THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
Preface
This module is written as a resource material for students of the subject GE 13
with the description of “The Contemporary World,” a required core course under the
new General Education Curriculum developed by the Commission on Higher Education
(CHED), and aligned with the objectives of the K-12 program of the government.
Lessons, quizzes, major examinations and activities can be done in 18 weeks or 54
hours. For easy understanding of the material, this module used a clear, realistic and
applicable example that is directly related to everyone’s life. Syllabus patterned from
CHED is attached to guide the students for every topic.
This module is an outcome oriented, interdisciplinary and holistic in scope. All
materials cited by CHED model syllabus will be included in this module. The seven main
areas in this resource material are: (1) Introduction to the study of Globalization; (2) The
structure of Globalization (3) A World of Regions; (4) A World of Ideas; (5) Global
Preparation and Mobility; (6) Towards A Sustainable World; and (7) Global Citizenship.
This module as mandated by CMO will expose and introduce the students
globally and will inculcate the sense of global citizenship and global ethical
responsibility. Also, for better understanding of globalization’s many facets, this module
will help the students to develop initiatives in finding answers to every unclear situations
and phenomenon that may arise or encounter in the contemporary world of us.
I.
Table of Contents
UNIT 1- The Study of Globalization

Definition of Globalization …

Historical Foundations of the Term “Globalization” …

Metaphors of Globalization …

Solid and Liquid …

Flows …

Indicators of Globalization …

Nature of Globalization …

Reasons for Globalization …

Merits of Globalization …

Demerits of Globalization ...

Importance of Studying Globalization ..

