are “a group of countries located in the same geographically specified area”
or are “amalgamation of two regions (or) a combinations of more than two
regions” organized to regulate and “oversee flows and policy choices.”
Second,
the words regionalization and regionalism should not be interchanged, as the
former refers to the “regional concentration of economic flows” while the
latter is “a political process characterized by economic policy cooperation and
coordination among countries.”

Countries respond economically and politically to globalization in various ways.

Some are large enough and have a lot resources to dictate how they participate in
processes of global integration. China, for example, offers its cheap and huge workforce
to attract foreign business and expand trade with countries it once considered its enemies
but sees as markets for its goods (e.g., the US and japan). Other countries make up for
their small size by taking advantage of their strategic location. Singapore and Switzerland
compensate for their lack of resources by turning themselves into financial and banking
hubs. Singapore developed its harbor facilities and made them a first-class transit port for
ships carrying different commodities from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and mainland
Southeast Asia to countries in the Asia-Pacific. In most cases, however countries form a
regional alliance for – as the saying – there is strength in numbers.
Countries form regional associations for several reasons. One is for military
defense. The most widely known defense grouping is the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) formed during the Cold War when several Western European
countries plus the US agreed to protect Europe against the threat of the Soviet Union. The
Soviet Union responded by creating its regional alliance, the Warsaw Pact, consisting of
the Eastern European countries under Soviet domination. The Soviet Union imploded in

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December 1991, but NATO remains in place.

Soldiers from NATO countries hold their flags.

Countries also form regional organizations to pool their resources, get better
returns for their exports, as well as expand their leverage against trading partners. The
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was established in 1960
by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela to regulate the production and sale of
oil. This regional alliance flexed its muscles in the 1970s when its member countries took
over domestic production and sale of oil. This regional alliance flexed its muscles in the
1970s when its member countries took over domestic production and dictated crude oil
prices in the world market. In a world highly dependent on oil, this integration became a
source of immense power. OPEC’S success convinced nine other oil-producing countries
to join it.
Moreover, there countries that form regional blocs to protect their independence
from the pressures of superpower politics. The presidents of Egypt, Ghana, India,
Indonesia, and Yugoslavia created the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1961 to pursue
world peace and international cooperation, human rights, national sovereignty, racial and
national equality, non-intervention, and peaceful conflict resolution. It called itself non-
aligned because the association refused to side with either the First World capitalist
democracies in Western Europe and North America or the communist states in Eastern
Europe. At its peak, the NAM had 120 member countries to exist
up to the present, although it lacks the same fervor that it had in the past (Mansfield and
Milner, 1993).
Finally, economic crisis compels countries to come together. The Thai economy
collapsed in 1996 after foreign currency speculators and troubled international banks
demanded that the Thai government pay back its loans. A rapid withdrawal of foreign
investment bankrupted the economy. This crisis began to spread to other Asian countries
as their currencies were also devalued and foreign investments left in a hurry. The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) tried to reverse the crisis, but it was only after the
ASEAN countries along with China, Japan, and South Korea agreed to establish an
emergency fund to anticipate a crisis that the Asian economies stabilized.
The crisis made ASEAN more “unified and coordinated.” The Association has
come a long way since it was formed as a coalition of countries which were pro-
American and supportive of the US intervention in Vietnam. After the Vietnam War,
ASEAN continued to act as a military alliance to isolate Vietnam after it invaded
Cambodia, but there were also the beginnings of economic cooperation.

Non-State Regionalism
Communities also engage in regional organizing. This “new
regionalism” varies in form; they can be “tiny associations that include no more
than a few actors and focus on a single issue, or huge continental unions that
address a multitude of common problems from territorial defense to food security.”
Organizations representing this “new regionalism” likewise rely on the power of
individuals, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and associations to link up
with one another in pursuit of a particular goal (or goals). Finally, “new
regionalism” is identified with reformists who share the same “values, norms,
institutions, and system that exist outside of the traditional, established
mainstream institutions and systems.” Their strategies and tactics likewise differ.
Some organizations partner with governments to initiate social change.
Those who work with governments (“legitimizers”) participate in “institutional
mechanisms that afford some civil society groups voice and influence in
technocratic policy-making processes.” For example, the ASEAN
issued its Human Rights Declaration in 2019, but the regional body left it to
member countries to apply the declaration’s principles as they see fit. Aware
that democratic rights are limited in many ASEAN countries, “new
regionalism” organizations used this official declaration to pressure these
governments to pass laws and regulations that protect and promote human
rights.
Other regional organizations dedicate themselves to specialized cause. Activists
across Central and South America established the Rainforest Foundation to protect
indigenous peoples and the rainforests in Brazil, Guyana, Panama, and Peru. Young
Christians across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and the Caribbean formed
Regional Interfaith Young Networks to promote “conflict prevention, resolution, peace,
education, and sustainable development” (Southgate, 2018).

These organizations’ primary power lies in their moral standing

and their ability to combine lobbying with pressure politics. Unfortunately, most of
them are poorly financed, which places them at a disadvantage when dealing with
their official counterparts who have large state funds. Their impact in global politics
is, therefore, limited.
New regionalism differs significantly from traditional state-to-state regionalism
when it comes to identifying problems. For example, state treat poverty or environmental
degradation as technical or economic issues that can be resolved by refining existing
programs of state agencies, among minor changes in economic policies, and creating new
offices that address these issues. However, new regionalism advocates such as the NGO
Global Forum see these issues as reflections of flawed economic development and
environmental models. By “flawed,” they mean economic development plans that are
market-based, profit-driven, and hardly concerned with social welfare, especially among
the poor.

Contemporary Challenges to Regionalism

Regionalism faces multiple challenges today, the most of which is the resurgence
of militant nationalism and populism. The refusal to dismantle NATO after the collapse
of the Soviet Union, for example, has become the basis of the anti-NATO rhetoric of
Vladimir Putin in Russia. Now, even the relationship of the US – the alliance’s core
member – with NATO has become problematic after Donald Trump demonized the
organization as simple
 48

leeching off American military power without giving anything in return. Perhaps the
most crisis-ridden regional organization of today is the European Union. The continuing
financial crisis of the region is forcing countries like Greece to consider leaving the
Union to gain more flexibility in their economic policy. Anti-immigrant sentiment and a
populist campaign against Europe have already led to the UK voting to leave the
Europe Union in a
move the media has term the “Brexit.”

ASEAN members continue to disagree over the extent to which member

countries should sacrifice their sovereignty for the sake of regional stability. In
Acharya’s report on the democratization and the prospects for participatory
regionalism in Southeast Asia, the Associations’ link with East Asia has also been
problematic. Recently, ASEAN countries also disagreed over how to relate to China,
with the Philippines unable to get the other
countries to support its condemnation of China’s occupation of the West
Philippine Sea. Cambodia and Laos led the opposition favoring diplomacy over
confrontation, but the real reason was the dramatic increase of Chinese investments
and economic aid to these countries. Moreover, when some formerly authoritarian
countries democratized, this “participatory regionalism” clashed with ASEAN’s
policy of non-interference, as civil society groups in Indonesia, the Philippines, and
Thailand demanded that the other countries democratized adopt a more open attitude
towards foreign criticism (Acharya, 2003).

The member countries of ASEAN

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 49

A final challenge pertains to differing visions of what regionalism should be for.

Western governments may see regional organizations not simply as economic formations
but also as instruments of political democratization. Non-Western and developing
societies, however, may have different view regarding globalization, development, and
democracy. Singapore, China, and Russia see democracy as an obstacle to the
implementation and deepening of economic globalization because constant public
inquiry about economic projects and lengthy debate slow down implementation or lead
to unclear outcomes. Democracy’s tedious procedures must, therefore, give way to
efficiency.

Conclusion
The population of the countries that joined the Asia-Pacific Economic
Council (APEC) comprised 37 percent of the world’s population in 2007; this means
that the official regional associations now cover vast swaths of the world.

These countries are also part of “smaller” organizations that include the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the
North American Free Trade Agreement, the Caribbean and Pacific Group of States,
and the Union of South American Nations. Even “isolationist” North Korea is part of
the Regional Forum, which discusses security issues in the region.
In the same way the countries will find it difficult to reject all forms of global
economic integration, it will also be hard for them to turn their regions. Even if the UK
leaves the EU, it must continue to trade with its immediate neighbors and will, therefore,
be forced to implement many EU rules. None of this is to say that regional organizations
will remain unaltered. The history of regionalism shows that regional associations emerge
as new global concerns arise. The future of regionalism will be contingent on the
immense changes in global politics what will emerge in the 21st century.

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 50

> COMPREHENSION CHECK

Date

Name Course, Year, & Section

DISCUSSION
Instructions: On this answer sheet, answer the following questions. Five (5) points each
number.

1. What is non-state regionalism mean?

2. How is regionalism different from and yet a part of globalization?

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 51

3. What is the difference between state-to-state regionalism and non- state

regionalism?

4. Identify the challenges to regionalism today.

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 52

“Travel to HiStory”
Steps:

1. Choose one from these following broad regional divisions: North America, South
America, China, Japan, Korea, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Middle East.

2. Trace how it has changed from time before European powers like Britain and
Spain ruled the world, them during the era of colonialism, until its independence.

3. On your paper, list what kinds of changes happened to these areas (once
principates, then provinces, then republics) and the people who inhabit there.

4. Lastly, write how nations and republics that were born from the ashes of
colonialism after World War II looked back on the past era to explain their own
histories.

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 53

References
Aldama, P. K. (2018). The contemporary world. Manila: Rex Bookstore.

Acharya, A. (2003). Democratisation and the prospects for participatory regionalism in

Southeast Asia. Third World Quarterly, 24: 375-390. https://asean.org/?
static_post=regionalism-the-stakes-for-southeast-asia
Barnett, M. and Finnemore, M. (1999). The politics, power, and pathologies of international
organizations. International Organizations 53 (4): 710.

BBC News. (2012, January). Honda sees sharp drop in profit.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-16805966

Claudio, L. and Abindes, P. (2018). The contemporary world. Quezon City: C & E Publishing
House.
Encyclopaedia Britannica (n.d.). Concert of Europe.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Concert-of-Europe

Eichengreen, B. (2008). Globalizing capital: A history of the international monetary

system. Princeton: Princeton University.

Fernandez, G., Purog, R., Betarmos, V., Garciano, M., and Garciano, J. (2018). The
contemporary world. Malabon City: Mutya Publishing House, Inc.
Flynn, D. and Giraldez, A. (1995). Born with a silver spoon: The origin of world trade in 1571.
Journal of World History, 6(2), 201.
https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/3372215/4433_UBA003000263.pdf

Holbraad, C. (2003). Socialist Internationalism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9781403982315_4#citeas

International Monetary Fund (2008, May). Globalization: A brief overview.

https://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/ib/2008/053008.htm#:~:text=Economic%2
0%22globalization%22%20is%20a%20historical,services%2C%20and%20capit al
%20across%20borders.

Mansfield, E. and Milner, H. (1993). The new wave of regionalism. International

Organization, 53(3), 589-627.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international- organization/article/new-
wave-of regionalism/91484D12ADB669F3EDF3BCCD56831FBE

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Nair, G. (2009). The story of the American sub-prime crisis and the global financial
tsunami. The 11th Money and Finance in the Indian Economy Conference IGIDR.
http://www.igidr.ac.in/conf/money/mfc-11/Nair_Geeta.pdf
Steger, M. (2005, February). Ideologies of globalization. Journal of Political Ideologies,
10(1), 11–30. http://socialsciences.people.hawaii.edu/publications_lib/JPI%20Ideologies
%20 of%20globalization%20%20final.pdf

Southgate, L. (2018). Civil society and regional governance: The Asian development bank and
the association of Southeast Asian nations. Social Movement Studies, 18, 3.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14742837.2018.1561262

United Nations, (n.d.). Main organs.

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organs/#:~:text=The%20main%20organs%20of%20the,when%20the%20UN% 20was
%20founded.

