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Globalization

Globalisation or globalization is an umbrella term for a complex series of economic, social, technological, cultural and political changes seen as increasing interdependence, integration and interaction between people and companies in disparate locations. As a term 'globalization' has been used as early as 1944 but economists began applying it around 1981. Theodore Levitt is usually credited with its coining through the article he wrote in 1983 for the Harvard Business Review entitled "Globalization of Markets". The more encompassing phenomenon has been perceived in the context of sociological study on a worldwide scale.
The term "globalization" is used to refer to these collective changes as a process, or else as the cause of turbulent change. The distinct uses include:
• Economically and socially positive: As an engine of commerce; one which brings an increased standard of living — prosperity to developing countries and further wealth to First World and Third World countries.
• Economically, socially, and ecologically negative: As an engine of "corporate imperialism"; one which tramples over the human rights of developing societies, claims to bring prosperity, yet often simply amounts to plundering and profiteering. Negative effects include cultural assimilation via cultural imperialism, the export of artificial wants, and the destruction or inhibition of authentic local and global community, ecology and cultures.
A typical - but restrictive - definition can be taken from the International Monetary Fund, which stresses the growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions in goods and services, free international capital flows, and more rapid and widespread diffusion of technology. While that definition is more narrowly related to economic globalization; others utilize a broader conceptual framework, often emphasizing the interaction between diverse economic, ecological, political,...