The Importance of Globalization for Everyone …

The Theory of Comparative Advantage …

Philosophy Underlying Globalization …
UNIT 2- The Structures of Globalization

The Global Economy …

Market Integration …

The Global Interstate System …

Contemporary Global Governance ...
UNIT 3-A WORLD OF REGIONS
A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American Imperium
▪ North-South Divide
▪ Global South VS Third World
▪ How the “Third World” became the Global South:
The origins of the Third World
▪ Global Conception emerged from the experiences of Latin Amercan
Countries
▪ Asian Regionalism
▪
UNIT 4-A WORLD OF IDEAS
▪ Global Media Culture
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
Various forms of Global Integration
Dynamics between local and global Cultural Production
Globalization of Religion
Globalization affects Religions Practices and beliefs
Role of Religion Today
Role of religion in Promoting World Peace
The rise and fall of ISIL or ISIS
UNIT 5-GLOBAL POPULATION MOBILITY
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
World Population
Global Mobility
Trend in Global Migration
Factors influencing Migration and population movements
Transnationalism and Migration
Anak OFW workshop Conference
UNIT 6-TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE WORLD
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
Sustainable Development
Sustainability versus Stability
Some sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable Development Models
Global challenges in Food Security
Global Food security Model
UNIT 7-GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
▪ Meaning and usage of Global Citizenship
▪ The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
▪ Global Citizen
▪ Mundialization
▪ Earth Anthem
▪ Criticism of Global Citizenship
▪ Ethical obligation of Global Citizen
MODULE 1: Introduction to Globalization
I.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a) Agree on a working definition of globalization for the course;
b) Differentiate the competing conceptions of globalization;
c) Narrate a personal experience of globalization;
d) Identifying the underlying philosophies of the varying definitions of
globalization;
e) Agree on a working definition of globalization for the course/lesson.
Pre-test: Read and understand the short story.
A SHORT STORY OF GIO, LATIF AND LAKSA
When Gio was a second-year international affairs student in a university in Cebu City, he
obtained funding to join the school team participating in an international Model UN competition in
Sydney, Australia. At the height of the competition, Gio made plenty of new friends and became
particularly close to Latif from the Malaysian team. The two first started talking when Latif asked Gio
where he was from. Upon discovering that the Gio was from the Philippines, Latif lit up and declared
that he was a big fan of Filipino actors Jericho Rosales and Kristine Hermosa. Gio was pleasantly
surprised to learn that Latif had seen every episode of the ABS-CBN telenovela Pangako sa Yo ("The
Promise"). The show had aired on Malaysian TV a few years back, and its two stars had developed a
modest following.
Ashamed that he did not know as much about Malaysia Latif knew about the Philippines, Gio
asked Latif what his country was like. Latif, he discovered, was from a Muslim university Kuala Lumpur.
Gio asked him what he liked best about living and Latif immediately mentioned the food. Latif
explained that in Kuala Lumpur, one can find Chinese, Indian, and Malay cuisines. He told Gio that this
assortment of foodways was the result of how the British reorganized Malaysian society during the
colonial times. The British did little to change the way of life of the Malays who were the original
residents, but brought in Chinese laborers to work in the rubber plantations and tin mines, and Indians
to help manage the bureaucracy and serve as the initial professional core of a potential middle class.
One of the ways that these ethnic groups were identified was through their foodways.
According to Latif, Malaysia eventually became famous for these cuisines which can be found in
the various "'hawker centers" across the nation's cities and towns. These food stands are located in
outdoor food parks where locals and tourists taste the best of Malaysia, from nasi lemak to laksa.
Gio interrupted Latif and asked, "What is laksa?" He felt more ashamed at his lack of
knowledge. "Ahh.. let me show you what it is and how it is prepared!" replied Latif.
The next day, Latif took Gio to a Malaysian restaurant a few blocks away from the university.
Gio was surprised to discover that Malaysian food was readily available in Sydney. Having noticed this,
Latif explained to his Filipino friend that, over the years, as more and more Malaysian students moved
to Sydney to study, Malaysian restaurants followed suit. Soon after, they were catering not only to
these students, but to Australia-born "Sydneysiders" as well, whose culinary tastes were becoming
more and more diverse.
Gio finally had his first taste of laksa--a rice noodle soup in a spicy coconut curry sauce. He
found the flavors intense since, like most Filipinos, he was not used to spicy food. However, in
deference to his friend, he persisted and eventually found himself enjoying the hot dish.
After the meal, Gio and Latif went to a nearby café and ordered "flat whites-an espresso drink
similar to latte, which is usually served in cafés in Australia and New Zealand. Both knew what flat
whites were since there were Australian-inspired cafés in both Kuala Lumpur and Cebu.
Laksa: a rich and spicy rice noodle soup
The new friends promised to stay in touch after competition, and added each other on
Facebook and Instaqram. Over the next two years, they exchanged e-mails and posts congratulated
each other for their achievements, and commented on and liked each other's photos. Latif sent his
mother's recipe to Gio and the latter began cooking Malaysian food in his home.
A few years after graduation, Gio moved to Singapore, joining many other overseas Filipino
workers (OFWS) in the city-state The culture was new to him, but one thing was familiar: the food
served in Singapore was no different from the Malaysian food he had discovered through Latif. He
would later learn from Singaporean colleagues that the island country was once part of the British
colony of Malay and the postwar independent Federation of Malaysia. Singapore, however, separated