UN Conference on Trade and Development (2014). Global FDI rose by 11%; developed
economies are trapped in a historically low share. Global Investment Trends
Monitor, 15. https://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/webdiaeia2014d1_en.pdf

Digital images

ASEAN map. Digital image. Weebly. n.d.,

https://5themesofgeographynew.weebly.com/region.html

Chinese President XI Jinping. Digital image. South China Morning Post. 16 July 2019,
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3018842/china- seeks-shuffle-
its-diplomatic-pack-next-generation-comes

Gold bars in the Philippines. Digital image. World Asia. 11 March 2019,
https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/philippines/gold-in-the-philippines-how- much-is-
it-really-worth-1.1552204923140

Klemens von Metternich. Digital image. Wikiland. n.d. https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Klemens_von_Metternich

 55

NATO soldiers. Digital image. Military.com. 19 October 2015.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/10/19/nato-launches-biggest- military-
exercise-13-years.html

The global village. Digital image. Contemporary PR Issues. 3 February 2010,

http://contemporarypr.blogspot.com/2010/02/great-debate-today-revolving-
around.html

Woodrow Wilson. Digital image. Providence. 29 June 2018,

https://providencemag.com/2018/06/resurrecting-woodrow-wilson-christian- critique-
liberal-internationalism/

Vladimir Lenin. Digital image. On This Day. n.d.

https://www.onthisday.com/people/vladimir-lenin

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 56

MODULE 2
A World of Ideas: Cultures of Globalization

Module 2 focuses on how the globalization structures discusses in Module 1

affect various forms of cultural life. “Culture” is used here in the broadest possible
sense, referring to the daily practices of people. Therefore, if the first module focused
on a “large” form of globalization, this module will zero in on everyday
globalization in the realms of religion, culture, and city life.

Module 2 Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. Explain the role of global processes in everyday life.

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Lesson 6:Globalization and Religion

 Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Elaborate how globalization affects religious practices and reliefs;

2. Discuss the different responses to globalization from the perspectives of
religion; and
3. Explain the future of religion in the contemporary world.

 Time: 3 hours

The dialogical approaches to globalization, in conjunction with those that stress

globalization from below, are of special significance when it comes to the topic of
religion. By far the greatest portion of the by now vast literature on globalization
completely or almost completely ignores religion, the partial exception being the
attention that Islamicist political extremism receives. This absence can perhaps be
attributed to the dominance of economic and political understandings of globalization,
including among those observers who look at the phenomenon from within religious
traditions.
Yet even though a great many of the works that focus on globalization from below
—for instance, much of the literature on global migration and ethnicity—also gives
religion scant attention, it is among these approaches that one finds almost all the
exceptions to this general pattern, probably because these are the only ones that, in
principle, allow non-economic or nonpolitical structures like religion a significant role in
globalization. Consideration of the relation between religion and globalization involves
two basic possibilities.
There are, on the one hand, religious responses to globalization and

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 58

religious interpretations of globalization. These are, as it were, part of doing religion in a

globalizing context. On the other hand, there are those analyses of globalization that seek
to understand the role of religion in globalization and the effects of globalization on
religion. They focus on observing religion in a global society. By far the largest portion
of the literature that relates religion and globalization is of the former sort, and therefore
it is well to begin there.

Religious Perspectives on Globalization

A great many religious commentators understand globalization as at once a
largely economic, imperialistic, and homogenizing process. They share the
economic/mass cultural/political perspective, evaluating globalization as anywhere from
a threatening challenge to the manifestation of evil in our world.

In many respects globalization in this segment of the literature is a successor term

for what used to be censured as the capitalist system or cognate terms.

Accordingly, globalization results in violence and the unjust oppression of the

majority of people around the world. It threatens local and indigenous cultures, imposing
a particularly heavy burden on women. It is the chief cause of global and local
environmental degradation, again to the principal detriment of the mass of marginalized
humanity. Such theologically inspired positions are not restricted to the representatives of
a particular religious tradition. Thus, for example, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews,
and those speaking from indigenous traditions all arrive at similar critical assessments of
globalization. And far from being a characteristically religious perspective, such
arguments are quite common in the overall literature, whether recognizably religious or
not. What they imply, among other consequences, is that religion and religious
sensibilities are at root outside of and contrary to globalization, that globalization and
religion are fundamentally incommensurate.
Another segment of both the religiously inspired and the secular literature, while
often sharing many of the negative judgments, nonetheless sees a much closer relation
between the two. As noted, these observers almost

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invariably share the broader meanings of globalization, especially the dialogical and from
below perspectives.
Religious insider perspectives do not necessarily limit themselves to opposition,
however. Some theologically oriented observers argue that religion has an essential role
in shaping globalization; that the negative outcomes of globalization point to the need for
a positive global ethic, which religions can provide (Strenski, 2004). The efforts led by
Hans Küng in this direction are perhaps the most well-known. For Küng as cited by
Shingleton (2008), not only does the globalized world require a guiding global ethic, but
key to the development of that ethic is harmonious relations and dialogue among the
world's religions.
The combination signals a dialogical understanding of globalization that Küng
shares with many other observers. Here it applies to religion: the globalized whole
depends for its viability on the contribution of religion, yet this contribution presupposes
a plurality of particular religions that come to understand themselves in positive relation
to one another. Unity and diversity are both constitutive of the global. This core
assumption of Küng's Global Ethic Project points to general features of how those
contributions to the globalization debate that do not ignore religion have sought to
understand its role in the process: as an important dimension of globalization that exhibits
the characteristic dynamic tension between global and local, between homogeneity and
heterogeneity, between the universal and the particular.

Religions in Globalization
Globalization perspectives seeking to include religion have taken several
directions of which the following are likely the most significant. Certain approaches
analyze religion as a global or transnational institution, whose diverse manifestations
operate to a large extent independently of economic and political structures and that bind
diverse regions of the world together in ways comparable to global trade, international
relations, mass media, sport, communications media, or tourism. A second but related
focus of observation is the role that religious systems play as powerful cultural resources
for asserting identity and seeking inclusion in global society, especially among less
powerful and marginalized populations. It is in this
 60

context that religio-political movements, including so-called

fundamentalisms, receive the most focused attention.
A third strategy goes even further, attempting to show how the formation,
reformation, and spread of religions have been an integral dimension of globalization as
such. From this angle, what we today conceive as the most typical forms of religion and
even the typical understandings that we have of religion are themselves outcomes and
reflections of the historical process of globalization. Although these three directions are
by no means mutually exclusive, for the sake of presentation they can be treated
separately. Each implies a somewhat different theoretical emphasis, and each also tends
to focus on different empirical manifestations of religion in our world.

Religion as Cultural and Political Resource

People who migrate from one part of the world to another in search of a better life
often depend on their religions and their religious institutions to address an array of
attendant problems. According to Rhys Williams (1996) religion can furnish them with a
strong sense of identity and integrity in a situation where they may be strangers.
Churches, temples, mosques, gurdwaras, and synagogues can serve as a home away from
home where one can speak one's language, eat one's food, congregate with people who
share one's situation, and even attain a measure of status that one is denied in the new
host society.
For many poorer migrants, religious institutions offer vital social services that
make survival and establishment in the new land even possible. They may also provide a
principal conduit for maintaining ties with the places of origin. In these circumstances
religion both is the means for global connectivity and makes up important content of
global flows. Globalization affords conditions for the elaboration of new and expanded
transnational establishments whose primary reason for existence is religious but that also
serve an array of other purposes. They are at the same time, however, important local
institutions, places where people go in their everyday lives for everyday reasons. Thus, to
take but one example, a Christian church founded by Mexican migrants in Atlanta is an
important community resource for its participants, but it may also have ties with the
church back in the Mexican village from which most of them originate, providing
financial and other

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resources for that village church as well. The religious institution properly speaking
includes both localities and is not properly understood unless one takes both into
consideration. Globalization perspectives afford that inclusive view.
The role of religion in providing, broadly speaking, cultural resources in a global
context is not limited to the situation of migrants, however. Globalization, irrespective of
which meaning one favors, implies a kind of compression of space in which the upheaval
and uprooting characteristic of the migratory experience are the lot of a great many of the
world's people, whether they leave their homes or not. Parallel circumstances in Africa
and Latin America can serve to make this similarity clear. Both these continents have
large regions and large populations that are effectively excluded from the main globalized
power structures, yet their lives are nonetheless profoundly affected by them.
Religion and religious institutions are important resources for responding to the
situation. In Latin America, for instance, one reason for the rapid rise of Pentecostal
Christian churches along with significant growth among Afro-Brazilian religions like
Candomblé and certain Roman Catholic movements is that these institutional religious
forms provide people with ways of understanding themselves and coping in a world
where their situation is changing and often precarious. They afford people narratives
with attendant life practices by which they can give themselves a meaningful and
dignified place in this world. Religion lends them a measure of power. Even more clearly,
in sub-Saharan Africa above all Christian and Islamic organizations, centers, networks,
and movements offer large numbers of people at least some access to an institution that
actually functions reasonably to their benefit. Although they are localized institutions
and largely in the control of local people, a far from insignificant part of the appeal of
these religious establishments is that they have links to and represent access to the wider
globalized world. This has always been one of the attractions of both Christianity and
Islam; they have in effect been global religions for many centuries. In today's world they
continue to fill that role. The degree to which religions contribute to the globalized
circumstance as well as their character as globalized institutions becomes evident in these
cases.
As noted earlier, the one phenomenon that has attracted the most attention to the
global significance of religions is the proliferation of effective
religio-political movements in almost all regions of the world. From the rise of Hindu
nationalism in India and the heavy political involvement of certain Buddhist
organizations in Japan to the many highly politicized Islamicist movements in countries
as diverse as Iran, Indonesia, and Nigeria, politicized religion has been a constant feature
of the global world since at least the 1960s and in many respects well back into the
nineteenth century. Although the literature often analyzes them under the somewhat
tendentious label of fundamentalisms, two of their most basic features illustrate quite
clearly how relevant they are for theories of globalization and how they manifest the
global nature of so much contemporary religion.
The first is simply that they have arisen in so many different countries, and
almost always on the basis of the traditions and institutions of one of the globally
recognized religions such as Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, or
Buddhism. Religions that are very different from one another provide the resources for
remarkably similar political movements. The fact that one of the broadly homologous
modern states is invariably implicated by such movements is one reason for this
similarity, but so is the explicitly global view that they typically represent.
Whether one takes the Islamic revolution in Iran, the religious Zionists of Israel,
the Christian Right in the United States, liberation theological movements in Latin
America, Sōka Gakkai in Japan, the Hindu nationalism of the Rashtriya
SvayamsevakSangh in India, or a host of other examples, most of these movements have
justified themselves explicitly in global terms, in addition to local or national ones. Even
the Islamicist Taliban in Afghanistan, a movement with hardly any global consciousness
when it formed in the early 1990s, very much saw itself in global terms by the time the
American-led invasion ousted its government in 2001 (May, Wilson, Oche, and Sheikh,
2014). What these religio-political movements therefore also demonstrate once again is
how localized religion does not have to be globally extended, let alone positive toward
the process of globalization, for it to be globally relevant and therefore for globalization
theories to be useful in understanding them.

Religion, Globalization, and the Human Condition

More than a few theories of globalization explicitly address what one might call
its ideal dimension, the way it shapes how people understand the
nature and purpose of the world and their place in it. Given that such questions of
ultimate concern or purpose often appear as defining features of religion, this ideal
dimension can also be conceived as its religious dimension, although thereby not
necessarily referring to the role of religious traditions and institutions in it. One can
divide the analyses of this dimension of globalization according to whether it is seen as a
positive or negative feature, and whether unity or diversity of vision dominates.
Positive and unitary interpretations come in a number of variants. There are still a
few that see globalization as inevitably moving the world toward a future of ever greater
material prosperity, political democracy, and technological progress shared equitably
among all peoples. Far more numerous are those that share ideals such as equality and
inclusion of all people in the benefits of global society, perhaps under the rubric of
universal human rights; but they consider that at the very least human society has a long
way to go before these are realizable, and that certain features of globalization actually
stand in the way of their realization. Several perspectives grounded in institutionalized
religion fall under this heading, for instance, the already discussed Global Ethic Project
led by Hans Küng, or the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation program of the World
Council of Churches. Typically, these and other examples consider such values as
equality among peoples, religions, classes, and genders to be completely unquestionable.
With equal self-evidence they exhibit strong ecological sensibility and valorize the
natural environment. Into this category also belong those social-scientific approaches that
stress the global preponderance of idealized models, especially models of progressive
economy, the nation- state, education, legal structures, mass media, art, and culture.
Unitary but negative visions share most of these characteristics but reject the idea
that any of these developments can have a positive outcome. Sometimes these take
world-rejecting communitarian directions, advocating retreat from the globalized world.
Ironically perhaps, it is not uncommon for these visions to espouse precisely the sort of
egalitarian values typical of the positive versions but insist that this is only possible in a
separated—and usually quite small-scale—society. Some subdivisions of environmental
and back-to-nature movements exemplify this possibility.
In many respects they are mirror images of globalized society, and in that respect
reflections of it. By contrast, there are those rejections of a unitary globalization that
insist on the unique validity of a particular culture
or society. Some so-called fundamentalist visions fall in this category, but it must be
stressed how comparatively rare they are. The Afghan Pashtun Taliban, in contrast to
most Islamicist perspectives, may have been one of the few.
Pluralist visions of the world are variations on the unitary ones, putting greater
stress on, respectively, the difference or the irreconcilability of diverse worldviews. The
clash of civilizations model made famous by Samuel Huntington is representative of a
negative version, dependent as it is on the idea—not to say ideal—that quasi-essential
civilizations with particular characteristics actually exist logically prior to the globalized
context in which mutually identifying them might make sense. Pluralist positive
perspectives, by contrast, are even more mere variations on the unitary variety: the value
of pluralist and egalitarian inclusion here is simply more strongly emphasized.
What is therefore especially noteworthy of all these representations of
globalization's ideal dimension is just how close they are to one another. Without in the
least underplaying the degree to which globalization entails vast differences in power
and influence among different regions and different people; without denying the
significant contestation, even conflict, between different visions of what the global world
is or should be; this seeming narrowing of alternative world visions may in the end be
one of the most powerful symptoms of the social reality which the idea of globalization
seeks to name.

