Globalisation and Social Change — Class 12 Sociology

Globalisation refers to the growing interdependence between people, regions and countries as social and economic relationships stretch worldwide. Sociology uses the sociological imagination to connect the local and the global, the micro and the macro — showing how WTO rules or imported goods affect a remote farmer or a neighbourhood grocer. Global interconnections are not entirely new: India was linked to the world through the Silk Route, colonialism, and migration. What is distinctive about contemporary globalisation is its intensity and the communication revolution driving it. In India globalisation is closely tied to liberalisation, the range of policies adopted since 1991 to open the economy, often under conditions attached to IMF loans (structural adjustment). The chapter outlines the economic dimensions — transnational corporations (TNCs), the electronic and weightless or knowledge economy, the globalisation of finance, global communications and the digital divide, and a new international division of labour (illustrated by Nike) producing flexible, post-Fordist production. Politically, globalisation followed the collapse of the socialist world and is linked to neo-liberal policies, the rise of regional bodies (EU, ASEAN, SAARC) and international governmental and non-governmental organisations. Culturally, it raises debates over homogenisation versus glocalisation (the mixing of global and local, as when McDonald's goes vegetarian), the culture of consumption and corporate culture, gender, and threats to indigenous crafts, knowledge systems and traditional entertainers.