globalisation and culture

Theories of representation

2024-07-03T11:43:00.000+04:30

Theories of representation

There are three approaches of representation:
Reflective approach
Intentional approach
Constructionist approach

1) In reflective approach,meaning is thought to lie in the object,person,idea or even in the real world.In this approach,language works by simply reflecting or imitating the truth that is already there and fixed in the world ,is sometimes called “mimetic”.

2) The second approach to meaning in the representation argues the oppsite case.
It holds that it is the speaker,the author,who impose his or her unique meaning on the world throuth language.Words mean what the auther intends they should mean.This is intentional approach.

3) The third approach recognises this public,social character of language.It acknowledges that neither things in themselves nor the individual users of language can fix meaning in language.Thing don’t mean:we construct meaning ,using representational systems _concepts and signs.Hence it is callaed the constructivist or constructionist approach to meaning in language.

پرشنامه آنلاین

2008-10-18T16:23:00.000+03:30

دانشجوی گرامی
این پرسشنامه قسمتی از یک پروژه تحقیقی" دانشجویان دانشگاه تهران و استفاده اینترنت : مطالعه بهره وری و خرسندی "درمورد الگو های استفاده اینترنت بوسیله دانشجویان دانشگاه تهران می باشد.این پژوهش در حوزه مطالعات فرهنگی و ارتباطات در دانشکده علوم اجتماعی،دپارتمان ارتباطات انجام می گیرد.
اگر شما دانشجوی داشگاه تهران هستید،لطفاً چند دقیقه ای برای پرکردن این پرسشنامه اختصاص دهید.تقریباً 10 دقیقه از وقت شما را می گیرد.مشارکت شما دراین پژوهش اختیاری است،ولی عقاید و نظرات شما برای ما خیلی مهم می باشد.ما در پی شناسایی چرایی و چگونگی استفاده اینترنت هستیم.در این پرسشنامه با یک سری از دلایل اینترنت مواجه می شوید و از شما خواسته می شود تا دلایل خود را از استفاده اینترنت بیان کنید.
اگرچه شخصاً هیچ منفعت مستقیم از مشارکت در این پژوهش نمی برید،ولیکن،پروژه های تحقیقی مثل این در تهیه و فراهم کردن اطلاعات پیرامون شیوه استفاده از اینترنت و همچنین تاثیرات بالقوه اینترنت بر جامعه ارزشمند می باشد.
از مشارکت شما متشکریم

پرسشنامه آن لاین

2008-10-01T16:12:00.001+03:30

The Double Edge of Globalization

2007-07-24T13:08:00.000+03:30

An electrician who came to my house to repair some lights asked what I did at Yale. He was shocked that I worked at the university's Center for the Study of Globalization. "Isn't it true that globalization destroys the rainforest?" he asked, explaining his surprise. Although I do not work for globalization, his concern is valid and shared by many who take to the street protesting globalization.
That charge holds if, by globalization, one simply means expanded international trade. The other charge, that multinational companies wreak havoc on the global environment by moving operations to countries where environmental regulations are weak or nonexistent, is a little more difficult to prove. A recent World Bank study shows that clearing forests to grow crops accounted for some 20 percent of global carbon emissions.
But the bank has found little evidence that companies chose to invest in such countries to shirk pollution-abatement costs in rich countries. Instead, the most important factor in determining the amount of investment was the size of the local market. It has also been found that within a given industry, foreign-operated plants tended to pollute less than local peers.

for more information,refer to this link:http://www.globalenvision.org/library/8/1672/1/

A Theory of Power

2007-04-23T13:35:00.000+03:30

I have often wondered about the structure of the world. What drives our actions
and desires? Why do patterns appear to repeat themselves throughout history?
Why do the poor outnumber the rich? Can I find the blueprints for the world
laid out in some cosmic instruction manual—if not, then what forces have
defined its course of development? Simply looking at the surface of the world
around me has never provided satisfying answers. Stemming from my desire to
understand myself and my environment, I have attempted to understand the fabric
of so-called “reality,” from the microscopic to the cosmic—how and why it
works the way it does. In the process, I have come to understand the difference
between perception and truth. I have realized that truth “is” a perception, just as
much as anything “is” at all.1 The irrational assumption, the belief in the sanctity
of “is” seems to form the foundation of our mask of reality.

GLOBALIZATION DEBATES

2007-03-04T13:54:00.000+03:30

Part1

Globalization is a contentious process. Ever since the term was first used to make sense of large-scale changes, scholars have debated its meaning and use. As the term became a globally popular buzzword, it served to crystallize disagreements about the direction of change in the world at large. By the end of the twentieth century, the meaning and merits of globalization were contested in the media and in the streets. Intellectual debate blended with political conflict. In the years to come, debates and conflicts surrounding globalization will increasingly affect the processes captured by the term.

