What are the principle advantages of ‘third wave’ globalisation theory Essay Example

political playing field as boundaries are removed.

Globalists argue that there simply is no other alternative than the causal trajectory of globalisation and neo-liberalism illustrates the way ways in which contemporary globalisation connects communities in one region of the world to developments in another continent3. 'In this borderless economy , national governments are relegated to little more than transmission belts for global capacity or, ultimately , simple intermediate institutions sandwiched between increasingly powerful local, regional and global mechanisms of governance4

First wave theorists see the world as culturally homogenised, economically integrated with the benefits of free trade being felt amongst the global economy (for the purpose of this essay so as not to detract from the third wave, it will not distinguish between positive and negative globalists) The most significant find here is the erosion of the nation state and the decreased need for state intervention or regulation. Neo-liberalist thinking enlists a global economy rapidly growing through international trade and investment.

Open free trade and market forces will prevail and the increased mobility of capital and labour are believed to be rendering national economies outmoded and undermining the soverienty of the state whose life span is now threatened with demise. A global future is envisaged5. Let us move onto the second wave, or as it is often referred to, as the sceptical view. As the name suggests, it is a polarised view to that of the first wave and is borne out of the ideology that globalisation is a discourse as opposed to a causal process6.

The main authors of this understanding are academics Paul Hirst and Grahame Thompson (1996, 2000) who cite that in spite of increased growth

and economical prosperity, the associated gains are actually not occurring at unprecedented levels and are definitely not globally encountered. They argue that globalisation is merely a myth and a new concept for an internationalised world economy where regional blocs and trades are centred around the triad of the G3, Europe, North America and Japan7. Trade and economic rewards are only centred around the triad of countries, therefore how can economic advances be a global trend?

This postmodernity view is the denial of the certainties of the modern world where the only certain thing was that the old forms should no longer be considered fixed reference points8. The processes behind globalisation label have been at work for many decades and in fact there was an even higher level of interdependence before the First World War therefore nothing much is new9. Hirst and Thompson claim that between the periods of 1870-1914, the world economy experienced internationalisation at much higher levels and those genuinely transnational companies (TNC's) are relatively rare.

Hence, the increased flows of information, with the increase in internet based communications and stretched social relations happening in the modern world, are merely a continuation of established patterns which actually don't represent a global revolution. TNC's are located within their home countries and trade multinationally on the strength of a major tendency towards the growth of truly international companies10. In addition, second wave theorists refute claims that the end of the nation state is near.

National markets, policies in education, infrastructure and training remain of considerable importance, throwing doubt on the claim of decline of the nation state11. Far from the government being passive by-standers of economic and cultural change,

it is on the contrary architects of internationalisation12. Now lets look at the important question of the third wave theory and what it entails. The major theorists of this component in globalisation are Colin Hay and David Marsh (1996, 2000)

We ask not what globalisation (as a process without a subject) might explain, but how the insertion of subjects into processes might help to explain the phenomena widely identified as 'globalisation'13. Hay and Marsh, along with other academics, stress that the unprecedented nature of current economic, political and cultural flows and levels of global interconnectedness as a result of the combined forces of modernity and therefore not driven by capitalism alone, but also by industrialisation, the nation state, technological advances and scientific developments14.

Often referred to as post-sceptics, the theory of the third wave is one that has frequently drawn close comparisons with that of the second wave. To put the third wave concept simply, the main advantage is that is seen as a 'safe zone' or a go-between' for the exaggerated first wave and the dismissive second wave. Third wave theories bring together the empirical evidence of the second wave and a more reflexive and critical understanding of the nature of historical change to 'demystify' globalisation15.

The third wave is viewed as a more complex, and unknown predictor in globalisation with qualitative rather than quantitative approach. Politics become globally transformed and nation states are still very important but are reconstructed and sovereignty is shared between states16. It has the advantage of causing both fragmentation and integration. This is exemplified by the creation of the European Union, whereby the nation state of the UK has joined this area

of free trade, commodity, commerce and transfer of people.

It has transformed itself by the involvement in transnational politics, therefore taking part in globalisation, a fist wave idea. However it is argued that this globalisation has not swept away the financial identity of the UK and its economy, as the globalists would believe. It has retained its typical economy by being open to finance but less so to exporting goods. This is not a new globalisation feature, but a typical British economy as it has been prior to the twentieth century. It has not made itself redundant by globalisation, in fact it has strengthened its economy by joining the EU.

In this case, there is the element of the first wave theory as well as the second wave theory. But as this example is not wholly a globalist or sceptical idea, the transformationalists have the advantage of safely placing themselves in the middle whilst waiting for an open ended and uncertain future. In short, the third wave theory has been one which does not go as far as the sceptics in that it does not deny that real significant changes have occurred, but also acknowledges the reality of globalising changes and so defends a modified and complex globalist position17.

According to the proponents of this view, contemporary processes of globalisation are historically unprecedented such that governments and societies have to adjust to a world in which there is no longer a clear distinction between international and domestic affairs18. A further example of this is the UK's assent into the Human Rights Act 1998. It gives legal effect in the UK to the fundamental rights and freedoms contained in

the European Convention on Human Rights and affects matters of life and death. But the rights are not in any terms absolute- governments have the autonomy and power to control them in times of severe need or emergency19.

This has created new economic, political and social circumstances which are serving to transform state powers and peoples liberties, however unevenly. The outcome of the ECHR act is yet unknown and indeed uncertain, but it aids to deliver a unified political realm and interdependence whose boundaries are no longer restricted. Sovereign power is divided between international, national and local authorities20. Having this intermediate perspective, the transformationalist are able to make less definitive statements on the processes of globalisation and keep an open ended view of the eventual outcome.

