>> Support materials: Chapter 18


Chapter 18: Globalisation, power, and social movements

 

Case studies Video clips Weblinks Further reading Podcasts
Case studies Video clips Weblinks Further reading Podcasts

 

Case Study

The rise of glocalisation and grobalisation
Some commentators suggest that globalisation processes are always mediated by local, regional and national factors. Despite globalisation, nation-states are still influential—the public policies of national governments and the influence of national cultures continue to make a difference. This has led some to speak of the rise of 'glocalisation'—the nexus of global and local influences to produce unique hybrids in particular geographic regions (originally coined by Robertson 1992, see also 2001; for a fuller discussion of this concept, see Ritzer 2004).

Ritzer (2004) also makes a case for a further dimension of globalisation—'grobalisation'—which he defines as 'the process in which growth imperatives (for example, the need to increase sales and profits from one year to the next in order to keep stock prices high and growing) push organisations and nations to expand globally and to impose themselves on the local' (p. xiii). According to Ritzer, the 'grobal' refers to the imperialist goals of nations and corporations to increase power and profit; it incorporates the sub-processes of 'capitalism, Americanization, and McDonaldization' (2004, p. 73). Therefore, glocalisation refers to processes that lead to cultural heterogeneity and grobalisation concerns the trend towards homogeneity. Ultimately, for Ritzer, while processes of glocalisation and grobalisation are often in tension and conflict, they are 'both part of the global', meaning that 'globalization will reign supreme' (p. xiii).

References and further reading
Pakulski, J. 2004, Globalising Inequalities, Allen and Unwin, Sydney.
Robertson, R. 1992, 'Globalisation or glocalisation?', Journal of International Communication, vol.1, no.1, pp.33–52.
Robertson, R. 2001, 'Globalization theory 2000+: Major problematics', in G. Ritzer and B. Smart (eds) Handbook of Social Theory, London: Sage, pp. 458–71.
Ritzer, G. 2004, The Globalization of Nothing, Pine Forge Press, California.
Waters, M. 2001, Globalization, 2nd edn, Routledge, London.

Discussion questions

  1. What examples of glocalisation and grobalisation can you think of?
  2. Do you agree with Ritzer (2004, p. 169) that 'it is increasingly difficult to find anything in the world untouched by globalisation'?
  3. Can you think of aspects of Australian society that may have escaped global influences?