13 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF GLOBALIZATION (EXPLAINED) - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The main advantages and disadvantages of globalization include the extensive development of communication technology and the total or partial disappearance of native languages, respectively.

The positive and negative aspects of globalization are usually seen from a purely economic point of view, and it is that perhaps all the consequences of globalization will finally impact this area of ​​humanity; however, these are not limited only to the economic aspect.

The world is increasingly connected in different areas. Source: pixabay.com

Defining this phenomenon has generated controversy, in part because of its advantages and disadvantages. Everyone defines it according to whether they believe that it generates more advantages than disadvantages and vice versa; moreover, what may be an advantage for one country is the opposite for another.

In any case, it could be said in the most objective way possible that globalization is the phenomenon by which a custom or action is given a global or international character, be it cultural, economic and political, among others.

Globalization has increased considerably in recent years thanks to technological advances, which have facilitated and increased communication between countries or very remote regions.

Advantages of globalization

Communication: technology and language

It can be said that communication technology is the cause and consequence of globalization. Thanks to technology, traditional media can be seen, read or heard almost anywhere in the world, regardless of its origin. Added to this is the use of the internet and social networks, with the immediacy that characterizes them.

For this reason, you can have real information and at the moment of what is happening in a place miles away, from one continent to another, with opposite time zones. This applies to information of all kinds: news, cultural or political events, environmental situation, technological advances and many other areas.

This has also generated a linguistic exchange that has increased the knowledge of different languages ​​in addition to the native one, making it increasingly common for people to be bilingual, trilingual or polyglot.

Technological advancement in means of transport has also benefited communication, mainly in terms of the time it takes to go or send something from one place to another, which has notably decreased in recent years.

Diffusion of culture

From all aspects of culture - music, dance, cinema, visual and performing arts, literature, fashion, gastronomy, language and religion - globalization has represented a very important advantage when it comes to making one region known to another.

Previously unknown cultural aspects of specific regions, and even those that were prejudiced, have transcended to regions with very different and even opposite characteristics, generating the coexistence of different customs or traditions in the same place and the creation of new cultures or subcultures.

Tourism amplification

The spread of communication and globalization of cultures has increased regional and international tourism. The proximity of information on places whose existence could even be unknown before has generated interest in getting to know these spaces personally.

Globalization has come to create categories of tourism that respond directly to the reason for traveling.

For example, one of the most recent is music tourism, which has led to the creation of travel agencies that are exclusively dedicated to organizing trips for a concert or music festival, and may include travel routes (land, air or maritime) only for that particular event.

Another similar tourism is environmental, whose objective is to participate in environmental projects such as garbage collection on beaches and the release of animals in captivity, among others. Along the same lines, humanitarian tourism stands out, which seeks to support NGOs or foundations in the neediest regions; or educational tourism, which promotes the course of studies in another country.

Emergence of human rights

The creation of new international laws and treaties related to human rights is one of the greatest achievements of globalization.

These rights have been understood as "universal"; that is, they must be valid anywhere in the world, regardless of sex, race, religion, economic or social position.

The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Bill of Human Rights is a sample of this advantage of globalization.

Knowing the legislation of other countries has allowed regulatory progress in others, although many times the society in which certain laws try to apply is not prepared for it; this generates a lot of controversy. Examples of this include the consecration of the rights of the LGBT community, the legalization of marijuana or abortion.

Scientific advances

The immediacy of communication and language learning have also enabled the exchange of knowledge and research methods around the world.

As a consequence, this has allowed accelerated progress in areas such as health, environment and astronomy, among others. In turn, these advances can be applied in a greater number of regions.

Emergence of global businesses

In the economic sphere, there is much talk about the disappearance or reduction of borders, since the difference in countries has ceased to be limiting and has become an advantage when doing business of all kinds in the private sphere and between governments.

Communication and transportation technology has been decisive for this advantage to emerge.

The most specific example of the effect of globalization on business is global production chains. These chains arise when a company (or conglomerate of these) places the stages of production of a product in different countries, taking into account the benefits or obstacles of each country to carry out the stage in question.

The consequences of this situation include economic integration, the creation of international agreements to eliminate or reduce obstacles in business, and the increase in exports and imports.

International economic institutions such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund are also generated, there is greater foreign investment, global value chains are created and cheaper labor is obtained.

For this reason, in a certain country there may be greater availability of products made in another very distant, and at a lower cost than what could be achieved previously. The above is related to the industrial or production aspect, but this ease in business can also be seen in the fields of culture, tourism, education and others.

Disadvantages of globalization

The same advantages of globalization can represent a disadvantage when they are taken to the extreme, or when they are misrepresented by countries or companies with more power than others.

Currently, society is making progress in creating policies and agreements that reduce or eliminate these disadvantages.

Transculturation or loss of culture

When customs or traditions begin to mix, it often happens that one culture is more dominant than the other. In some cases this leads to the disappearance of the less dominant culture, even producing a loss of national identity.

When different cultures are mixed, each one of these can be lost and a new one can be generated. Likewise, when many cultures coexist in a place, it may happen that the identity of that place itself or its origin is unknown.

Disappearance of languages

In trying to have as much communication as possible with everyone, one seeks to learn the languages ​​dominated or known by most of the people.

This has led to the loss of many related minority languages ​​over several generations, almost always from indigenous cultures.

Increase in inequality

The ease of foreign trade that some companies have has turned them into transnationals in which large amounts of capital are concentrated, and they represent unfair competition for other smaller companies, including local businesses.

Inequality can also be seen in countries, since some have become economic powers while others, due to their own natural or social characteristics, have not been able to be part of globalization.

This has created many more differences between one and the other. In these cases, unfair competition is also observed, which generates more imbalance.

Decrease in local commerce

Due to the ease with which products made outside a country can be obtained and the low prices of these (thanks to their overcrowding and the global chain processes they went through), locally made products can be a bit more expensive.

As a consequence of this, these products are no longer consumed by the population, which reduces local trade.

Reduction of employment in developed countries

Since labor can be excessively cheap in some underdeveloped countries, many companies prefer to transfer some or all stages of production to these countries, reducing employment opportunities in developed countries.

Even among underdeveloped countries, if one of them implements policies through which foreign investment benefits more than in another, companies transfer their processes from one to another, harming the country where production was previously, since it leaves it without that. source of jobs.

Labor exploitation

Precisely to cut costs, companies prefer to transfer their production to countries where labor is cheaper, with which in many cases labor rights have been so affected or diminished. This has reached the point of affecting human rights.

Foreign interventionism or loss of sovereignty

Due to the close relationship that begins to emerge between countries, the decisions made in each country directly affect others, so it often happens that the governments of some influence the other so as not to be harmed.

This can even happen in the private sphere, when a foreign company can influence political decisions of a government.

References

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