SOCIAL GLOBALIZATION: SOCIAL DIMENSION, ADVANTAGES AND EXAMPLES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The social globalization is one of the three main components of the phenomenon known as globalization. This refers to the increasing interaction that occurs between people, communities, companies and governments worldwide, in such a way that each one of them adopts more and more features of the rest in a process that does not stop accelerating.

Specifically, social globalization has to do with the social changes that are occurring simultaneously in much of the planet today. These have to do with aspects such as work, education, religion, family, culture and art. Despite being considered an independent type of globalization, this factor is closely related to the other two, which are economic and political.

Social networks are one of the main causes of social globalization. Source: pexels.com

Social globalization is causing a series of changes in the way of acting, thinking and feeling of citizens around the world. In addition, it is also accelerated by the migratory movements that occur between countries, which are causing the appearance of tremendously multicultural cities and countries.

However, despite all its positive aspects, social globalization also presents a series of challenges and difficulties that must be overcome in order to live together in peace and achieve adequate development of our societies.

The biggest is the conflict between openness to new ideas coming from all corners of the world, and the loss of values ​​and traditions that this causes.

Social dimension of globalization

Globalization is the process of interaction and integration between people, companies and governments worldwide. It is a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon, which is occurring at an ever-increasing pace due to advances in matters such as communication and transportation.

Due to the increasing interactions between countries, people and companies, a huge trade in ideas, goods, services and cultures is taking place that causes many changes on a global level. These are generally divided into three types: social, political, and economic.

Although the three aspects are intrinsically related, each of them comes with its own consequences, which can be both positive and negative. Thus, for example, economic globalization allows the production of goods and services more efficiently and cheaply, but it also destroys local jobs and generates inequalities between different social classes.

Social globalization implies the free exchange of ideas, cultures, beliefs and customs between people from all corners of the world. This can occur indirectly, through communication technologies such as the Internet, social networks, television or the mass media; or direct, with phenomena such as international travel or immigration.

Cultural and social openness around the world has generated a series of concrete opportunities and challenges, to which most countries in the world are still adapting. Next we will see what are the main advantages and disadvantages of social globalization.

Advantage

Discovery of new life forms

One of the main problems of being immersed in one's own culture is that it is very difficult to examine its bases objectively, having nothing to compare them with.

Social globalization can present a great advantage in this sense, since it allows us to compare the way of thinking or acting of our country or community with those that exist in the rest of the world.

Thus, a person who, for example, has been living all his life in an area dominated by the Christian religion may suddenly know the Buddhist religion, and decide that this belief system is more useful for different reasons. This could not happen if it were not for social globalization.

Development of new currents of thought

Due to the homogeneity of thought that tends to occur within a community, country or culture, traditionally it has been very difficult for a person to consciously consider the bases of their traditions and try to create a new current of thought. Historically, this has only happened a limited number of times.

However, today anyone can access all the information in the world in a very simple way. Due to this, it is very easy to consider the beliefs and ways of acting that have been instilled in us since we were born, and collaborate with people from other places to develop new currents of thought.

This allows us, in turn, to collaborate with individuals from other countries, cultures and thoughts to carry out discoveries and innovations of all kinds.

Disadvantages

Tension between people with different beliefs, thoughts, or customs

One of the main problems of immigration is that there can be very strong tensions between members of different cultures, ethnicities or systems of thought. Thus, a large part of the violent conflicts that have occurred throughout history have had to do precisely with the existence of these differences.

For this reason, one of the greatest challenges posed by social globalization is the development of systems that allow individuals who are very different from each other to be able to coexist peacefully and from tolerance.

Loss of diversity in thought and culture

Interestingly, despite the fact that social globalization opens the door to innovation in terms of thoughts, ideas and ways of acting, it can also produce precisely the opposite effect. As there is a dominant current, all those less powerful can be relegated to the background, and even end up disappearing.

An example of this can be seen in the world of cinema. Right now, Hollywood is the world's largest producer of audiovisual entertainment, to the point that practically all the films screened in theaters around the world come from this one place.

Examples

The examples of social globalization that is taking place today are very evident. Some of them could be the aforementioned Hollywood, the institution of English as a practically universal language, or the possibility that social networks open to contact people from any corner of the planet from the comfort of our homes.

References

1. "Types of globalization" in: Tutor2u. Retrieved on: May 22, 2019 from Tutor2u: tutor2u.net.
2. "The social dimension of globalization" in: ILO. Retrieved on: May 22, 2019 from ILO: ilo.org.
3. "What is globalization?" in: Peterson Institute for International Economics. Retrieved on: May 22, 2019 from Peterson Institute for International Economics: piie.com.
4. "Globalization definition" in: Investopedia. Retrieved on: May 22, 2019 from Investopedia: investopedia.com.
5. "Globalization" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: May 22, 2019 from Wikipedia: es.wikipedia.org.