Conclusion
It is strange that globalization is seen to have very little to do with religion for an
event that is about everything. The reason perhaps for this perspective is the association
of globalization with modernization which is a concept of progress that is based on
science, technology, reason, and the law. With reason, one will have to look elsewhere
than to moral discourse for fruitful thinking about economic globalization and religion.
Religion, being a belief system that cannot be empirically proven is, therefore, anathema
to modernization. The thesis that modernization will erode religions practice is often
called secularization theory.
 According to the study of Luke Herrington (2013), much of the secularization
theory have now debunked by historians, political scientists, and philosophers. Samuel
Huntington, one of the strongest defenders of globalization, admits in his book, The
Clash of Civilizations, that civilizations cab be held together by religious worldviews.
This belief is hardly new. As farback as the 15 th century, Jesuits and Dominicans used
religion as an ideological armature to legitimize the Spanish empire. Finally, one of the
greatest sociologists of all time, Max Weber, also observed the correlation between
religion and capitalism as an economic system. Calvinism, a branch of Protestantism,
believed that God had already decided who would and would not be saved. Calvinists,
therefore, made it their mission to search for clues as their fate, and in their pursuit, they
redefined the meaning of profit and its acquisition. This inner-worldly asceticism – as
Weber referred to this Protestant ethic – contributed to the rise of modern capitalism.
It was because of “moral” arguments that religious people were able to justify
their political involvement. When the Spaniards occupied lands in the Americas and
the Philippines, it was done in the name of the Spanish King and of God, for empire
comes from God alone . Then over 300 years later, American President William
McKinley claimed that after a night of prayer and soul-searching, he had concluded
that it was the duty of the US to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and
Christianize them, and by God’s grace do the very best we could by them.
Finally, religious leaders have used religion to wield influence in the political
arena, either as outsiders criticizing the pitfalls of pro-globalization regimes, or as
integral members of coalitions who play key roles in policy decision-makings and the
implementation of government projects.
 66

 COMPREHENSION CHECK
Date

Name Course, Year, & Section

DISCUSSION
Instructions: On your paper, answer the following questions. Five (5) points each
number.

1. How do you describe the reactions of some religious movements to

globalization?

2. Why is secularization theory outdated?

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 67

3. Identify reasons to support the claim that religion serves as a cultural and
political resource to some many people. Provide examples.

4. What is the connection of religion, globalization, and the human

condition?

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 68

“Keep the Faith”

Steps:

1. On your paper, write the history of your religion. You may create a timeline for
easy reading and checking. Then describe the following:

a. your religion’s concept of good

b. your religion’s concept of evil
c. the steps needed by a person to become good and prevent himself/herself from
becoming evil

2. Choose one religion, then, conduct a research on these two

religions’ relationship with politics (your religion and the other one you
chose), if any. In what ways is it engaged in politics? Why did the leaders
secede to be involved in politics?

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Lesson 7: Global Media Culture

 Lesson
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Evaluate the role of the mass media in the globalization of culture;

2. Discuss the dynamics of cultural imperialism in relation to globalization; and
3. Discuss what cultural hybridity or hybridization is.

 Time: 3 hours

The received view about the globalization of culture is one where the entire world
has been molded in the image of Western, mainly American, culture. In popular and
professional discourses alike, the popularity of Hollywood movies are touted as
unmistakable signs of the fulfillment of Marshall McLuhan's prophecy of the Global
Village. The globalization of culture is often chiefly imputed to international mass media.
After all, contemporary media technologies such as satellite television and the Internet
have created a steady flow of transnational images that connect audiences worldwide.
Without global media, according to the conventional wisdom, how would teenagers in
India, Turkey, and Argentina embrace a Western lifestyle of Nike shoes, Coca-Cola, and
rock music? Hence, the putatively strong influence of the mass media on the
globalization of culture.
The role of the mass media in the globalization of culture is a contested issue in
international communication theory and research. Early theories of media influence,
commonly referred to as "magic bullet" or "hypodermic needle" theories, believed that
the mass media had powerful effects over audiences. Since then, the debate about media
influence has undergone an ebb and flow that has prevented any resolution or agreement
among researchers as to the level, scope, and implications of media influence.

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 70

Nevertheless, key theoretical formulations in international communication

clung to a belief in powerful media effects on cultures and communities. At the same
time, a body of literature questioning the scope and level of influence of transnational
media has emerged. Whereas some scholars within that tradition questioned cultural
imperialism without providing conceptual alternatives, others have drawn on an
interdisciplinary literature from across the social sciences and humanities to develop
theoretical alternatives to cultural imperialism.

Cultural Imperialism and the Global Media Debate

In international communication theory and research, cultural imperialism theory
argued that audiences across the globe are heavily affected by media messages emanating
from the Western industrialized countries. Although there are minor differences between
"media imperialism" and "cultural imperialism," most of the literature in international
communication treats the former as a category of the latter. Grounded in an
understanding of media as cultural industries, cultural imperialism is firmly rooted in a
political-economy perspective on international communication. As a school of thought,
political economy focuses on material issues such as capital, infrastructure, and political
control as key determinants of international communication processes and effects.
In the early stage of cultural imperialism, researchers focused their efforts mostly
on nation-states as primary actors in international relations. They imputed rich,
industrialized, and Western nation-states with intentions and actions by which they export
their cultural products and impose their sociocultural values on poorer and weaker
nations in the developing world. This argument was supported by a number of studies
demonstrating that the flow of news and entertainment was biased in favor of
industrialized countries. This bias was clear both in terms of quantity, because most
media flows were exported by Western countries and imported by developing nations,
and in terms of quality, because developing nations received scant and prejudicial
coverage in Western media.
These concerns according to Sreberny (2001) led to the rise of the New World
Information Order (NWIO) debate, later known as the New World Information and
Communication Order (NWICO) debate. Although the debate at first was concerned
with news flows between the north and

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the south, it soon evolved to include all international media flows. This was due to the
fact that inequality existed in news and entertainment programs alike, and to the advent of
then-new media technologies such as communication satellites, which made the
international media landscape more complex and therefore widened the scope of the
debate about international flows.
The global media debate was launched during the 1973 General Conference of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Nairobi,
Kenya. As a specialized agency of the United Nations, the mission of UNESCO includes
issues of communication and culture. During the conference, strong differences arose
between Western industrialized nations and developing countries.
Led by the United States, the first group insisted on the "free flow of
information" doctrine, advocating "free trade" in information and media programs
without any restrictions. The second group, concerned by the lack of balance in
international media flows, accused Western countries of invoking the free flow of
information ideology to justify their economic and cultural domination. They argued
instead for a "free and balanced flow" of information. The chasm between the two groups
was too wide to be reconciled. This eventually was one of the major reasons given for
withdrawal from UNESCO by the United States and the United Kingdom—which
resulted in the de facto fall of the global media debate.

The stated mission of UNESCO is “to contribute to the building of peace, the
eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue
through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.”
 72

A second stage of research identified with cultural imperialism has been

associated with calls to revive the New World Information and Communication Order
debate. What differentiates this line of research from earlier cultural imperialism
formulations is its emphasis on the commercialization of the sphere of culture. Research
into this area had been a hallmark of cultural imperialism research, but now there is a
deliberate focus on transnational corporations as actors, as opposed to nation-states, and
on transnational capital flows, as opposed to image flows. Obviously, it is hard to
separate the power of transnational corporations from that of nation-states, and it is
difficult to distinguish clearly between capital flows and media flows.
Therefore, the evolution of the debate is mainly a redirection of emphasis rather
than a paradigm shift. It has become fashionable in some international communication
circles to dismiss cultural imperialism as a monolithic theory that is lacking subtlety and
increasingly questioned by empirical research.
Cultural imperialism does have some weaknesses, but it also continues to be
useful. Perhaps the most important contribution of cultural imperialism is the argument
that international communication flows, processes, and effects are permeated by power.
Nevertheless, it seems that the concept of globalization has in some ways replaced
cultural imperialism as the main conceptual umbrella under which much research and
theorizing in international communication have been conducted.

Media, Globalization, and Hybridization

Several reasons explain the analytical shift from cultural imperialism to
globalization. First, the end of the Cold War as a global framework for ideological,
geopolitical, and economic competition calls for a rethinking of the analytical categories
and paradigms of thought. By giving rise to the United States as sole superpower and at
the same time making the world more fragmented, the end of the Cold War ushered in an
era of complexity
between global forces of cohesion and local reactions of dispersal. In this complex era,
the nation-state is no longer the sole or dominant player, since transnational transactions
occur on subnational, national, and supranational

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 73

levels. Conceptually, globalization appears to capture this complexity better than cultural
imperialism. Second, according to John Tomlinson (1991), globalization replaced
cultural imperialism because it conveys a process with less coherence and direction,
which will weaken the cultural unity of all nation-states, not only those in the developing
world. Finally, globalization has emerged as a key perspective across the humanities and
social sciences, a current undoubtedly affecting the discipline of communication.
In fact, the globalization of culture has become a conceptual magnet attracting
research and theorizing efforts from a variety of disciplines and interdisciplinary
formations such as anthropology, comparative literature, cultural studies, communication
and media studies, geography, and sociology. International communication has been an
active interlocutor in this debate because media and information technologies play an
important role in the process of globalization.
One perspective on the globalization of culture, somewhat reminiscent of cultural
imperialism in terms of the nature of the effect of media on culture, but somewhat
different in its conceptualization of the issue, is the view that the media contribute to the
homogenization of cultural differences across the planet. This view dominates
conventional wisdom perspectives on cultural globalization conjuring up images of
Planet Hollywood and the MTV generation. One of the most visible proponents of this
perspective is political scientist Benjamin Barber, who formulated his theory about the
globalization of culture in the book Jihad vs. McWorld (1996). The subtitle, "How
Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World," betrays Barber's reliance on a
binary opposition between the forces of modernity and liberal democracy with tradition
and autocracy.
Although Barber rightly points to transnational capitalism as the driving engine
that brings Jihad and McWorld in contact and motivates their action, his model has two
limitations. First, it is based on a binary opposition between Jihad, what he refers to as
ethnic and religious tribalism, and McWorld, the capital-driven West. Barber seemingly
attempts to go beyond this binary opposition in a chapter titled "Jihad ViaMcWorld," in
which he argues that Jihad stands in "less of a stark opposition than a subtle
counterpoint." However, the evidence offered in most of the book supports an
oppositional rather than a contrapuntal perspective on the globalization of culture.