They are able to regard the potential effects as a cause for concern and therefore better seek remedies and changes. The tendency to view the effects of Globalization as overstated, an aspect which is shared by the sceptics, third wave discourse gives an analysis of globalisation resulting in stratification and differentiated economical, political and cultural hybridisation, Americanisation and homogenisation. Looking at the dynamics of culture and the effects of globalisation, third wave theorists describe the trajectory of culture and peoples as intermingling, creating hybrids and new global cultural networks21.

Looking at the UK again as an example, it can be argued that we have become increasingly Americanised, following the ideas, languages, music, arts and fashion that is emanated through global media communications such as MTV, the internet, cable TV and imported pop- culture publications. Globalisation has harmonised and unified, often crushing traditional ways of national culture when they have deviated from the

dominant pattern22. However this homogenisation and clashes of culture are features of the globalists and the sceptics, respectively.

As transformationalists argue, UK culture is complex with immigration, integration and different levels of national hybridisation. The distinctiveness of the UK's cultural realms and attributes have not been eroded by globalisation as there is no other society which is quite as diverse as the UK's in terms of ethnicities and combination of Americanisation and Asian/ Caribbean and European immigration. Global relations therefore have changed and given an increased opportunity for the development of non-territorial cultures and communities and has promoted heterogenisation23.

Globalisation has weaved together, in highly complex and abstract systems, the fate of households, communities and peoples in distant regions of the globe such that 'communities of fate' cannot be identified in exclusively national or territorial terms24. Viewing globalisation as not inevitable, third wave scholars feel the results of globalisation can be reversed. The paradox of the Fordist era opened the door to globalisation, but a fully integrated world economy remains a distant reality and will not happen during the next century25.

Hay and Marsh positively attribute a third wave theory as it cuts through the causal haze that tends to confuse and mystify the concept by way of offering a rigorous and precise accounts both of globalising tendencies and de-globalising countertendencies as and when they can be identified26 In the latter part of the essay, it will be argued that though there may seem surface advantages to the third wave theory in globalisation, it is on the contrary an attempt at being a convoluted and sophisticated addition to the second wave theory.

Introducing their account of the third wave,

Hay and Marsh (2000) suggest that in order to understand the third wave notion and its ideas, developments must be made to the foundations laid down by the critique of earlier, more cavalier, appeals to the notion of globalisation27. Therefore the authors suggest that globalisation is an effect and cause, rather than as the cause itself and inevitable, but this is what Hirst and Thompson see what it going as internationalisation, rather than globalisation28.

As we have already seen in the essay, sceptics have cited internationalisation occurring in the G3 areas and this level of free trade is not as extensive as it was pre World War 1. Third wave,according to Held is suggesting a new configuration of global powers in terms of trade and economy, but is concentrated with a north-south divide29. Surely this is the same idea that the sceptics have put before yet this time the transformationlists have served to change the language and social structure. Furthermore the power of the state is still alive and well, yet it is being re-structured and re-inevintd.

Once again, we know from previous accounts that the sceptics have advocated this theory that state intervention is and will remain to be of crucial importance, but the way it will intervene will be in enhanced and reinforced. They view globalisation as occurring economically and culturally in specifically located areas and see TNC's as trading internationally, yet within sate control. As this internationalisation is strictly within small regions, it is then producing a clash of cultures and heteroginisation.

However this is very similar to what transformationalists have described yet they speak of witnessing a hybridisation of culture and people. Once again,

this is a very similar concept to that of its predessing theory and reiterates, in new terminology, the same ideas30. If according to the third wave, globalisation is transforming state powers and world politics, as in the example of the European Union, then this is again reiterateing the ideas of the sceptics that instead of globalisation, we are today witnessing regionalisation.

Some countries are more open to trade and are benefitting from the increased internationalisation of financial markets. What is happening between nations, that is, international, especially between dominant states or regions, rather than something that has extended globally or gone above and beyond nations, the international or the interregional31. The last comparison I shall make is with the relationship between culture and economics, whereby the Hay and Marsh suggest the two cannot be studied as two separate disciplines.

In short, cultural integration occurs from an economic attempt to try and sell goods and lifestyles which change the social structure of a nation. This includes westernised clothing, food and social interaction, which is mainly achieved through capitalism and consumerism. Similarly economic globalisation and financial gains are driven by people attempting to sell a brand or idea in a society previously unaware of different cultural ideologies32.

However Hirst and Thompson have already acknowledged this interplay between culture and economics, suggesting that you cannot have one without the other. They acknowledge that their work does not specifically explore the dimensions of cultural globalisation, but they are candidly aware that economic activity has effects of the cultural make-up of a nation33. To conclude, this essay has attempted to give advantages of the third wave theory in globalisation.

This is primarily the benefit

that the third wave theory and its academics have and advantage of being in a safe, middle ground position which provides less controversy and enough leeway and time to describe globalisation as an effect and not a cause. By keeping such a limited and at times neutral ground on the controversial phenonmena of globaliation, third wave theory can be guaranteed to always receive an agreeable and righteous affirmation from scholars, academics, politicians, economists and the general public.

Whilst state intervention and interconnectedness is not being dismissed in the third wave account, it is suggested that national governments are being reinvented and restructured and the two are juxtaposed to varying degrees. On the other hand it is assumed that globalisation has emerged as a new stratification in world economics and politics and cultural changes have indeed occurred, such as the submission into the EU as well as Americanisation.

However in trying to distant itself from the globalists and create a new and more complex wave, all the third wave theorists have done is to develop elaborately on what the second wave sceptics have already encouraged. Globalisation is a multi-faceted phenomenon which affects and incites various reactions, understandings and theories. The third wave theory has limited advantages for now and if one of the features is uncertainty, then we can only wait and see if the theory proves to be postponed or absorbed.