What is Globalization? The Paradoxes of the Economic and Political Substance of Markets

Abstract

To view globalization in the context of easy or restricted access to global resources is only a very restrictive concept limiting its dimension to geographic space. The term should be assessed in its broader context to understand fully the impact on business, society and culture. This thematic article addresses various perspectives: a descriptive perspective linking globalization with trade flows; a political perspective linking globalization with the ‘crisis’ of sovereignty; a historical perspective about the ‘world-economy’, and a cultural and anthropological perspective. The article goes on to highlight and discuss six senses, each of which has its own logic: an economic sense mainly related to the consequences of multinational corporations’ activity; a geographic sense in which globalization is a geography of flows of activities and their anchorage in a country independent of its geographic space; a political sense that factors in the growing weight of ‘supranational’ organizations and the importance attached to ‘transnational’ political issues; a dogmatic sense in which globalization is a necessary doctrine; a historical sense in which globalization is the current verbalization of capitalism as a political order applicable worldwide; and an organizational sense which places at the core of organizational rationales a relational perspective. The paradoxes of the economic and political substance of the markets are underlined.