from the Federation in August 1965 and became a nation-state. Today they may be two distinct
countries in this part of the world, but Singapore and Malaysia still share the same cuisine.
After he settled down in his apartment. Gio sought out a found a favorite laksa stall in Newton
Hawker Center. He would spend his weekends there with friends eating laksa and dishes. Other
dishes.
One Saturday, while Gio was checking his Facebook feed along the very busy Orchard RoadSingapore's main commercial road-he noticed that Latif had just posted something 5 minutes earlier. It
was a picture from Orchard Road. Surprised but also excited, Gio sent Latif a private message. Latif
replied immediately saying that he too had moved to Singapore and was, at that moment, standing in
front a department store just a few blocks away from where Gio was. The two friends met up, and
after a long hug and quick questions as to what each was up to, they ducked into a café and renewed
their international friendship...by ordering a pair of flat whites.
Question:
What hints of globalization did you find in the story?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Global Experiences:
This short story is plausible and fictional, it was based on the real-life experience.
Through such friendships that was able to appreciate the meaning and impact of globalization.
In the story you will notice how concrete globalization is. It shows how globalization
operates at multiple, intersecting levels. The spread of Filipino TV into Malaysia suggests how
fast this popular culture has increased and criss-crossed all over Asia. The model UN activity
that Gio and Latif participated in is an international competition about international politics. Gio
met Latif in Sydney, a global city that derives its wealth and influence from the global capital
that flows through it. Sydney is also a metropolis of families on international immigrants or
foreigners working in the industries that also sell their products abroad. After the two had goes
back to their home countries, Gio and Latif kept in touch through Facebook, a global social
networking site that provides instantaneous communication across countries and continents.
They preserved their friendship online and then rekindled this face-to-face in Singapore,
another hub for global commerce, with 40 percent of the population being classified as “foreign
talents.”
Does each picture speak of realities around the world? Why or why not? If these pictures will
form a collage, what will be its primary
message?___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
________
Definition of Globalization
There are many varying definitions of the term globalization. These are as follows:
1. Globalization is the increasing interaction of people, states, or countries through the
growth of the international flow of money, ideas, and culture. Thus, globalization is
primarily focused on economic process of integration that has social and cultural aspects.
2. It is the interconnectedness of people and business across the world that eventually lead
to global, cultural, political, and economic integration.
3. It is the ability to move and communicate easily with others all over the world in order to
conduct business internationally.
4. It is the free movement of goods, services, and people across the world in a seamless and
integrated manner.
5. It is the liberalization of countries of their impact protocols and welcome foreign investment
into sectors that are the mainstays of its economy.
6. It refers to countries acting like magnets attracting global capital by opening up their
economies to multinational corporations.
Globalization as Defined by Other Authors
1. Martin Albrow and Elizabeth King defined globalization as those processes by which the
people of the world are incorporated into a single world society.
2. Anthony Giddens (The Consequence of Modernity) Defines globalization as the
intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that
local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.
3. Roland Robertson, Professor of Sociology at the University of Aberdeen described
globalization in 1992 as the compression of the world and the intensification of the
consciousness of the world as a whole.
Historical Foundations of the Term “Globalization”
Though many scholars place the origins of globalization in modern times, others trace
its history long before the European Age of Discovery and voyages to the New World, some
even to the third millennium BC. Large-scale globalization began in the 1820s. in the late 19th
century and early 20th century, the connectivity of the world’s economies and cultures grew
very quickly.
1897- Charles Taze Russell (of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society) coined a related
term, corporate giants. This term refers to the largely national trusts and other large
enterprises of the time.
1930- the word “globalize’ as a noun appeared in a publication entitled Towards New
Education where it denoted a holistic view of human experience in education.
1970- the word “globalization” was coined. In 2013, this term was used to mean “borderless
society” referring to international migration.
1981- the term “globalization” had been used in its economic sense. However, in the late half
of the 1980’s, Theodore Levitt popularized the term “globalization” by bringing it into the
mainstream business audience.
2000- the International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four (4) basic aspects of globalization:
(1) trade and transactions; (2) capital and investment movements; (3) migration of knowledge
(4) dissemination.
2017- the word “globalization” was often used in teaching, in discussion, in meetings and
conferences, in lectures and so on.
2018- the phenomenon of globalization is now on full swing in all academic disciplines.
Metaphors of Globalization
Metaphors make use of one term to help us better understand another term. In our
case, the states of matter- solid and liquid- will be used.
The epochs that preceded today’s globalization paved way for people, things,
information, and places to harden over time. Consequently, they have limited mobility (Ritzer,
2015). The social relationships and objects remained where they were created. Solidity- refers
to barriers that prevent or make difficult the movement of things. Solids can either be natural or
manmade.
Examples of natural solids:
Examples of manmade solids:

