What’s wrong with
globalization?
Colin Sparks
Communication and Media
Research Institute
Introduction
• Discuss some problems with globalization
theories
• Construct the globalization paradigm from
the main theories
– 10 points underlying the different theories
• Discuss whether they account for the
evidence
– What do current theories miss out?
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The realities of globalization
• There is little point in denying the realities
of globalization in the face of massive
evidence
• The term is used by politicians,
businessmen, journalists and everyone
else
• Also used by scholars, and we should be
precise about what we mean by a term
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Many theories
• Many leading theorists have analyzed globalization in
contradictory ways
– E.g. some say it is generalised modernity, some say it is postmodernity, some say it is something else entirely
• Most theorists operate at a very abstract level and do not
produce much evidence
• Need to construct the globalization paradigm from the
work of leading theorists
• Need to see whether the evidence supports or
contradicts the theory
• Need to distinguish between “strong” theories of
globalization, that mean something new and “weak”
theories that are simply versions of the imperialism
paradigm in new language
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1 - A new kind of theory
• Globalization is a radically different from
preceding theories
– It is “strikingly new” (Appadurai 1996)
• The sociological laws operating in the the period
of globalization are different from earlier periods
– Different from capitalism and imperialism
– Different from high modernity
– Different from industrial society
• The act together to make understanding the
dynamics of the new society different
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2 - Methodological innovation
• Sharp contrast with Marxist theories (e.g.
imperialism)
– Marxism “reductivist”
– Globalization theory recognises irreducible complexity
“the complexity of the current global economy has to
do with certain disjunctures between economy,
politics and society” (Appadurai 1996)
• Globalization characterised by “various
autonomous logics” (Beck 2002), for example in
culture
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3- Theory and practice
• Earlier theories we have examined
demonstrated a close link between theory and
practice
– Dominant paradigm and “policy science”
– Participatory paradigm and social movements
– Imperialism paradigm and NWICO
• Globalization has no such link
– There are no privileged actors in this paradigm
– Development no longer an issue
– Perhaps entrepreneurs are the real agents?
• No practical tests of the theory
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4 - Media and communication
• New technologies permit media to operate with
a wider scope
• Greater importance of symbolic commodities in
global economy
• Symbolic commodities less bound by place than
are physical ones
– “It follows that the globalization of human society is
contingent on the extent to which cultural
arrangements are effective relative to economic and
political arrangements” (Waters 1995)
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5 – Growth of supra-national
organisations
• “Westphalian” state being weakened from
“above”
• Increased importance of supra-national
organisations
– United Nations, WTO, European Union
• States no longer able to control media
circulating within their borders
• Development of global media organisations
• Developments towards a global culture
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6 - The rise of the local
• States are being undermined from “below” by
local pressures
– Failure to achieve a unified national culture
• Movements for autonomy and independence
– Many notable European examples
• Two sense of the “local”
– The “small” place
– The “new” localities
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7 - The absence of a centre
• There is no single controlling force in the global
world
• Globalization is not the result of the domination
of one culture over others
– “the United States is no longer the puppeteer of a
world system of images.” (Appadurai 1996)
• Existence of many centres of symbolic
production
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8 - Multiple production centres
• Audiences almost invariably prefer “local”
productions
– US, however, still the second choice provider
• Many other centres than Hollywood, for
example TV Globo and Televisa
– Develop unique forms
– Win export successes
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9 - Regional markets
• There is not one single uniform world
market for media products
• Regional markets have developed,
– South America
– East Asia
– Audiences increasing identify themselves with
cultural proximates
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10 - Global media products
• To the extent that some media products do
circulate globally, they can originate anywhere
– Production is now mobile
– Personnel are now mobile
• Global media products are not purely US
products marketed on a global scale
– Disney
– CNN
• The emergence of “hybrid” cultural forms
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Conclusion: a new paradigm
• No single author really fits all of these 10
elements
– Perhaps Appadurai comes closest
• The elements frame a paradigm within which
discussion of the media and globalization take
place
• They are open to development into testable
proposition
• What is the evidence?
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1 - A new epoch in human
history?
• Not something we can answer in advance
• Only when we have seen whether the
component elements of theory are valid can we
judge how they combine
– If a significant number of them are invalid, then the
claim is invalid
• On the other hand, many of the features that are
claimed as new were observed long ago
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2 - A new complexity
• The claim that there are “autonomous logics”
can be operationalised as:
– Is culture becoming more independent of economics?