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 The second limitation of Barber's book is that he privileges the global over the
local, because, according to him, globalization rules via transnational capitalism. "To
think that globalization and indigenization are entirely coequal forces that put Jihad and
McWorld on an equal footing is to vastly underestimate the force of the new planetary
markets.… It's no contest.” Although it would be naíve to argue that the local defeats the
global, Barber's argument does not take into account the dynamic and resilient nature of
cultures and their ability to negotiate foreign imports.
Another perspective on globalization is cultural hybridity or hybridization. This
view privileges an understanding of the interface of globalization and localization as a
dynamic process and hybrid product of mixed traditions and cultural forms. As such, this
perspective does not give prominence to globalization as a homogenizing force, nor does
it believe in localization as a resistive process opposed to globalization. Rather,
hybridization advocates an emphasis on processes of mediation that it views as central to
cultural globalization.
The concept of hybridization is the product of interdisciplinary work mostly based
in intellectual projects such as postcolonialism, cultural studies, and performance studies.
Hybridization has been used in communication and media studies and appears to be a
productive theoretical orientation as researchers in international media studies attempt to
grasp the complex subtleties of the globalization of culture.
One of the most influential voices in the debate about cultural hybridity is
Argentinean-Mexican cultural critic Nestor García-Canclini. In his book Hybrid Cultures
(1995), García-Canclini advocates a theoretical understanding of Latin American nations
as hybrid cultures. His analysis is both broad and incisive, covering a variety of cultural
processes and institutions such as museums, television, film, universities, political
cartoons, graffiti, and visual arts.
According to García-Canclini in Aldama (2018), there are three main features of
cultural hybridity. The first feature consists of mixing previously separate cultural
systems, such as mixing the elite art of opera with popular music. The second feature of
hybridity is the deterritorialization of cultural processes from their original physical
environment to new and foreign contexts. Third, cultural hybridity entails impure cultural
genres that are formed out of the mixture of several cultural domains.
 In media and communication research, the main question is "Have transnational
media made cultures across the globe hybrid by bringing into their midst foreign cultural
elements, or have cultures always been to some extent hybrid, meaning that transnational
mass media only strengthened an already-existing condition?" There is no obvious or
final answer to that question, because there is not enough empirical research about media
and hybridity and because of the theoretical complexity of the issue. What does exist in
terms of theoretical understanding and research results points to a middle ground. This
position acknowledges that cultures have been in contact for a long time through warfare,
trade, migration, and slavery.
Therefore, a degree of hybridization in all cultures can be assumed. At the same
time, this middle ground also recognizes that global media and information technologies
have substantially increased contacts between cultures, both in terms of intensity and of
the speed with which these contacts occur. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that
transnational mass media intensify the hybridity that is already in existence in cultures
across the globe. Consequently, the globalization of culture through the media is not a
process of complete homogenization, but rather one where cohesion and fragmentation
coexist.

Conclusion
Globalization entails the spread of different cultures wherein different media have
diverse effects on globalization processes. It seemed that global media was creating a
global monoculture, but now, even though not discusses in this lesson, social media will
splinter cultures and ideas into bubbles of people who do not interact. Societies can
never be completely prepared for the rapid changes in the systems of communication.
Consumers and users of media will have a hard time turning back the clock. Though
people may individually try to keep out of Facebook or You Tube, for example, these
media will continue to engender social changes. Instead of fearing these changes or
entering a state of moral panic, everyone must collectively discover ways to dealing with
them responsively.
 76

 COMPREHENSION CHECK
Date

Name Course, Year, & Section

DISCUSSION
Instructions: On your paper, answer the following questions. Five (5) points each
number.

1. What is the role of the mass media in the globalization of culture?

2. Do you think globalization leads to cultural imperialism? Did the mass media
trigger and create the globalization of culture?

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 77

3. What is cultural hybridity or hybridization from the perspective of

globalization?

4. Please explain: The globalization of culture through the media is not a

process of complete homogenization, but rather one where cohesion
and fragmentation coexist.

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 78

“Globalized ASian MUSIc”

Steps:

Pick an Asian musical artist or group that became internationally famous.

On your paper, answer the following questions:

 Where did the musical artist originate?

 In which countries did the artist become famous?
 How did the artist become famous?
 Why do you think the artist became famous?

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Lesson 8: The Global
City

 Lesson
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Evaluate why globalization is spatial phenomenon; and

2. Distinguish the attributes of a global city; and analyze how cities serve as
engines to globalization

 Time: 3 hours

Global city term begins to be referred with the emergence of global economic
system. It is tried to be defined as an urban center for world economies. Global city is
emphasized with the spatial conjunction of world economic systems of both production
and consumption. This conjunction forms an international network of global cities. In this
world wide network system, Sassen, argues that global control capability of city is
important because it needs to control and also to arrange these international economic
transactions.
Therefore, rise of internationalization of capital accelerates the formation of
global cities. King suggests that in this process, national companies become multinational
and expand their specialized sectors and services. Then, these transnational companies
require place for meeting their production and consumption needs to sustain their
continuity in international arena. So, the required place for globalized capital is global
cities. The growth of international labor market is the final step for providing the
appropriate conditions for the formation of the global city. It means new economic order
is crucial factor for the emergence of global cities.

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 80

Saskia Sassen is the leading urban theorist of the global world.

The Global City Formation

In addition to being control center of capitalist world economy, global cities have
other indicators. For example, having major financial institutions and headquarters of
transnational corporations, developed business-service sector, wide range transportation
network, dense population are some of the indicators of global city as an engine for world
economy. Thus, global city is at the intersection of boundless international economic
system and territorial nation state. In addition, global cities possess highly-paid business
people as service provider class and exporter of these services.
Moreover, global cities as consumption mobilization centers give direction to
production. Rise in global competition and profit maximization race cause decrease in
salaries in the global city. This situation causes increase in immigrant labors. At the same
time, the growth of high level service sector causes the emergence of white collar
workers as a separate class. Thus, there is a class polarization in society lived in the
global city. This polarization in the global city also indicates residential division of urban
area based on ethnicity, education and income level. This sharp division among social
classes leads gentrification due to residential demands of high- income people besides; it
also causes expansion of informal and street economy in the global cities. So, the global
city term is not just about being center of the global economy.
Furthermore, there is not any stability for being the global city. There

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 81

is more than one global city in a country if conditions are appropriate for it but the
“globalized” degree of a city could switch to another city in one country. For
instance, the leading global city in Australia has changed from Melbourne to Sydney. In
this shift, cities compete with each other, in other words they are tried to sell through
urban promotions like arranging international art or sport events in order to create
positive perception about
the city for investment. In addition, urban aesthetics and planning is also important to
perceive a city as a global city. To emphasize its suitability for being global city,
architecture of the city is important. For instance, to have extensive transport network in
which wide range of subway system or international airports are indicator of the global
city. Agglomeration of skyscrapers is another symbol of being a global city. Hence, the
appearance and land use planning of the city is significant to perceive it as a global city.
Sassen argued that the expansion of global economy has long process in which
migrated labors, export and import of goods, privatization and also tourists are influential
in the accumulation of capital especially in the specific cities. Then, with the removal of
boundaries of territorialized nation states is important process for these cities to become
global cities, She also emphasizes global cities are chosen spaces for institutions of global
capitalism. Therefore, they serve as a place for transnational corporation and global
financial institutions. Size of the city, its historical background, composition and density
of its population and also consistence of national economy with global economy are other
criteria of global cities, other than being a center for world economic system.

Urban Dynamics of the Global City

According to Sassen, in order to understand the dynamics of global city, it
requires to focus on the radical growth in global economic transaction, together with high
service intensity in the big firms. The intersection of these processes is located in
globalized cities. In the first dynamic, globalization of economy has expanded both the
scale and the complexity of global activities. Therefore, cities became geographic area for
these global economic transactions. In the second dynamic, the cities transformed the
main source to meet the increased demand for services by companies.
Moreover, manufacturing based economic transactions has been replaced with
financial and service activities as a new urban economy in the

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 1980’s. Thus, cities became the major global business center and these business
centers are indispensable part of new urban economy. Because structure of business
sectors changed in terms of size and number of transaction, their occupied spaces in the
urban economy also increased. In addition, with the increase in profit from finance and
service sector led to decrease in manufacturing sector. Both change in size and
transaction in business sector together with rise of finance and service sector as shining
star of new urban economy, cities became the center of capitalist and neoliberal
economic systems.
Moreover, this transformation in global economy does not leave space for other
smaller sectors to compete and get profit, so that, many of them replaced with
internationalized sector. Therefore, cities have become integrated into world markets in
these transformations.
On the other hand, the global city gives direction to economic system through its
urban infrastructure, institutions, regulations together with educational and housing
opportunities and labor markets. All of these circumstances are provided by the global
city and it also generates urban consumption for constructing a suitable environment to
serve for the survival of global economy in worldwide.
The location of headquarters is also significant to determination of global cities.
However, this criterion is not only indicator of global city term because absence of
headquarters of a firm does not decrease in the status of a city. Especially, manufacturing
companies generally prefer to locate their headquarters in nearest location to their fabrics.
Moreover, specialization of services among different cities in countries and
world is also important in the corporate headquarters issue. For instance, services like
banking, accounting, finance and advertisement locate in New York while
Washington, D.C. leads in research and development, legal and public services.
Moreover, world cities are controlled by international capital that means the world
city is just a tool for production and expansion of world economy because it is
directly related to city’s capacity to being a safe place for capital and ensure the
continuation of
capital flow. This situation is outside of the city’s control, in other words, the
national territories allow the domination of global market economy over these cities.
The Global in the New Global Economic System
The formation of world cities is intertwined with new global economic system.
The control station of the world economy is global cities and they are integrated into the
world system and also draw capital into themselves to keep ruling power on their hands.
John Friedmann (1982) analyzes world cities under the four categories which are
economic, social, physical restructurings and political conflict. In the economic
restructuring issue, world cities have impact on employment structure which influence
the composition of the population lived in these cities. Thus, business services as an
economic function of the world cities is important to transform structure of the society.
According to analysis of Friedmann, the first group of employment is high level
business services like banking, finance, accounting, management and legal services and
the second group is more varied and mixed areas of economic sector which includes
construction, real estate, restaurants, security, luxury and hotel services. International
tourism as a part of the second group is also directly tied to capacity to integration of the
world cities to global economy. The third group is manufacturing services whose future
does not seem as bright for them especially as compared with the rise of service sector in
the world cities.
Another group is government services which is responsible for the reproduction
and also reparation of the world cities through planning and regulating urban areas.
Housing, education, health or transportation services are conducted by government
services in the world cities. In the last groups, there is informal economy and
unemployment population. In the street economy as a part of informal economy, people
work for long hours and get low wages while unemployment population is dependent on
charity and donations to survive. All these economic groups are harbored by world cities.
Thus world cities both an integral part of global economy and control mechanisms of
economic sectors that they have.
In order to understand what defines a global city, it is useful to take a look at the
development of global world economy. The expansion of international economic system
is directly related to formation of global cities. The growth of transnational corporations
is crucial for globalization of the economy. Both the number of firms and the diversity in
sectors increased.
 Production also increased to maximize profit at the expense of mismatch between
supply and demand. Therefore, in order to meet capital accumulation, the giant business
needs to exceed national controls. Moreover, with the technological developments seen as
social product expansion of global capital increased. Another point is related to changing
situation of sectorial employment. Because more production means more profit in the
capitalist world economy, the mass production needs skilled labor force. International
division of labor is important both for cost of the labor and professionalization.
Nevertheless, these processes cause labor surplus and eventually formation of informal
sector.
Finally, the mobility of land, capital and labor is important in the new global
world economy. The capital has no boundaries as compared with labor’s and land’s
immobility. Labor has less mobility as compared with capital because constraints
like religion, ethnicity, language or culture affect the mobility of labor. Land is also
immobile but this new world economic
order makes mobility of land less important because it transform cities as center of
capital accumulation.
From the perspective of Friedmann, world system emerged as a global market
economy through international network of cities. This perspective is important
because they wrote their article at the beginning of 1980’s when the world
economic system began to globalize and cities became the part of this new economic
system. They basically suggest that after Second World War, capitalist corporations
accelerated their transnational transactions for
their own purposes by exceeding national borders of countries. Thus, this expansionist
strategy of corporations drew cities inside of the global capitalist economy. This
whirlpool of world economic system created urban hierarchies that are world cities
promoted and also controlled expansion of production and market economy worldwide.
However, population size is not the most crucial element to define world cities. At this
point, Friedmann suggests two dimensions of world cities to be considered.

The first one is the formation of the city together with the city’s
integration capacity. The integration capacity of city includes serving headquarters of
international corporations as a location or serving as a place for investment in the
world economy. The second one is the domination of the world economy over
cities. This includes the cities’ capability to carry the financial and market
economy that controls the cities, into the world system.
Hence, the function of urban roles of global city and global market economy is unstable.
In conclusion, global cities have control function for world economy and they are
articulation points of the national economy and the world economy.
The basic part of population in the global city is international elite who specialize
in high-quality service. So, population increases demand for luxury office and housing in
the global city. Increase of services for this cluster of international elite and global
economy is observed in the global cities. Both in residence area and social fields of the
global city, there is social class based divisions related to income level and occupations.
They are also important center for international investments and corporate headquarters
together with concentration of the most powerful media organizations.
Therefore, they are at the most important point of international communication
network and they have high frequency of airline connections with other world cities.
There is increase in the top income group and this leads unemployment group and urban
poverty at the same time in the global city. So, all of these features are the urban
dynamics which make a global city different from other large urban centers.

