Globalisation: Political, Social, Economic Changes and Geography

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of globalisation, examining its historical origins, its impact on economic development, and its uneven geographic outcomes. It explores the role of space and place in the context of political, cultural, social, and economic change, highlighting the connections and disconnections between places around the world. The essay discusses the process of global change, the uneven geographic consequences of globalisation, and the ways in which places and regions are reconstructed. It also addresses the work of geographers in understanding and interpreting these complex dynamics. The essay emphasizes how globalisation has influenced countries like India and China, leading to economic interdependence and social transformations. The paper further looks into the role of space and place in the context of the current global processes of political, cultural, social and economic change. The essay also delves into the work of geographers in this context and concludes with a summary of the key factors influencing societal development in the globalized world.

Running head: GLOBALISATION
Globalisation
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Introduction
Globalisation is referred to a totalitarian representation of any system that is shaped in
order to vigorously reconstruct the environmental, economic, cultural and political factors for
the betterment of the humanity. Still, throughout the process of globalisation, a new scheme
has evolved. Globalisation triggered a fixed and unchanged current prevailing in between the
slow and the fast paced world. One where excellent advantageous incentives are given to the
rich and prosperous countries, the unfortunate and the poor countries are hence kept
underprivileged. As stated by Najam, Runnalls and Halle (2010), the process of globalisation
has spurred the immense growth and development of the affluent countries instead of the
ones who are the most in need of the same, the ones which are less prosperous ones. This
paper is going to elaborate on the quote of Knox and Marston (2014), “The structures and
flows of globalisation are variously embraced, resisted, subverted, and exploited as they
make contact with specific places and specific communities. In the process, places and
regions are reconstructed rather than effaced”. It will shed light on the primary process of
global change and their historical and geographical context along with presenting the role of
the space and place in the current global processed of political, cultural, social and economic
change. Furthermore, the paper will also outline and suggest explanations on the uneven
geographic outcomes of the global changes as well as the connections or disconnections in
between the places around the world. Lastly, it will also focus on the work of geographers in
this context.
Discussion
The process of global change
The history of the origin of globalisation has long been an ongoing debate. There are
scholars who consider the origin of this phenomenon to be in the modern period, while there

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are also many who regard globalisation with a long history. Crystal (2013) has argued that the
process of globalisation is led by the modern age where wide number of development took
place in the field of both connectivity and infrastructure all around the globe. This has led to
more connection and interaction in between different nations and sharing of the culture, idea
and tradition in this way took place. All these changes have put a very direct and intense
impact on the globalization process. In terms of economy, more number of trade links took
place in between the nations on a global scale and this has influenced both the domestic as
well as global economies to a large extent.
On the other hand, some of the scholars point out that the origin of globalisation could
be traced back to the ancient civilisations. Farmer, Sproat and Witzel (2016) has stated in this
context that one of the most significant earliest examples that proves this point is that of the
trade links in between the Indus valley Civilisation and the Sumerian Civilisation in the third
millennium B.C. In fact, there are numerous other instances where the trade links were
established in between different nations such as Greece, India, Roman Empire and Egypt.
Zhaoming (2014) too has argued that there were business links in between the Roman
Empire, Han Dynasty and the Parthian Empire and that too on a regular basis. Such a
popularity of the trade relations has led to the emergence of different trade routed such as the
Silk Route.
The globalisation in the current sense of term has come up into existence after the
World War II. One of the major factors for this was the plan of the world leaders for breaking
down the prevailing borders in order to foster trade relations in between nations. It is also in
this modern period that countries such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India have gained
independence. The emergence of the UNO (United Nations Organisation) was also one
among the major steps in this context.

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Role of the space and place in the current global processed of political, cultural, social and
economic change
Place and space together define the nature of geography. They help in understanding
the relationships in between the people and the environment at every scales. They also help
the geographers to consider the active roles of the individuals, social structures and groups
that play their role in creating the environment in which people work, play and live together.
The concept of the place and the space highlights the ways in which they are produced
through both the small and the large scale political, social and economic practices and also to
offer new ways to think about the way how people engage in the environment in various
diverse ways.
The social geographers considers the place as more than that of a dot on a map. They
regard it as it is concerned with the hanging and historical characteristics of the locales,
consisting of the economic, demographic, cultural, political, linguistic, geological and
physical characteristics. Furthermore, they focus on the sociocultural spaces that is defined in
the part by their “local histories and traditions, population features, economic characteristics
(especially employment patterns), cultural/linguistic diversity, child and family well-being
indices, and their adjoining territories” (Lawson 2016). As such, the social geography
“presents neighbourhoods, hamlets, towns, suburbs, cities, counties, regions, provinces/states
and nations as dynamic entities, ones that are endlessly socially constructed and constituted”.
Importantly, these contexts are consequential in the ways in which social and educational
policies play out in actual daily lives.
Together, the place and the space are the cornerstone of social geography as well as
are the central to sociology and as such, they are very relevant to how the process of
education is conducted within the different communities. However, Vainikka (2015) suggests