• Discussion of international communication
issues has moved from Unesco to WTO
• No sign if weakening of organisations like the
MPAA
• Broadcasting in many places more dependent
on economics today than in the past
– BBC, Doordarshan, CCTV
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3 - Theory and practice
• Different practical and political conclusions have
been drawn from the paradigm
–
–
–
–
Acceptance of globalization
Attempts to restate the Social-Democratic perspective
Outright rejection of globalization
Attempts to reshape globalization to benefit the
world’s poor
• None of these flow logically from the paradigm
– They are all more or less “personal” opinions about
society
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4 - The scale of symbolic content
• What is the relative size of media corporations and how
far are their products relatively global?
• Media corporations are large but not significantly larger
than the “Fordist” industries
• Even in a very open economy and post-industrial
economy like the UK:
– It exported finished manufactured goods (e.g. cars, aircraft
petrochemicals and so on) to the value of £101,252m in 2004
– It exported services (e.g. royalties, financial services, licenses
and so on) to the value of £99,100m
– Of these services, the royalties and licences earnings of the film
and television industry amounted to £6,564m
• Symbolic products are not more global than material
products
– Cars and television programmes
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5 - Withering away of the state?
• Are states (any states) still viable entities?
• Max Weber on the monopoly of violence
• Military spending dipped at the end of the cold war, but is now rising
again
– USA accounts for 40 per centUSA, Japan, UK, France and China
together account for more than 60 per cent
• The internal coercive power of the state is not withering away
– In 2002, the US government jailed more than 2 million of its citizens
– More than 4 times as many as in 1980
– Border controls have become much tougher since 9/11
• In the media, the state remains to control of television operations
– ITC and Ofcom have banned porn channels and Med TV
– Al Jazeera is a state financed and owned operation
– China controls access for satellite channels
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6 - Is the local a problem
• Are local media a new development?
• There have long be geographically local media
– Newspaper operations in most countries were and
remain local
– Chain ownership is usually national rather than global
• Broadcasting tends toward the national at the
expense of the local if left to itself
• The “new localities” and their media based on
ethnicity are not recent phenomena
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7 - A world without a centre
• Surely this is quite incredible given the
preponderance of the USA?
• Military strength and relative economic
weakness
• “Global” media companies are in fact
overwhelmingly US companies from an
economic point of view
• The USA has challengers, but is still by far the
most important
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8 - Multiple production centres
• There are multiple production centres
• In the cinema they are much less significant than
Hollywood
– In 2002, accounted for more than 70% of film
investment
– In major markets, Hollywood films account for the
majority of box office takings
• Other media have different dynamics
– In TV production, some national centres remain
important
– In music, many national centres exist
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9 – Regional media markets
• What is the relative proportion of traded
media products from different sources?
• Some evidence of regional specificity
– Korean wave in East Asia
• On the other hand, Europe dominated by
US imports
• Regional markets still subordinate to
global market
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10 - Global media products?
• How far can we claim that global products
can originate “anywhere”?
• The case of Winnie-the-Pooh
• In order to become global, media products
must first be adapted to suit the needs of
consumers in the large and wealthy
markets
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In summary
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1 - The claim that there are new autonomous logics in culture is false
2 - The claim that the globalization paradigm does not lead to practice is
correct
3 - The claim that media are central to globalization is false, or at best very
weakly supported
4 - The claim that the state is becoming weaker is false
5 - The claims that the local is undermining the national is false
6 - The claim that there are multiple production centres is true, but the
powerful centres are in the developed world and primarily the USA
7 - There are regional markets in TV production, but intra-regional trade is
relatively weak compared with imports from the USA
8 - Global media products do exist, but the exist only insofar as they are
adapted to the tastes of consumers in the rich countries
10 - Taken together, there is very little evidence that globalization
constitutes a new epoch in human history
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Why does this matter?
• Too many of the claims currently made by theories of
globalization are empirically false for us to accept them
– A false theory leads to a false understanding of the world
• Globalization theorists have concentrated on diasporic
audiences
–
–
–
–
These experience are important
They are very visible in the metropolitan centres
In terms of human significance, they are relatively marginal
Perhaps 5 million people have come to the UK in the last 20
years, maybe 50 million internationally
– More than 1,000,000,000 have moved inside states from the
country to the city
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