Conclusion
As noted in this lesson, global cities are sites and mediums of globalization. They
are, therefore, material representations of the phenomenon. Through them, we see the
best of globalization; they are places that create exciting fusions of culture and ideas.
They are also places that create exciting fusions of culture and ideas. They are also
places that generate tremendous wealth. However, they remain sites of great inequality,
where global servants serve global entrepreneurs. The question of how globalization can
be made more just is partly a question of how people make their cities more just.
 86

 COMPREHENSION CHECK
Date

Name Course, Year, & Section

DISCUSSION
Instructions: On your paper, answer the following questions. Five (5) points each
number.

1. In what sense are cities mediums of globalization?

2. What is economic power the most crucial determinant of a global city?

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 87

3. What is there a lot of inequality in global cities?

“Locating a Global City”

Steps:

Pick one global city to research on. On your paper, answer the following
questions:

1. How would you describe your city?

2. What is your city known for?
3. What makes your city a global city?

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 References

Aldama, P. K. (2018). The contemporary world. Manila: Rex Bookstore.

Claudio, L. and Abindes, P. (2018). The contemporary world. Quezon City: C & E Publishing
House.
Fernandez, G., Purog, R., Betarmos, V., Garciano, M., and Garciano, J. (2018). The
contemporary world. Malabon City: Mutya Publishing House, Inc.
Friedmann, J. (2008). The world city hypotheses.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228007576_The_World_City_Hypot hesis
Huntington, S. (1993). The clash of civilizations.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/1993-06-01/clash-
civilizations
Herrington, L. (2013). Globalization and Religion in Historical Perspective: A
Paradoxical Relationship. https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/4/1/145/htm
May, S., Wilson, E., Oche, S., and Sheikh, S. (2014). The religious as political and the political
as religious: Globalization, post-secularism and the shifting boundaries of the sacred.
Politics, Religion, and Ideology, 15:3.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21567689.2014.948526

Sassen, Saskia. 2005. “The Global City: Introducing a Concept.” Brown Journal of
World Affairs 11(2): 27-43.

Shingleton, B. (2008). In Search of Common Ground: The Role of a Global Ethic in Inter-
Religious Dialogue. Carnegie Ethics Online Monthly Column.
https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/publications/ethics_online/0023
Strenski, I. (2004). The religion in globalization. Journal of the American Academy of
Religion, 72(3): 631-652. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40005910?seq=1
Sreberny, A. (2001). Cultural imperialism. International Encyclopedia of the Social &
Behavioral Sciences. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-
science/cultural-imperialism
Williams, R. (1996). Religion as political resource. Journal for the Scientific Study of
Religion, 35(4): 368-378. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1386412?seq=1

Digital Image

UN New York Headquarters. Digital image. AA. 10 March 2020,

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/un-closing-new-york-headquarters-to- public-
over-virus/1761113
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MODULE 3
Mobility and Sustainability

This final module will discuss the various impacts of globalization on human
populations, migration, and food security all over the world. At its core, it will go back
to one of the basic questions obvious to this topic: How to be a global citizen? This
question, as you will see, are increasingly being molded by the globalization processes
discussed in the previous lessons.

Module 3 Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. Explain the interconnections among population, migration, and food security to the
creation of a global citizen.

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Lesson 9: Global
Demography

 Lesson
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Discuss the relationship between population and economic welfare; and

2. Identify the effects of aging and overpopulation.

 Time: 9 hours

Everyone is a member of a population, and population factors have an impact on

many facets of life—from where we live to the prices we pay for goods and services. The
need for health care preoccupies the political leaders of the industrialized countries whose
populations are “aging,” while the need for classrooms, employment opportunities, and
housing preoccupies the leaders of countries that are still growing rapidly.

Population conditions influence history. Likewise, historical events can

significantly affect populations. Wars can decimate a generation of men, as happened in
the 20th century in the then-Soviet Union, France, Iraq, and several other countries. The
discovery of new medicines often leads to increases in life expectancy, and different
causes of death become more prominent. Alternatively, population change may sound a
warning of other important changes. Environmental contamination may be detected first
by increased reports of illness and rising mortality rates in certain geographic areas. In
all these ways and more, population is news.

Population information is best communicated in terms of numbers and rates. It is

not enough to know that life expectancy is increasing. How many years are being added?
Over what time period has the change occurred?

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 91

Which people are affected? What proportion of the population do they represent? Such
information is more meaningful when it provides an indication of the magnitude and
distribution of the phenomenon, as well as the trend. To be useful, data must be
expressed clearly as well as accurately. Birth rates are often confused with growth rates;
declining growth rates are sometimes mistakenly equated with declining population size.

Patterns and Trends of World Demography

The global population, which stood at just over 2 billion in 1950, is 7.8 billion
today (Chamie, 2020). The world is currently gaining new inhabitants at a rate of 76
million people a year (representing the difference, in 2005, between 134 million births
and 58 million deaths). Although this growth is slowing, middle-ground projections
suggest the world will have 9.1 billion inhabitants by 2050, when growth will be
approximately 34 million a year.

These past and projected additions to world population have been, and will
increasingly be, distributed unevenly across the world. Today, 95 per cent of population
growth occurs in developing countries. The population of the world's 50 least-developed
countries is expected to more than double by the middle of this century, with several poor
countries tripling their population over the period. By contrast, the population of the
developed world is expected to remain steady at around 1.2 billion, with population
declines in some wealthy countries.

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 92

Figure 1: World Population

Note: Data after 2005 are based on

projections. Source: UN Population
Division (2005)

The disparity in population growth between developed and developing countries

reflects the existence of considerable heterogeneity in birth, death and migration
processes, both over time and across national populations, races and ethnic groups. The
disparity has coincided with changes in the age- group composition of populations. An
overview of these factors illuminates the mechanisms of global population growth and
change.

Crude birth and death rates

One of the simplest ways to consider population growth is through crude birth and
death rates. These are the number of births and deaths per 1,000 people. On a worldwide
basis, the difference between these rates is the rate of population growth. Within regions
or countries, population growth is also affected by emigration and immigration.
Figure 2 shows that in both developed and developing regions the crude birth rate
has decreased by about half over the past 50 years. This

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 93

implies a much greater absolute reduction in developing regions. The net result of these
reductions is a current crude birth rate in developing regions that is similar to that of the
developed regions 50 years ago.

Figure 2: Crude Birth Rate

Births per 1 000 population

Notes: Dates refer to the beginning of the 5-year

window. Data after 2005 are based on
projections Source: UN Population
Division (2005)

As Figure 3 shows, crude death rates follow a different pattern. The reduction in
mortality in developing countries since 1950 has been very rapid
– so rapid that the crude death rate in developing countries is now lower than in
developed countries. The gradual rise in the crude death rate in developed countries
results from the combination of relatively steady infant and child mortality rates and
rising death rates due to an ageing population. The figure indicates that a similar rise in
the death rate will begin in developing countries in a couple of decades.

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 94

Figure 3: Crude Death Rate

Deaths per 1 000 population

Notes: Dates refer to the beginning of the 5-year

window. Data after 2005 are based on
projections. Source: UN Population
Division (2005)

Figure 4 demonstrates the combined effect of crude birth and death rates on
population growth rates, as modified by migration (primarily from developing to
developed regions).

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 95

Figure 4: Population Growth Rate

Average annual

Notes: Dates refer to the beginning of the 5-year

window. Data after 2005 are based on
projections. Source: UN Population
Division (2005)

Total fertility rate

The total fertility rate, that is the number of children born per woman, fell from
about 5 in 1950 to a little over 2.5 in 2005 (see Figure 5). This number is projected to fall
to about 2 by 2050. This decrease is attributable largely to changes in fertility in the
developing world. In 1950, the total fertility rate among developed countries was already
below 3 children per woman; the rate among developing countries was over 6. Fertility in
the latter is now below 3 children per woman. The fertility decline in low-income
countries can be ascribed to a number of factors, including declines in infant mortality
rates, greater levels of female education and increased labour market opportunities for
women, and the provision of family planning services.

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 96

Figure 5: Total Fertility Rate

Children born per woman

Notes: Dates refer to the beginning of the 5-year

window. Data after 2005 are based on
projections. Source: UN Population
Division (2005)

Infant and child mortality decline

The developing world has seen significant reductions in infant and child mortality
over the past 50 years (see Figure 6). Infant mortality (death prior to age 1) in developing
countries has dropped from 180 to about 57 deaths per 1,000 live births. It is projected to
decline further to fewer than 30 deaths per 1,000 live births by 2050. The past half-
century's gains resulted primarily from improved nutrition, public health interventions
related to water and sanitation, and medical advances such as the use of vaccines and
antibiotics. Infant mortality rates in the developed world have been, and will continue to
be, significantly lower than those in the developing world. Developed countries have seen
infant mortality decline from 59 to 7 deaths per 1,000 live births since 1950, and this is
projected to decline further still, to 4 by 2050. Child mortality (death prior to age 5) has
also fallen, in both

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 97

developed and developing countries.

Infant and child mortality decline

The developing world has seen significant reductions in infant and

child mortality over the past 50 years (see Figure 6). Infant mortality (death prior to age
1) in developing countries has dropped from 180 to about 57 deaths per 1,000 live births.
It is projected to decline further to fewer than 30 deaths per 1,000 live births by 2050.
The past half-century's gains resulted primarily from improved nutrition, public health
interventions related to water and sanitation, and medical advances such as the use of
vaccines and antibiotics. Infant mortality rates in the developed world have been, and will
continue to be, significantly lower than those in the developing world. Developed
countries have seen infant mortality decline from 59 to 7 deaths per 1,000 live births
since 1950, and this is projected to decline further still, to 4 by 2050. Child mortality
(death prior to age 5) has also fallen, in both developed and developing countries.

Figure 6: Infant Mortality Rate Deaths

per 1 000 live births

Notes: Dates refer to the beginning of the 5-year

window. Data after 2005 are based on
projections. Source: UN Population
Division (2005)

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 Figure 7 addresses a widely discussed issue relevant to infant and child mortality:
‘missing women’. Perhaps because of the selective abortion of female fetuses or
because of female infanticide, there is a severe exaggeration in a few countries of the
usual pattern of boys aged 0–4 outnumbering young girls of the same ages.

Figure 7: Number of Countries in which Males per 100 Females is in a Given Range,
Age 0–4 2005
Source: UN Population Division (2005)

Life expectancy and longevity

For the world as a whole, life expectancy increased from 47 years in 1950–1955
to 65 years in 2000–2005. It is projected to rise to 75 years by the middle of this century,
with considerable disparities between the wealthy developed countries, at 82 years, and
the less-developed countries, at 74 years (see Figure 8). As a result of the global decline
in fertility, and because
people are living longer, median age is rising (see Figure 9). The proportion of the elderly
in the total population is rising sharply. The number of people over the age of 60,
currently around half the number of those aged 15–24, is expected to reach 1 billion
(overtaking the 15–24 age group) by 2020. It is projected to reach almost 2 billion by
2050.
The proportion of individuals aged 80 or over is projected to rise from 1 per cent
to 4 per cent of the global population by 2050. (Figure 10 shows the history and
projections for the actual number of individuals aged 80 or above.) Population ageing is
occurring in both developed and developing countries, although more rapidly in the
former. In the developed world, the proportion of people aged 60 or over will increase
from 20 to 32 per cent by 2050. In the developing world, it will rise from 8 to 20 per cent.
There are gender differences in life expectancy. Figure 11 shows that life expectancy for
women tends to be around 4 to 6 years longer than for men, although there is
considerable variation across countries.

Figure 8: Life Expectancy

Notes: Dates refer to the beginning of the 5-year
window. Data after 2005 are based on
projections. Source: UN Population
Division (2005)
 100

Figure 9: Median Age

Note: Data after 2005 are based on
projections. Source: UN Population
Division (2005)

Figure 10: Number of People Aged 80 or Above

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 101

Note: Data after 2005 are based on projections.

Source: UN Population Division (2005)

Figure 11: Number of Countries in which Female Longevity Exceeds that of Males by a
Given Range of Years 2000–2005

Source: UN Population Division (2005)

The positive correlation between life expectancy and income, which was first
discussed in detail by Preston (1975), is one of the most central relationships in the fields
of international health and development. Preston observed the strong, positive
relationship between national income levels and life expectancy in poorer countries,
though the relationship is nonlinear as life expectancy levels in richer countries are less
sensitive to variations in average income.
Preston also noted that life expectancy is increasing over time at all income levels.
Although the basic facts set out by Preston are generally accepted, the mechanisms that
lie behind the relationships and the policy implications we can draw from them are still
disputed.

