Globalization's Influence on Australia: A Sociological Assessment

This essay examines the multifaceted impacts of globalization on Australia, considering political, social, economic, and environmental dimensions. It argues that globalization has had a largely positive political impact, particularly in terms of aid and trade agreements, while socially, it has fostered multiculturalism but also led to cultural dominance. Economically, Australia has benefited from natural resource exports and increased migration, but faces challenges in manufacturing. Environmentally, globalization has contributed to increased pollution. The essay concludes that while environmental impacts are negative, the overall influence of globalization on Australia is substantially positive. Desklib offers a wide range of study tools and resources, including solved assignments and past papers, to support students in their academic endeavors.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
Sociology and Social Science
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1SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
Globalization is a name that is given to the developing economic interdependence
among the nations. It is the process of promoting interconnection among the company,
government and people of several different countries (Holmes et al 2013). It has become very
common in today’s world. Globalization has helped the people to travel around the world
through improving transportation and has also improved the global communication by
improving technology. It has helped the businessmen to make communication easier with
their business partners belonging from other countries. However, along with positive impacts,
globalization also brings in negative impact as well. This paper will elaborate on how
globalization has affected Australia in different ways. In order to carry on with this essay
question, the paper will shed light on the different political, social, economic and
environmental impacts of globalization in Australia. Finally, it will also assess if these
impacts are positively influencing the country or is negatively imposing a destructive effect
on it.
Politically, the globalization has a notable positive impact on Australia. One of the
major effects that it has had is that for the nations and islands which require aid after the
natural disasters. The government of Australia aided programs are focused on the economic
growth of the country, justice, law and the enhanced service delivery that need it. Australian
government has also assisted the Samoan government in enhancing the teaching and
education. The countries that Australia is providing aid are mainly in the pacific Islands
(Berkelmans and Pryke 2016, p. 1). With the same, the country has also signed free trade
agreement with China (Anderson and Wittwer 2015, p. 3). It buys most of the agricultural
products of Australia and in the year 2013, it spent about 9 billion dollars on it. This
agreement has given Australia an advantage over the larger competitors since according to
the agreement, there will be no tariffs within the upcoming 4 to 11 years on various foods and
products. This will also have an impact on the telecommunication, education, financial

2SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
services, health and tourism just to name a few. To sum up, the political impact of
globalization on this country has been substantial not only to Australian market but also to
the other countries, which have received assistance from the Australian government.
In the social context, Australia is placed much away from other countries of the world
in the global map by globalization has helped Australia to come closer to the rest of the
population of the world (Castles, De Haas and Miller 2013, p. 537). Multiculturalism is the
greatest affect that means Australia till experiences music, custom and foods from other parts
of the world. This has made the people of Australia more knowledgeable to culture and much
diverse than earlier. However, there is also a negative impact of this on the country. It is to be
noted that the dominance from the other culture is seen in the feature of Australian life like
media and music. The impact of American society on the Australian society has greatly hiked
after the Second World War (Kirk 2014, p.106). This is imposing a negative impact on the
Australian people as this means the national identity of Australia is being ignored and
overlooked by the American representatives. Furthermore, globalization has also advanced
the mobility in between different countries.
While globalization can still remain a vague term even in the social scientific
discussions, a great deal of social theory has focused on globalization as a distinct shift in the
spatial and temporal dimensions of social life (Jessop 2003, p.1). More specifically, social
theorists argue that the speed of social life over the past few decades has increased so greatly
that social space has become compressed or even annihilated. While the social theorists
completely disagree with the precise sources of the alteration of social time and space, but
almost all of them agree with the fact that the advances in communication technologies as
well as the move to a flexible mode of capitalist economic consumption and product have
been the two important factors. The social theory has given people the tool for grasping the

3SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
mystery of globalization, determining how the changes in the information technologies and
capitalist economy have reshaped the outline of the social space and time.
Economic impact of globalization on this country is transitional. The natural resource
exports of the Australia sells to a market over six billion people. Coal, iron, beef, uranium,
rice and wool are some of the primary resources that make up about fifty percent of the
exports (Hiscock 2016, p. 1). It is also to be noted that the value of the exports of Australia
has risen about 32 percent from the last years. With the same, in modern days, it is very
easier to migrate from one place to another than before and due to this Australian economy
has enhanced a lot. However, while the economic positives can be noticed, there is also the
presence of negativity. For example, manufacturing of car in the country is diminishing at a
very fast pace and GM Holden has stated that their car manufacturing processes would be
stopped by 2017. Over three thousand jobs would be lost because of the pull out. Ford has
also withdrawn of operations in the country and for this cost of production; high dollar and
the small market environment are to blame.
The environmental impacts of the globalization on this country are considerably
negative. The negative effect of environmental pollution on the environment of Australia is
gradually increasing. With the increase in globalization, there is also an increase in the
manufacturing and production processes in the factories in Australia (Law 2017, p.3). This
has increased the exertion of gases into the atmosphere. The greenhouse gases of Australia
some of the worst gages in the whole world and the production lines and factories are the
primary reason behind this (O’Callaghan 2016, p.1). With the same, the primary industries
also have a negative effect on the environment through agriculture and mining. These
practices damage and pollute the environment to a great extent. Furthermore, along with
globalization, there is an increase in the usage of waterways due to shipping of the product
internationally as well as through touring and migrating. This is adding up pollution in the

4SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
water bodies and hence, is increasing the pollution in the oceans of all over the world.
Therefore, it can be said that the influence of globalization that it has on the Australian
government is highly negative.
Hence, to sum up it can be said that the social, political, environmental and economic
impact of globalization on the Australian region are primarily positive. Although,
globalization is also negatively influencing the Australian demographics through affecting its
environment to a large extent by polluting water bodies, the positive sides are significantly
much higher. With the same, in the economic context, the impact is more or less neutral.
However, environmental effect of globalization is highly negative. Hence, to conclude, it can
be said that globalization has influenced each and every aspects of the Australian society,
substantially for the positive.

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Anderson, K. and Wittwer, G., 2015. Asia's evolving role in global wine markets. China
Economic Review, 35, pp.1-14.
Berkelmans, L. and Pryke, J., 2016. The development benefits of expanding Pacific access to
Australia’s labour market.
Castles, S., De Haas, H. and Miller, M.J., 2013. The age of migration: International
population movements in the modern world. Palgrave Macmillan.
Hiscock, J., 2016.Australia, China sign uranium deal. (pp. 1-8).
Holmes Jr, R.M., Miller, T., Hitt, M.A. and Salmador, M.P., 2013. The interrelationships
among informal institutions, formal institutions, and inward foreign direct
investment. Journal of Management, 39(2), pp.531-566.
Jessop, B. (2003). Globalization: It’s about Time too!. Lancaster University, p.23.
Kirk, D., 2014. A defining time for physical education futures? Exploring the legacy of Fritz
Duras. Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education, 5(2), pp.103-116.
Law, C.M., 2017. Restructuring the global automobile industry(Vol. 4). Taylor & Francis.
O’Callaghan, T., 2016. Reputation risk and globalisation: exploring the idea of a self-
regulating corporation. Edward Elgar Publishing.