Landforms

Great Wall of China

Bodies of water

Berlin Wall
An imaginary line such as the nine-dash line used by the People’s Republic of China in
their claim to the South China Sea is an example of modern man-made solid. These examples
still exist. However, they have the tendency to melt. This should not be taken literally, like an
iceberg melting. Instead, this process involves how we can describe what is happening in
today’s global world. It is becoming increasingly liquid.
Liquidity- refers to the increasing ease of movement of people, things, information, and places
in the contemporary world.
Zygmunt Bauman’s ideas were the ones that have much to say about the characteristic
of liquidity. First, today’s liquid phenomena change quickly and their aspects, spatial and
temporal, are in continuous fluctuation. This means that space and time are crucial elements of
globalization. In global finance, for instance, changes in the stock market are a matter of
seconds. Another characteristic of liquid phenomena is that their movement is difficult to stop.
For example, videos uploaded on YouTube or Facebook are unstoppable once they become
viral. The so-called Internet sensations become famous not only in their homeland but also to
the entire world.
Liquidity and solidity are in constant interaction. However, liquidity is the one increasing
and proliferating today.
Therefore, the metaphor that could best describe globalization is liquidity.
The previous section described the melting process of solid phenomena followed by the
increase in liquidity. It is only logical to discuss the flows of liquid phenomena.
Flows
- the movement of people, things, places, and information brought by the growing
“porosity” of global limitations (Ritzer, 2015). Think of the different foreign cuisines being
patronized and consumed by the Filipinos. Aside from local dishes, many of us are fond of
eating sushi, ramen, hamburger, and French fries- foods introduced to us by foreign cultures.
Clearly foods are being globalized. Another example of flows is global financial crises. As
Landler (2008) put it: “ In global financial system, national borders are porous”. This means
that a financial crisis in a given country can bring ramifications to other regions of the world.
An example of which is the spread of the effects of American financial crisis on Europe in
2008. The following are other kinds of flows that can be observed today: poor illegal migrants
flooding many parts of the world (Moses, 2006), the virtual flow of legal and illegal information
such as blogs and child pornography, respectively, and immigrants recreating ethnic enclaves
in host countries. A concrete example is the Filipino communities abroad and the Chinese
communities in the Philippines.
Indicators of Globalization
The jet engine, the internet, e-banking, e-books, e-bike, the LRT, MRT and other
inventions of science and technology are attributable to the spread of globalization. These are
some of the modern offspring of development in our infrastructure system. These
improvements that people enjoy today in this contemporary world have been major factors in
globalization which have generated further interdependence in economic and cultural
activities among nations.
Likewise, environmental challenges such as global warming, cross- boundary water, air
pollution, and over-fishing of the ocean are linked with globalization. Globalizing processes
affect and are affected by business and work organization, economics, socio-cultural
resources, and the natural environment. Academic literature commonly subsides
globalization, cultural globalization, and political globalization.
Nature of Globalization
Globalization is a conglomerate of various multiple units located in the different parts of
the globe which are linked by common ownership. The multiple limits draw on parts of the
globe but all linked by common ownership. Multiple units draw on a common pool of resources,
such as money, credit, information, patents, trade names and control systems. The units
respond to some common strategy. Product presence is in different markets of the world.
Human resources are highly diverse. Transactions involving intellectual properties such as
copy rights, patents, trademark, and process technologies are across the globe.
Reasons for Globalization
Why do we have to globalize especially at this contemporary world? Here are the reasons:
1. Rapid shrinking of time and distance across the globe. One can easily cross the bridge
going to the other side of the market place due to advance tools of technology than
before.
2. Domestic markets are no longer rich as a consequence of many interlocking factors.
3. Companies and institutions go global to find political and economic stability which is
relatively good in other countries than the country of origin.
4. To get technological and managerial know-how of other countries due to their
advancement in science, technology, education, health, and other fields of discipline.
5. To reduce high transportation costs if one goes globally using the advance tools of
communication and information.
6. To be close to raw materials and to markets for their finished products which are not
available in the country of origin.
7. The creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) had made it possible in stimulating
increased cross border trade. There are other world bodies like the UN and several
arbitration bodies where countries agree.
Merits of Globalization
Demerits of Globalization
What can a company or an institution gets
Globalization also has its demerits or
from globalization. There are eight merits or
disadvantages.
advantages.
1. Global competition and imports keep a
1. Several people lose their jobs when
lid on prices such that inflation is less
companies import cheap labor or
likely to derail economic growth.
materials or shift production abroad.
2. An open economy spur fast innovation
with fresh ideas from abroad.
2. Workers face pay cut demands from
employers who often threatens to
export jobs.
3. Export jobs often pay more than other
jobs.
3. Unregulated globalization can cause
serious problems to poor and
developing countries in terms of labor
force, wages, benefits, job
termination, and others.
4. Unfettered capital flow keeps interest
rates low.
4. High foreign stake on industries where
it is not necessarily needed could
affect the economic growth of
domestic enterprise.
5. Living standards go up faster.
5. Sovereignty of a country and
company/ institutions may be at stake.
6. Productivity grows more quickly when
countries produce goods and services
in which they are of comparative
advantage.
7. Countries liberalize their visa riles and
procedures so as to permit the full
flow of people from country to country.
8. It results in freeing up the
unproductive sector to investment and
the productive sector to export related
activities resulting in a win-win
situation for the world economy.
Importance of Studying Globalization
In today’s contemporary world, it is important for students to understand and appreciate
the study of globalization for the following reasons:
1. There is a greater demand in business and industry, health, engineering and technology
to have people who can work with people of other nations and cultures.
2. There is a greater demand of promoting the local business and industry to other
countries and if need be, owners travel independently and internationally for a better
promotion.
3. The contemporary world face global challenges that will take interdisciplinary groups to
solve these challenges: These challenges are: how to provide access to clean water,
clean environment, clean renewable energy that affordable to everyone and how to deal
with the unpredictable climate change just to name a few. These global challenges need
to be solved as soon as possible through the gathering and sharing of information
across disciplines, institutions, and other entities in a global scale.
4. Creating meaningful, harmonious, and workable relationship that link globally is an
important aspect of the merits of globalization, especially if one wish to be the President
of the future generation.
5. Knowledge of the merits, demerits and reasons for globalization will enable the students
to work as model of collaborative international team in the near future along the areas of
business, education, health, science, arts, engineering, hotel industries, etc. and
discuss best products in these areas.
The Importance of Globalization for Everyone
According to Neil Kokemuller, a writer, globalization is the expansion of local economies
and businesses into a broader international marketplace. Even small businesses have gotten
active in the global environment as the Internet and mobile technology have enabled
communication across continents and countries. Globalization has become important for a
number of reasons, including the overall need for businesses to compete, according to
Kokemuller.
The Internet revolutionized the business arena, because it created a whole new virtual
marketplace that expands beyond physical and geographical boundaries. Companies in
foreign countries can now compete for customers in the United States by leveraging their own
country’s resources, lower costs of labor and affordable distribution processes. In the same
way, U.S. companies have the opportunity to appeal to customers in the Philippines and other
countries by promoting their goods and services.
The development of business, industry and income levels in several large population
centers has also contributed to the importance of globalization. China, India and Brazil are
prominent examples of thriving economies as of 2013. Nearly two billion people reside in these
countries. As customers gain buying power, U.S. companies race for the all-important capital
that their revenue dollars can provide. Partnership opportunities with businesses in these
countries can aid growth.