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Age distribution: working-age population
Baby booms have altered the demographic landscape in many countries. As the
experiences of several regions during the past century show, an initial fall in mortality
rates creates a boom generation because high
survival rates lead to more people at young ages than in earlier generations. Fertility
rates fall subsequently, as parents realize they do not need to produce as many
children to reach their desired family size, or as desired family size diminishes for
other reasons. When fertility falls and the baby boom stops, the age structure of the
population then shows a ‘bulge’ – the baby-boom-age cohort – created by the
nonsynchronous falls in mortality and fertility. As this cohort works its way through
the age structure of the population, it represents a share of the population larger than
the share represented by the cohorts that precede or follow it (see Figure 12).

Conclusion
Demography is a complex discipline that requires the integration of various
social scientific data. At its core, demography accounts for the growth and decline of the
human species. It may be about large numbers and massive effects, but it is ultimately
about people. Thus, no interdisciplinary account of globalization is complete without an
accounting of people.
The next lesson will continue on this theme for examining people, and will focus
particularly on their global movement.
 103

 COMPREHENSION CHECK
Date

Name Course, Year, & Section

DISCUSSION
Instructions: On this answer paper, answer the following questions. Five (5) points each
number.

1. Discuss your conclusions for each 12 figures presented in this lesson.

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 104

2. Under what circumstance is rapid population growth beneficial to

societies?

“Philippine Demography”

Steps:

Write a short research paper to discuss the topic: Has the Philippines
undergone the demographic transition? Why or why not?

Follow the format of Introduction, Discussion, Conclusion.

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 105

Lesson 10: Global Migration

 Lesson
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Identify the reasons for the migration of people;

2. Explain why states regulate migration; and
3. Discuss the effects of global migration on the economic well-being of states.

 Time: 6 hours

There are 191 million people worldwide who live in countries other than the one
in which they were born. Therefore, migration changes population patterns.
On average, during the next 45 years, the United Nations estimates that over 2.2
million individuals will migrate annually from developing to developed countries (see
Figure 13). (The UN estimates regarding future migration are not very informative, a
reflection of the inherent difficulty of constructing accurate projections of migration
flows.)
According to the UN Population Division, the United States will receive by far
the highest number of immigrants (1.1 million a year), and China, Mexico, India, the
Philippines and Indonesia will be the main sources of emigrants.

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 106

Figure 13: Number of Migrants from Less-developed to

More-developed Countries

Notes: Dates refer to the beginning of the 5-year

window. Data after 2005 are based on
projections. Source: UN Population
Division (2005)

Several factors affect migration from developing to developed countries. A

significant number of working-age people in developing countries are underemployed
relative to the opportunities they perceive in developed countries. At the same time,
developed countries face a declining share of working-age people and a growing number
of elderly who need care, creating more opportunities for immigrants. Because migrants
are disproportionately of working age, migration can affect the age distribution in both
sending and receiving countries.
The ratio of workers to dependents will tend to rise more slowly in sending
countries and decline more slowly in receiving countries than it otherwise would.
Williamson (2006) provides an economic explanation of the emigration life-cycle. First,
people are too poor to emigrate; this is the
‘migration poverty trap’. As wealth increases and demographic booms
begin, more people are able to emigrate and more are driven to emigrate. Emigration
later subsides in response to remittances, industrialization, conditions improving at
home, and there being relatively fewer workers. In the case of Europe, as transport
and industrialization spread within the

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 107

continent, the poorer countries joined the richer ones in sending migrants to the
Americas.

Urbanization
In both developed and developing countries, there has been a huge movement
from rural to urban areas since 1950 (see Figure 14). Less- developed regions, in
aggregate, have seen their population shift from 18 per cent urban in 1950 to 44 per cent
in 2006, while the corresponding figures for developed countries are 52 per cent to 75 per
cent. This move toward urban areas – and the concomitant urbanization of areas that were
formerly peri- urban or rural – is consistent with the shift that nearly all countries have
experienced in moving from agricultural economies to industrial and service- based
economies.

Figure 14: Percentage of Population Living in Urban Areas

Note: Data after 2005 are based on
projections. Source: UN Population
Division (2005)

The existence and growth of megacities (that is, those with 10 million or more
residents) is a late-20th century phenomenon that has created new problems. There
were 20 such cities in 2003, 15 in developing countries.

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Tokyo is by far the largest, with 35 million people, followed by (in descending order)
Mexico City, New York, São Paulo and Mumbai (all with 17 to 19 million residents).

All cities allow for economies of scale and provide a broad mix of people and
activities, making them centers of economic growth and activity. These characteristics
account, in some measure, for their attractiveness. However, as continued movement to
urban areas leads to megacities, these factors seem to be countered in part by problems
that arise in the areas of transportation, housing, air pollution and waste management.
The conditions in megacities may also exacerbate socioeconomic disparities.

East Asia's Baby Boom

East Asia's remarkable economic growth in the past half-century coincided

closely with demographic change in the region. As infant mortality fell from 181 to 34
per 1,000 births between 1950 and 2000, fertility fell from around 6 to 2 children per
woman. The lag between falls in mortality and fertility created a baby boom generation.
Between 1965 and 1990, the region's working-age population grew nearly four times
faster than the dependent population. Several studies have estimated that this
demographic shift was responsible for one-third of East Asia's economic growth during
the period
(that is, the ‘demographic dividend’).

Labor supply and the Celtic tiger

From 1960 to 1990, the growth rate of income per capita in Ireland was
approximately 3.5 per cent per annum. In the 1990s, it jumped to 5.8 per cent, well in
excess of any other European economy. Demographic change contributed to the country's
economic surge. In the decade following the legalization of contraceptives in 1979,
Ireland saw a sharp fall in the crude birth rate. This led to decreasing youth dependency
and a rise in the working- age share of the total population. By the mid-1990s, the
dependency burden in Ireland had dropped to a level below that in the United Kingdom.

Two additional demography-based factors in Ireland helped fuel economic growth

by increasing labor supply per capita. First, although male labor force participation rates
remained fairly static, the period from 1980 to 2000 saw a substantial increase in
female labor force participation rates,
particularly in the 25–40 year-old age group. Although one would expect rapid economic
growth to encourage female labor participation, it seems likely that some of the increase
can be attributed to the availability of contraception and women's increased freedom to
choose between working and rearing children.

Second, Ireland historically had high levels of outward migration of young adults
(around 1 per cent of the population per year), because its economy was unable to absorb
the large inflows of young workers created by its high fertility rate. The loss of these
young workers exacerbated the problem of a high youth-dependency rate. The decline in
youth-cohort sizes and rapid economic growth of the 1990s led to a reversal of this flow,
resulting in net in-migration of workers, made up partly of return migrants and also, for
the first time, substantial numbers of foreign immigrants.

Continued high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa

Demographic change of a very different type can account for slow economic
development. Much of sub-Saharan Africa remains stalled at the first stage of a
demographic transition. Fertility rates actually increased a bit during the 1950s and
through the 1970s and only recently have begun a slow fall. As swollen youth cohorts
have entered the labor force, an inadequate economic policy environment in most
countries has prevented many young people from engaging in productive employment.
Large dependent populations (in this case, of children) have kept the proportion of
working-age people in the total population low, making it more difficult for these
economies to rise out of poverty.

Policy Implications

Rapid and significant demographic change places new demands on national and
international policy-making. Transitions from high mortality and fertility to low mortality
and fertility can be beneficial to economies as large baby-boom cohorts enter the
workforce and save for retirement. Rising longevity also affects the incentives to save for
old age, which can affect investment, international capital flows and interest rates.

The ability of countries to realize the potential benefits of the demographic

transition and to mitigate the negative effects of ageing depends
crucially on the policy and institutional environment. Attention to the following areas is
likely to be key in developing effective policy to deal with the effects of demographic
change.

On Health

Recent evidence indicates that good health may be an important factor in

economic development. Health improvements – especially among infants and children –
often lead to declines in fertility. Focusing on the diseases of childhood can therefore
increase the likelihood of creating a boom generation and the positive economic effects a
boom can generate. Countries wishing to accelerate fertility declines may benefit from
improving access to family planning services and education about fertility decisions.

On Education

Workers are better able to contribute to economic growth if they have received an
effective education. East Asia capitalized on its baby boom generation by providing high-
quality education, including both general schooling and technical skills, which equipped
them as workers to meet the demands of an ever-changing labor market. Ireland also
gained from its baby boom by introducing free secondary schooling and expanding
tertiary education.

On Labor market institutions

Restrictive labor laws can limit a country's ability to benefit from demographic
change, particularly where these laws make it difficult to hire and fire workers or to work
part-time. Restrictions on immigration are also of concern, as they hold down the labor
supply. Immigration is a political hot potato in many countries, but economic incentives
to lower barriers to immigration are likely to grow stronger as populations in developed
countries age. International outsourcing, another controversial subject, may also be an
increasingly important means of meeting the demand for labor.

On Trade
One means by which east-Asian countries provided productive opportunities to
their baby boom cohorts was by carefully opening up to international trade. The
opportunity to export provides an outlet for the
product of a large cohort. Bloom and Canning (2004) as cited by Claudio and Abindes
(2018) found that open economies benefit much more from demographic change than the
average, and that closed economies do not derive any statistically significant benefit from
changes in the age structure.

Retirement

Population ageing requires increased savings to finance longer retirements

(especially if governments maintain current policies that discourage the conversion of
greater longevity into longer working lives). This will affect financial markets, rates of
return and investment. As more people move into old age, health care costs are likely to
spiral upward, with the expansion of health care systems and growth in long-term care
for the elderly. However, Bryant and Sonerson (2006) caution that an ageing population
is not the main driver of rising expenditures on health, showing that non-demographic
factors are more substantial drivers of rising health expenditures than demographic ones.

As non-tradable, labor-intensive sectors with a low rate of technical progress,

health care and elder care may affect the structure of the economy and potentially slow
measured growth. Existing social security systems may hamper the ability of individuals
to contribute to the financing of their retirement, as many of these systems penalize
individuals who work beyond a fixed retirement age. As Turner (2006) explains,
demographic factors play a central role in determining the potential viability of all
pension systems, both fully funded and pay-as-you-go plans. Recent work in Australia by
Kulish, Smith, and Kent (2006) suggests that changes in fertility and longevity,
functioning jointly, tend to increase the ratio of capital to labor inputs, and that, on
average, people would still choose to spend a similar portion of their lives in retirement
as before these changes.

Looking to the Future

What can we expect in the next half-century? Based on the indicators that are
available, we can make a few points.

1. All signs suggest that there will be continued but slowing population growth.
This continued growth will result in the addition of roughly 3 billion people to
the world population, before it stabilizes around 2050
 at about 9 billion. Managing this increase will be an enormous challenge, and the
economic consequences of failing to do so could be severe.

2. The world's population is ageing, and the growth in the sheer number of elderly
people will be huge. The United Nations predicts that 31 per cent of China's
population in 2050 – 432 million people – will be aged 60 or over. The
corresponding figures for India are 21 per cent and 330 million (see Figure 15).
No longer can ageing be thought of as a developed-world phenomenon. (Further
comparison of China and India's demographic development as it has affected
their economic development can be found in Bloom, Canning, Hu et al 2006, in
Chamie, 2020)

Figure 15: Growth of Elderly Population in China and India

Percentage aged 60+

Note: Data after 2005 are based on

projections. Source: UN Population
Division (2005)

3. International migration will continue, but the extent is unclear. The pressures that
encourage people to migrate – above all the lure of greater economic well-being
in the developed countries – will
 undoubtedly persist, but the strength of countervailing policy restrictions that
could substantially staunch the flow of migrants is impossible to predict.

4. Urbanization will continue, but here, too, the pace is impossible to predict.
Greater economic opportunities in the cities will surely continue to attract
migrants from rural areas, but environmental and social problems may stymie
growth.

Although demographic changes are, for the most part, easier to predict than
economic changes, the big-picture outlook is nonetheless unclear. The uncertainties are
similar to those we cited regarding possible changes in the human life span. Will an
outbreak of avian flu or another disease become pandemic, killing many millions and
decimating economies? What happens if these diseases are, or become, resistant to
existing drugs?

Conversely, scientific advances in areas such as genomics, contraceptive

methods, or vaccines for diseases such as AIDS or malaria could save and improve
millions of lives. Global warming and other environmental changes, or large-scale war,
could completely alter the context of demographic and economic predictions. Millions of
refugees, from any cause, could lead demographic predictions to be far off the mark, and
could, of course, lead to upheavals that would dwarf the importance of the analysis
offered here.

Mortality

The UN also makes assumptions about future mortality rates, which affect most
of the data in the figures in this paper. UN projections take into account recent sex-
specific trends and are based on the expectation that life expectancy will rise more slowly
in countries that have already reached a fairly high level.

