To What Extent Do We Live in a Globalised World?

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To what extent are we living in a globalised world? The terms ‘globalised’ and ‘globalisation’ are in common usage in both academia and the media to an extent that they are taken as a given, rather than questioned. Here the extent to which we are living in a ‘globalised’ world is challenged. In most simple terms to globalise is ‘to make global or worldwide in scope or application’ (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/globalised accessed 10/03/09). Taking this basic definition the essay proceeds to show how the world we live in is far from globalised. In substantiating this argument it draws upon the imbalance in wealth between the developed and the lesser developed world, arguing that far from being globalised the world is stratified. It also considered the Western dominance of international affairs and the clash of cultures as aspects of the world we live in that indicate it is far from being a globalised one. Globalisation and the concept of a globalised world generally refers to an increased interconnectivity between peoples and places in the world, through increased ease of travel and of passage of information through development of travel and information communications technologies and primarily through the advent of the internet and the homogenisation of cultures and ideas, of society, yet the world we live in today is far from homogenised. In the so called global village we live in where cultures have converged, visible through the existed of McDonalds, Starbucks or Coca Cola on every corner of every city one may travel to. It is this that has prompted speculation that the world in which we are living in is globalised. This could not be further from the truth. While unscrupulous multi-national corporations have taken advantage of poorer economies, placing production sites where prices are lower and have used increased ease of transportation to ship all over
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