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“everything in society is spatially and historically constituted. There are no spheres, realms,
systems, perspectives, rationalities, relations, ideologies, identities, etc. that are spatial”
Recognizing these spatial dimension of the geography education tends towards an enhanced
and in-depth understanding of the interplay of structures, materials, and environments, both
in the outside and inside of the specific spaces.
Uneven geographic outcomes of the global changes
Even the world has been transformed from the colonial period where the futures of
most of the laces were under the control of the others to a period of neoliberal globalisation
where every place is responsible for its own well-being, the process of globalisation has led
to geographical inequalities in livelihood and income chances persisting in all the scales.
Researchers are examining the political and economic process that are underling these
unevenness and inequalities. Globalisation has been implicated in the reproduction and
production of inequality across the geography. Delgado Wise, Marquez Covarrubias and
Puentes (2013) in this context have stated that globalisation has caused a global division of
labours in between the developed and the developing countries. In most of the developing
countries, females tend to work in the sectors where they are paid less. They work hard as the
producers of food and hence, they are playing a very significant role in the food security but
the importers and the exporters take its advantage as the women belonging from the poor
countries do not know enough regarding the latest technologies and the new markets. The
massive entry of females into the workforce all around the world is the major aspect of
globalisation. In one hand, the women belonging from the poor countries are crowded into
low paying jobs and on the other hand, the women in the rich countries are working in air-
conditioned offices, working there with a handsome amount of money. Similarly, there is
also a notable difference in terms of ethnicity and culture as well.

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Places that have been reconstructed by the structures and flow of globalisation
Globalisation has greatly contributed in the development of several countries
including India and China through developing economic interdependence among them with
different nations. The openness to the foreign trade and the investments have explained the
intense growth and development of India. Ever since the government of the country has
adopted the economic liberation policies in the year 1990, the situation of employment in
India has improved notably. As according to the ILO (International Labour Organisation), the
sum of Indians in the workforce has been increased by 80 million in the past one decade. The
substantial reduction of the issue of unemployment in India has reduced the poverty level of
the country (Di Cesare et al. 2013). Hence, growing urban middle-class families have begun
to emerge in India. An increasing number of Indians now can afford to buy better and latest
consumer services and goods as because of the stable revenue. With the same, as more
number of people start to possess a good income some of them decides to use their money for
running their own businesses and in fact, the entrepreneurs in India are generally the
youngsters who are able to make their fortune through conceiving low cost solutions to the
inconveniences of all types. The Foreign companies have brought in their technologies to
India, which in turn is influencing the young Indians to dispose the prevailing social order.
Globalisation has also positively influenced the economic growth of China as well. As
according to the statistics, of 2003 the country has made near about 1413 billion dollars that
has made it to stand in the sixth position in the world (Stirling 2016). Also, as per the index
that is shown by the human development, the country has ranked number 94th in the world.
After the adaptation of globalisation, China too has experienced a significant change in its
total strength of poverty. At present, only 11.2% of the total population of China is in poverty
and this is continuously decreasing (Yu 2013). Also, there is a great improvement in the field

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of tourism, export and improvement in the country as well. With the same, like India, with
the increase in globalisation, the rate of unemployment in the country has also decreased.
Connections or disconnections in between the places around the globe
In this globalised world, the connection for the cities and for this large sum of
populations within them is a very crucial factor. The broad international trends and the
common urban forms are developing but the future of every city would base on how these
trends are localised, how the ICTs are taken into consideration within the city and what are
the connections that are built by them. Internationally, the challenge is to make sure that the
slow spaces are not locked out of these networks and are not left with insufficient resources
in order to create better urban conditions (Rohrer et al. 2013). Domestically, the challenge is
to make sure that the segregation of both the connected as well as the disconnected is
restricted and limited are that they are neither allowed to inflame the urban inequalities nor
challenge the quality of the city as a tolerant place of extreme coexistence and social mixture
in between different groups.
Work of geographers
The geographers are responsible to study the Earth and the various distribution of its
features, lands and inhabitants. They examine the cultural and the political structures and
studies the human and physical geographic characteristics of the different regions ranging in
the scale of local to international. They gather various geographical data by field
observations, maps, satellites censuses, imagery and different photographs. They conduct
research through interviews, focus groups and surveys. They create as well as modify the
maps and other visual geographic data representations. They analyse geographic distribution
of the cultural and physical characteristics and the occurrences. They make use of different
technologies in their work like the remote sensing, GIS and GPS.

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Conclusion
Hence, it can be concluded that the three of the most significant factors that the
current society bases the development on are the religious standards, economical standards
and the environmental standards. Globalisation has manipulated each of the every factors
mentioned and instead it turns them against mankind. It is through these three manipulative
aspects that the globalisation has set a destructive and bad impact on the current society.
However, it is also concluded from the above discussion that it is through globalisation only
that the barriers among the nation are been diminishing to a large extent, which is indeed a
positive impact. Hence, it is also led out a very positive impact on the economies of today
and it is also expected to develop in the coming years as well.

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