For those indicators for which the UN provides data specific to various
possible courses of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, we have used only the ‘normal
mortality assumption’ (which uses a model that takes HIV/AIDS into consideration
and, for countries with high levels of the disease, projects a ‘slowdown in the
reduction of general mortality risks not related to HIV/AIDS’).
Migration

For migration numbers and rates, the UN assumes for most countries that
migration patterns will change very slowly after the period 2010–2015, compared with
the speed at which such patterns changed in the past. Projections are based on past trends
and take into account countries' current policies regarding international migration.

Conclusion
Global migration produces different and often contradictory responses as it entails
the globalization of people, and, like the broader globalization process, it is uneven. On
the other hand, many richer states know that migrant labor will be beneficial for their
economies. With their aging populations, Japan and Germany will need workers from
demographically young countries like the Philippines. Similarly, as working populations
in countries like the US move to more skilled careers, their economies will require
migrants to work jobs that their local workers are beginning to reject. Countries like the
Philippines with abundance of labor and a need for remittances will continue to send
these workers.
 115

> COMPREHENSION
CHECK
Date

Name Course, Year, & Section

DISCUSSION
Instructions: On this answer sheet, answer the following questions. Five (5) points each
number.

1. How are migrants mostly beneficial for receiving countries?

2. What are the benefits and detriments of economies dependent on migrant

remittances?

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 116

3. Why is migrant integration a challenging issue for states?

“Interview with an OFW”

Steps:

1. Interview a former or a current OFW (face-to-face or online).

2. On your paper, discuss what you have learned from this interview thru the
standpoint of transnationalism and the factors that affect global migrations.

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Lesson 11:Towards a Sustainable
Development

 Lesson
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Explain what sustainable development mean;

2. Discuss the origins and manifestations of global good security; and
3. Examine the policies and programs for governments around world that
address the food security crisis.

 Time: 6 hours

Salient Points about Sustainable Development

Sustainable development, a concept that emerged in the context of a growing
awareness of an imminent ecological crisis, seems to have been one of the driving forces
of world history in the period around the end of the 20th century. It is the idea that human
societies must live and meet their needs without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs. The “official” definition of sustainable development
was developed for the first time in the Brundtland Report in 1987.
The Brundtland report, also known as Our Common Future, gave the most
recognized and widely accepted definition of the term, sustainable development, in
1987. Following this report, “the human ability to ensure that the current
development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs” was the first widely accepted
definition of sustainable development.

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 118

As the consciousness about the impact that climate change could have on the
planet and on human life grew, the International Panel on Climate Change was created
by the UN Development Programme and the World Meteorological Organization. Its
purpose was (and still is) to develop and share knowledge about the impact of human
activities on climate change. It also aims to explore the causes, consequences, and ways
of fighting climate change.
CO2 and methane are gases that exist to help the Earth keep its ideal
temperature and guarantee life as we know it. Nonetheless, the excessive
production of these gases leads to an increase in the planet’s temperature.
This happens because part of the heat the Earth irradiates and that’d go
to space keeps trapped in the atmosphere.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was a 4 years-long investigation
that started in 2001 and was requested by the UN. Over 1200 researchers gathered
to assess the consequences that ecosystems’ changes had on human well-
being. Finding the scientific basis for action needed to improve the conservation and
sustainable use of ecosystems was another goal.

The main findings of the investigation were:

 Humans have changed ecosystems more quickly and widely than ever
before. This resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible biodiversity
loss;

 The changes made to ecosystems improved human well-being and the

economy but have harmed the planet and society. It wasn’t only
biodiversity decreasing at a high rate. Poverty was also still
affecting many communities and climate change increased the risk
of nonlinear changes;

 The degradation of ecosystems services would probably get worse over

the 21st century;

 The changes needed to preserve the ecosystem’s degradation and

meet the increasing demand for services could still be met.
Nonetheless, it would involve significant changes in policies across the
public and private sectors.

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Global Sustainable Development Report 2019
Achieving human well-being and eradicating poverty for all of the Earth’s
people—expected to number eight and a half billion by 2030—is still possible, but
only if there is a fundamental—and urgent—change in the relationship between people
and nature, and a significant reduction in social and gender inequalities between and
inside countries, according to a new United Nations report by an independent group of
scientists to be launched at the 2019 SDG Summit, but made available today.
The Report, requested by all countries to evaluate progress on the 2030
Sustainable Development Agenda, is the first of its kind since the landmark
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted four years ago. Entitled “The
Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development,” the report finds
that the current development model is not sustainable, and the
progress made in the last two decades is in danger of being reversed through worsening
social inequalities and potentially irreversible declines in the natural environment that
sustains us. The scientists concluded that a far more optimistic future is still attainable,
but only by drastically changing development policies, incentives and actions.
Creating economic growth just by increasing consumption of material goods is no
longer a viable option at the global level: Projections indicate that the global use of
materials is set to almost double between 2017 and 2060, from 89 Gigatons to 167
Gigatons, with correspondingly increased levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and other
toxic effects such as those from mining and other pollution sources.
The present model of development has delivered prosperity to hundreds of
millions. But it also has led to continuing poverty and other deprivations; unprecedented
levels of inequality that undermine innovation, social cohesion and sustainable economic
growth; and it has brought the world close to tipping points with the global climate
system and biodiversity loss. To change course, the scientists say the world must
transform a number of key areas of human activities, including food, energy,
consumption and production, and cities.
These transformations can come about through coordinated action by
governments, business, communities, civil society and individuals. Science has a
particularly vital role to play—a role that can be further strengthened
by increasing investment in science for sustainability and in natural and social science
institutions based in developing countries.
The report emphasizes that achieving the SDGs fundamentally requires
decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, while at the same time,
reducing social and gender inequalities in wealth, income and access to opportunities.
As not all countries are starting from the same place, the scientists say that higher
levels of growth will continue to be needed in poorer countries, to ensure quality social
services and infrastructure, at the same time stressing that growing first and cleaning up
later is not an option. The report also highlights the need for increased access to
appropriate technologies and knowledge.
Developed countries need to change their production and consumption patterns,
including by limiting the use of fossil fuels and plastics, and to encourage public and
private investments that align with the SDGs.
The scientists suggest that the UN could promote a new sustainable development
investment label, with clear parameters and guidelines, to encourage and reward
investment in industries and financial markets that advance sustainable development and
discourage investment in those that do not.
The extensive transformation that is needed will not be easy, and the report
suggests that a deep scientific understanding is needed to anticipate and mitigate the
tensions and tradeoffs inherent in widespread structural change. For example, those
losing jobs in the shift away from fossil fuels and other industries at odds with a
sustainable future should be supported towards alternative livelihoods.
The authors emphasize that strong political will and commitment will be required
to make the needed transformations, that there are no one-size- fits-all solutions, and the
interventions in developed countries will look very different from those in developing
countries.

A call to action: 20 interventions that will matter

The report’s Call to Action identifies 20 points where interventions can
create transformative and accelerated progress towards multiple goals and targets in the
coming decade. These targeted actions are based on the recent scientific literature
analyzing the deeper systemic interconnections that identify synergies and trade-offs
between individual goals and targets.
The report advocates for universal access to quality basic services— healthcare,
education, water and sanitation infrastructure, housing and social protection—as a
prerequisite to elimination of poverty and advances in human well-being, with special
attention given to persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. The report calls
for renewed attention to ending legal and social discrimination, and for strengthened
unions, nongovernmental organizations, women’s groups and other community
organizations, finding them all to be important partners in efforts to implement the 2030
Agenda.
The authors identify the food and energy systems as particularly important arenas
for change since these systems, as they currently function, are bringing the world toward
environmental tipping points, but they are also critical nexus areas for human health and
well-being.
The food system must undergo widespread changes to the infrastructure, cultural
and societal norms, and policies that are supporting the current, unsustainable, status quo.
At present, approximately 2 billion people suffer from food insecurity and 820 million
people are undernourished. At the same time, overweight rates are growing in almost all
regions of the world, with global numbers reaching 2 billion overweight adults and 40
million children under the age of five.
For developing countries, stronger social protection floors are needed to ensure
food security and nutrition. Countries must reduce the environmental impact of their food
production systems, considering the entire value chain, by reducing food waste and
reducing reliance on animal-based protein sources. Developing and developed countries
both need to increase attention to malnutrition in all its forms—including the increasingly
high numbers of persons who are overweight.
The energy system also must transform to close the energy access gap. Close to 1
billion people are without access to electricity, predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa, and
more than 3 billion people rely on polluting solid fuels for cooking, causing an estimated
3.8 million premature deaths each year. These gaps must be addressed, while at the same
time increasing
energy efficiency and phasing out fossil-based power generation without carbon capture
and storage, so that the world economy is decarbonized, in line with the aspirations of the
Paris agreement.
The amount of modern renewable energy in the total global energy supply has
increased by an average of 5.4 percent annually over the past decade. Meanwhile, since
2009 the price of renewable electricity dropped by 77 percent for solar photovoltaic and
38 percent for onshore wind—and for five years in a row, global investments in clean
energy have exceeded US$ 300 billion annually.
However, additional growth has been stymied by direct and indirect subsidies to
fossil fuels that continue to distract from their true economic, health and environmental
costs. With two-thirds of the global population projected to live in cities by 2050, the
report finds that achieving the 2030 Agenda will require more compact and efficient
cities that are better served by quality public transport and other infrastructure, social
services and an economy that provides decent and sustainable livelihoods including those
enabled by technology and nature-based industries. Partnerships and networks among
peer cities can help municipal leaders build on good
practices and a store of expertise, as can investing in building a “science of
cities.”

The scientists emphasized that the global environmental commons— such as the
atmosphere, rainforests and oceans—must be safeguarded as crucial sources of ecosystem
services and natural resources. Governments, local communities, the private sector and
international actors must work together to conserve, restore and sustainably use natural
resources. Accurately assessing environmental assets is a critical first step, and their
value should be reflected through pricing, transfers, regulation and other economic
instruments.

Global Food Security

Nearly a billion people across the world experience the effects of food insecurity
(SOFI, 2020). According to the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), food security means having, at all times, both physical and economic access to
sufficient food to meet dietary needs for a productive and healthy life. Put more simply,
families are able
to afford and obtain enough nutritious food. A family is food secure when its members
do not live in hunger or fear of hunger. Both in the United States and in developing
nations, food insecurity is often linked to poverty. Shifts in the global economy, including
rises in global food and oil prices, can affect food security throughout the world, with
especially severe effects in low- income countries (Rosen and Shapouri, 2020)
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines three main aspects of food
security. The first is food availability, having a sufficient supply of food available on a
consistent basis (WHO). This food can be either locally produced or imported from other
places. In some cases, communities may be unable to produce their own food locally
because of inappropriate agricultural technologies or practices; lack of natural resources
or productive land; climate constraints; emergency situations like natural disasters; or
health constraints, such as HIV/AIDS, that prevent people from engaging in labor
(USAID). Communities may be unable to import food from other places because of
issues like lack of foreign exchange, political unrest, or lack of transportation (USAID).
The second aspect of food security is food access, having sufficient resources to
obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet (3). Even when a sufficient supply of food
exists to feed everyone, food may not always be accessible to everyone. People
need to have sufficient incomes and resources in order to obtain food. There are a number
of factors that can affect a person's economic access to food, including lack of job
opportunities that can provide sufficient income, or lack of training or business
knowledge for success with income generating activities (USAID).
The final aspect of food security is known as food utilization, or consuming a
nutritious diet. This means that people make appropriate use of food, based on knowledge
of basic nutrition and care, and have access to water and sanitation for preparing food and
maintaining proper hygiene (WHO). Nutrition education can be an important part of
improving food utilization-making sure people are aware of the variety of foods their
bodies need to maintain good health. In many parts of the world experiencing food
insecurity, people may consume sufficient quantities of starchy staple foods like potatoes,
rice, maize, and cassava, but insufficient quantities of protein, oils, dairy, fruits and
vegetables that make up a balanced diet (WHO). Changing this may not only require
nutrition education, but also increasing food availability through improved agricultural
practices and resources.
 Disease prevention and management, including proper sanitation and hygiene
practices, are also important for proper food utilization.
Undernourished human bodies are more susceptible to illnesses like diarrheal
disease and pneumonia. But with proper nutrition, sanitation, and hygiene, many
diseases-especially those caused by food and waterborne contaminants-are less likely to
occur.
Food security is an issue both globally and at home in the United States.
According to recent data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA),
approximately 14.7% of U.S. households experience low or very low food security
(USAD, 2018). This equates to nearly 50 million people in the United States, including
about 17 million children (USAD, 2018). In response to food insecurity, the U.S.
government offers food assistance to low income families through the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This allows provides families with electronic
benefits they can use like a debit card to purchase breads, cereals, fruits, vegetables, meat,
and dairy products from approved stores (USAD, 2018).
The federal government also funds school breakfast and lunch programs. Some
community-based organizations, such as food banks, help address families' immediate
food needs, while others work to address the root causes of food insecurity, improve local
access to nutritious food, and provide community-based nutrition education.
Looking at food security globally, the number of people experiencing food
insecurity in the United States and other developed nations makes up only about two
percent of the global total (SOFI, 2020). The United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) states that 925 million (SOFI, 2020) people in the world are
undernourished.
The largest percentage of undernourished people live in Asia and the Pacific
Islands, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa (SOFI, 2020). Fortunately, there is enough food
in the world today for everyone to have the nourishment they need for a healthy and
productive life (WFP, 2020). A key factor in addressing the world's food security
challenges is improving the availability, access, and utilization of food across global
communities.
Conclusion
Food security is not just a poverty issue; it is a much larger issue that involves the
whole food system and affects every one of us in some way. Issues such as whether
households get enough food, how it is distributed within the household and whether that
food fulfills the nutrition needs of all members of the household show that food security
is clearly linked to health. Global Food Security must exist to meet the challenge of
providing the world's growing population with a sustainable, secure supply of good
quality food.
 126

> COMPREHENSION CHECK

Date

Name Course, Year, & Section

DISCUSSION
Instructions: On this answer sheet, answer the following questions. Five (5) points each
number.

