Contradictions Of Globalization Analysis

Globalisation is a major feature in the economic and political world of today. This essay will identify and discuss the four contradictions of the ‘concept’ and ‘process’ of globalisation. These will be including social inclusion versus social exclusion, economic integration versus economic marginalization, cultural universalisation versus cultural particulisation and finally deterritorialism versus (re)territorialism. This essay will be drawing examples of the contradictions of the concepts and processes of globalisation in Southern Africa.
Globalisation can be defined as “a variety of economic, cultural, social, and political changes that have shaped the world over the past 50 odd years” (Guttal, 2007; 25). Furthermore, globalisation implies

The cultural particularity of western culture is a clear contradiction to the concept of globalisation as its process has been one which has been the worldwide propagation of western culture such as consumerism, the “increasing homogenisation of consumer tastes, the consolidation and expansion of corporate power” and the “’Mcdonalisation’ of food and culture”. This can be seen in South Africa with the introduction of many American enterprises such as Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, Krispy Kreme, Lush, H&M, Zara and even the broadcasting of Western entertainment including Game of Thrones, Stranger things and many more which has made the South African consumer increasingly similar to their Western counterparts in what they eat, wear and watch. This displays the increased homogenisation of consumer taste and the inculcation of consumerism into South African culture. However, the fast food franchise McDonald has managed to include menu items that are foods consumed by the people of the countries such as the addition of the “Daigaku Imo French Fries” in the McDonald Japanese menu; furthermore, the broadcasting of anime, a genre of Japanese cartoons, in Western countries can be seen as increased integration of various cultures in globalisation (Chambers, 2012). Even so, this is not enough to balance

However the process on globalisation actually displays that there are border closures against global unskilled labour and refugees contradicting the concept of globalisation. An example of this can be seen in the example of SADC which, although having excepted each other’s citizens from needing visas to travel to each other’s countries, South Africa still has tough conditions for unskilled Zimbabwean refugees who want to enter the country (Immigration SA, 2014) .Furthermore South Africans xenophobic attitude towards immigrants further emphasizes the reterritorilism in the times of globalisation. Although several trade agreements such as the European Union, ECOWAS and SADC do offer visa free travel for citizens of the countries who are members of the trade agreements, to foster the idea of deterritorialism, this is overall not enough to reduce the worldwide territorialism. This overall displays the contradictory nature of reterritorilism in globalisation.
This essay has displayed the contradictory processes of globalisation, social exclusion, economic marginalisation, cultural particularity and reterritorilism in relation with the concepts of globalisation which are social inclusion, economic integration, and cultural universality and deterritorialism. This essay emphasized and displayed the examples of the contradictory processes of globalisation by