1. On your own words, what is Sustainable Development? As a student, why this

should matter to you?

2. Summarize the Global Sustainable Development Report 2019.

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 127

3. Identify five among 20 on A call to action: 20 interventions that will

matter.

4. What is food security mean? How one can say what he/she is food
secured?

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 128

5. Identify the events affecting food security today.

“Let’S Eat ReSearch”

Steps:

1. Research on and critique existing models of global food security.

2. Follow the Introduction, Discussion, Conclusion format.

The Contemporary World: A Modular Approach A.Regalado &

A.DeAngel
Lesson 12: Global
Citizenship

 Lesson
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Articulate a personal definition of global citizenship; and

2. Develop the ethical obligations of global citizenship.

 Time: 6 hours

Globalization brings the traditional concept of citizenship into question as it

becomes easier to identify oneself with a set of common global interests shared by many.
Some of these universal interests include sustainability, human rights, and economic
stability. Certainly, the linking of educators and students through technology creates an
international network that fosters a sense of global community. Unlike nation-states,
digital networks have no borders and allow people to build relationships that transcend
distance, geo- politics, and in some cases, economics. It is in this digital global context
that
many of today’s students identify themselves.

If a genuine understanding of the complex world coupled with a 21st century

skill set is the goal of global education, then many educators see global citizenship as its
key precept.

However, the notion of global citizenship has proved contentious as some worry
about its compatibility with national citizenship. Consequently, the role of education in
creating global citizens has been debated since it has historically been used as a tool to
promote accepted social norms and patriotism on the national level. While global
education does not seek to undermine nationalism, it does strive to create citizens with a
global scope

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 130

that are thoughtful about the problems facing their world. Just as globalization is an agent
for positive change, it also aids the growth of portentous problems such as global terrorist
networks, environmental degradation, and sex and drug-trafficking. This being the reality
of the world, students must be able to place global happenings in proper context in order
to understand how it impacts their local and international community.

Defining Global Citizenship

Because there is no widely accepted definition for global citizenship, educators

often use the term loosely. Derived from the word city, citizenship tends to evoke
allegiance to one’s town or nation. Certainly the notion of citizenship has taken on new
meaning from its historical usage as it has gone “global.” As scholars and educators
continue to discuss what it means to become a global citizen, we can identify some
common themes within the discourse.

Many educators use the term “global citizen” to describe someone who knows
and cares about contemporary affairs in the whole world, not just in its own nation
(Dunn, 2002). But as we move along the spectrum of global citizenship, it is no
longer enough to simply identify and even “care” about global issues, one must
develop empathy as well.
Global citizenship is a choice and a way of thinking. National citizenship is an
accident of birth; global citizenship is different. It is a voluntary association with a
concept that signifies “ways of thinking and living within multiple cross-cutting
communities— cities, regions, states, nations, and international collectives…”
People come to consider themselves as global citizens through different formative
life experiences and have different interpretations of what it means to them.
The practice of global citizenship is, for many, exercised primarily at home,
through engagement in global issues or with different cultures in a local setting. For
others, global citizenship means firsthand experience with different countries, peoples,
and cultures. For most, there exists a connection
between the global and the local. Whatever an individual’s particular “take”
on global citizenship may be, that person makes a choice in whether or how to
practice it.

The Contemporary World: A Modular Approach A.Regalado &

A.DeAngel
 Global citizenship is self-awareness and awareness of others. As one international
educator put it, it is difficult to teach intercultural understanding to students who are
unaware that they, too, live in a culture that colors their perceptions. Thus, awareness of
the world around each student begins with self-awareness. Self-awareness also enables
students to identify with the universalities of the human experience, thus increasing their
identification with fellow human beings and their sense of responsibility toward them.
Global citizenship practices cultural empathy. Cultural empathy or intercultural
competence is commonly articulated as a goal of global education, and there is significant
literature on these topics. Intercultural competence occupies a central position in
higher education’s thinking about global citizenship and is seen as an important
skill in the workplace. There are more than 30 instruments or inventories to assess
intercultural competence. Cultural empathy helps people see questions from multiple
perspectives and move deftly among cultures—sometimes navigating their own multiple
cultural identities, sometimes moving out to experience unfamiliar cultures.
Global citizenship is the cultivation of principled decision-making. Global
citizenship entails an awareness of the interdependence of individuals and systems
and a sense of responsibility that follows from it. Navigating “the treacherous waters
of our epic interdependence requires a set of guiding principles that will shape ethical
and fair responses. Although the goal of undergraduate education should not be to
impose a “correct” set of answers,
critical thinking, cultural empathy, and ethical systems and choices are an essential
foundation to principled decision-making.
Global citizenship is the participation in the social and political life of one’s
community. There are many different types of communities, from the local to the global,
from religious to political groups. Global citizens feel a connection to their communities
(however they define them) and translate that sense of connection into participation.
Participation can take the form of making responsible personal choices (such as
limiting fossil fuel consumption), voting, volunteering, advocacy, and political activism.
The issues may include the environment, poverty, trade, health, and human rights.
Participation is the action dimension of global citizenship.
Does Global Citizenship Matter?
The preceding list could be much longer and more detailed; global citizenship
covers a lot of ground. Thus, it is useful to consider the term global citizenship as
shorthand for the habits of mind and complex learning associated with global education.
The concept is useful and important in several respects.
First, a focus on global citizenship puts the spotlight on why internationalization
is central to a quality education and emphasizes that internationalization is a means, not
an end. Serious consideration of the goals of internationalization makes student learning
the key concern rather than counting inputs.
Second, the benefits of encouraging students to consider their responsibilities
to their communities and to the world redound to them, institutions, and society. As
Altinay (2010) in Fernandez, Purog, Betarmos, et al. (2018) put it, “a university
education which does not provide effective tools and forums for students to think
through their responsibilities and rights as one of the several billions on planet Earth,
and along the way develop their moral compass, would be a failure.” Strengthening
institutional commitment to serving society enriches the institution, affirms its
relevance and contributions to society, and benefits communities (however expansive
the definition) and the lives of their members.
Third, the concept of global citizenship creates conceptual and practical
connections rather than cleavages. The commonalities between what happens at home
and “over there” become visible. The characteristics that human beings share
are balanced against the differences that are so conspicuous.
On a practical level, global citizenship provides a concept that can create bridges
between the work of internationalization and multicultural education. Although these
efforts have different histories and trajectories, they also share important goals of cultural
empathy and intercultural competence.
Conclusion
No concept or term is trouble-free; no idea goes uncontested by some faculty
member or group. For better or for worse, global citizenship will undoubtedly provoke
disagreements that reflect larger academic and philosophical debates. There is plenty of
skepticism about global citizenship.

Some object to any concept that suggests a diminished role for the nation and
allegiance to it or the ascendancy of global governance systems. The idea of
developing students’ moral compasses can raise questions about whose
values and morals and how institutions undertake this delicate task.

Some students will choose not to accept responsibility for the fate of others far away, or
may see inequality as an irremediable fact of life. Some faculty will stand by the efficacy
and wisdom of the market; others will see redressing inequality as the key issue for the
future of humankind.
And so on.
 134

> COMPREHENSION CHECK

Date

Name Course, Year, & Section

DISCUSSION
Instructions: On this answer sheet, answer the following questions. Five (5) points each
number.

1. What are the ways towards being a global citizen? Briefly explain each.

2. What is the importance of global citizenship in this contemporary world?

The Contemporary World: A Modular Approach A.Regalado &

A.DeAngel
 135

3. “I am a global citizen.”
The aforesaid statement pertains to you. Do you agree or disagree? Support
your answer.

“Society of Global CitizenS”

Steps:

Create a short story thru comic strip/cartoon panel, with captions and
dialogues from characters, on the future society emphasizing the obligations of a
global citizen.

The Contemporary World: A Modular Approach A.Regalado &

A.DeAngel
 136

References
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Claudio, L. and Abindes, P. (2018). The contemporary world. Quezon City: C & E Publishing
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Bryant, J. and Sonerson, A. (2006). Gauging the cost of aging. Finance & Development, 43:3.
http//www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2006/09/index.htm

Chamie, J. (2020). World population: 2020 overview.

https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/world-population-2020-overview

Claudio, L. and Abindes, P. (2018). The contemporary world. Quezon City: C & E Publishing
House.

Dunn, R. (2002). Growing good citizens with a world-centered curriculum.

Educational Leadership: Journal of The Department of Supervision and Curriculum
Development, N.E.A 60(2).
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th_a_World-Centered_Curriculum

Fernandez, G., Purog, R., Betarmos, V., Garciano, M., and Garciano, J. (2018).
The contemporary world. Malabon City: Mutya Publishing House, Inc.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2020). The state of food security
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Kulish, M., Smith, K. and Kent, C, (2006). Ageing, retirement, and savings: A general
equilibrium analysis. Reserve Bank of Australia Research Discussion Paper No
2006-06.

Jarvie, M. (2011). Brundtland report. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brundtland-

Report

Preston, H. (1975). The changing relation between mortality and level of economic
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content/uploads/2012/01/preston1975.pdf

Turner, A. (2006). Pension challenges in an aging world. Finance & Development, 43:3.
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UN Population Division (2005). World population policies 2005.
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WPP2005/WPP2005_full.pdf

Wiliamson, J. (2006). Global migration. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2006/09/williams.htm

U.S. Agency for International Development. Agriculture and food security 2019.
https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/agriculture-and-food-security

Stacey, R. and Shapouri, S. (2020). Undernourishment around the world.

https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2009/december/global-economic-crisis-
threatens-food-security-in-lower-income-countries/

United States Department of Agriculture 2019. Depth of hunger: how hungry are the hungry?
https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-
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https://www.wfp.org/hunger/faqs
Appendices

Assessment Rubric for Short Answer Written Test

Assessment Rubric for Writing Tests/Tasks
 About the Authors

ANGELINE GUEVARRA REGALADO is

an Associate Professor V of the Technology Department,
College of Industrial Technology, Aklan State University.
She obtained her Doctor of Philosophy major in
Educational Management at Aklan State University, Banga,
Aklan. She has been handling courses in Personality
Development, History, Understanding the Self, Contemporary World, and
Purposive Communication. She received her Bachelor of Arts at Garcia College
of Technology and Master of Arts in Education major in Educational
Management at Northwestern Visayan Colleges, Kalibo, Aklan.

She had attended various local, regional, and international seminars,

trainings, and conferences.

She served as an Accreditor of AACCUP for several years and as an ISO

Internal Auditor of ASU. She was designated by the University as Chairman for
Extension and Community Services, Chairman for the General Education
Department, Chairman for Academic Affairs, Chairman for Administration.
Currently, she is the Chair for Bids and Awards Committee and the Chairman
for Standards.

APHRILE LOMUGDANG DE ANGEL is

presently connected at Aklan State University as Assistant
Professor in the College of Industrial Technology (ASU-CIT),
Kalibo, Aklan. Currently, she teaches The Contemporary World,
Purposive Communication, and professional subjects for
education students. She is also the sitting adviser of The Aklan
Tradesman, the official publication of the college, and the Information Officer for
ASU-CIT.

She finished her Bachelor of Arts in English and Master of Arts in

Education with specialization in Language Teaching in English at the West
Visayas State University, Iloilo City, where she is now a candidate for the degree,
Doctor of Philosophy in Education with specialization in Curriculum
Development.