The main debates:
1-Meaning: Process vs. Project

2- Interpretation: New Era vs. Nothing New

3- Evaluation: Good vs. Bad

4-Explanation: "Hard" vs. "Soft"

5-Political: End vs. Revival of Nation-State

6- Cultural: Sameness vs. Difference
1. Meaning: Process vs. Project According to one popular view, globalization is the "inexorable integration of markets, nation-states and technologies to a degree never witnessed before-in a way that is enabling individuals, corporations and nation-states to reach round the world farther, faster, deeper and cheaper than ever before" (T. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, 1999). By contrast, some groups of scholars and activists view globalization not as an inexorable process but as a deliberate, ideological project of economic liberalization that subjects states and individuals to more intense market forces (P. McMichael, Development and Social Change, 2000; P. Hirst and G. Thompson, Globalization in Question, 1996). 2. Interpretation: New Era vs. Nothing New Discussions of globalization often convey a sense that something new is happening to the world: it is becoming a "single place" and experienced as such (R. Robertson, Globalization, 1992), global practices, values, and technologies now shape people's lives to the point that we are entering a "global age" (M. Albrow, The Global Age, 1997), or global integration spells the end of the nation-state (K. Ohmae, The End of the Nation-State, 1995). A new world order is emerging, according to "hyperglobal" accounts (Held et al., Global Transformations, 1999). Sceptics counter that there is nothing new under the sun since globalization is age-old capitalism writ large across the globe (I. Wallerstein, "Globalization or The Age of Transition?", 1999), or that governments and regions retain distinct strengths in a supposedly integrated world (Hirst and Thompson, 1996), or that the world is actually fragmenting into civilizational blocs (S. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, 1996). 3. Evaluation: Good vs. Bad Globalization used to be widely celebrated as a new birth of freedom: better connections in a more open world would improve people's lives by making new products and ideas universally available, breaking down barriers to trade and democratic institutions, resolve tensions between old adversaries, and empower more and more people (cf. T. Friedman, 1999; J. Mickelthwait/A. Wooldridge, A Future Perfect, 2000). Many leaders in the West supported the advent of a new world order through free trade and political cooperation. By the late 1990s, cheerleading turned into jeremiads, a banner became a bull's-eye. The term globalization was used increasingly to express concern about the consequences of global change for the well-being of various groups, the sovereignty and identity of countries, the disparities among peoples, and the health of the environment (cf. Hirst and Thompson, 1996; J. Mittelman, ed., Globalization: Critical Reflections, 1996). Politicians opposed to America's global influence and activists opposed to the inequities of oppressive global capitalism now portray globalization as dangerous. Globalization has thus become an issue in a wide-ranging global debate. 4. Explanation: "Hard" vs. "Soft" Many authors attribute the dynamics of globalization to the pursuit of material interests by dominant states and multinational companies that exploit new technologies to shape a world in which they can flourish according to rules they set (I. Wallerstein). An alternative view suggests that globalization is rooted in an expanding consciousness of living together on one planet, a consciousness that takes the concrete form of models for global interaction and institutional development that constrain the interests of even powerful players and relate any particular place to a larger global whole (R. Robertson, 1992; J. Meyer et al., "World Society and the Nation-State," Am. J. of Soc. 1997) 5. Political: End vs. Revival of Nation-State According to one line of argument, globalization constrains states: free trade limits the ability of states to set policy and protect domestic companies; capital mobility makes generous welfare states less competitive; global problems exceed the grasp of any individual state; and global norms and institutions become more powerful. Others suggest that in a more integrated world nation-states may even become more important: they have a special role in creating conditions for growth and compensating for the effects of economic competition; they are key players in organizations and treaties that address global problems; and they are themselves global models charged with great authority by global norms. 6. Cultural: Sameness vs. Difference A standard complaint about globalization is that it leads to cultural homogeneity: interaction and integration diminish difference; global norms, ideas or practices overtake local mores; many cultural flows, such as the provision of news, reflect exclusively Western interests and control; and the cultural imperialism of the United States leads to the global spread of American symbols and popular culture (cf. H. Schiller, Mass Communications and American Empire, 1969; C. Hamelink, The Politics of World Communication, 1994). The counterargument stresses new heterogeneity that results from globalization: interaction is likely to lead to new mixtures of cultures and integration is likely to provoke a defense of tradition; global norms or practices are necessarily interpreted differently according to local tradition, and one such norm stresses the value of cultural difference itself; cultural flows now originate in many places; and America has no hegemonic grasp on a world that must passively accept whatever it has to sell (cf. B. Barber, Jihad vs. McWorld, 1995; M. Featherstone et al., eds., Global Modernities, 1995; J. Tomlinson, Cultural Imperialism, 1991).

References
Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity (1990) at p64.

WTO Director General, Mike Moore, "The WTO: Challenges Ahead", Speech to the National Press Club of Australia, Canberra, 5 February 2001, available at http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/spmm_e/spmm52_e.htm http://www.antenna.nl/~waterman/borgers.html http://www.interneteconomybooks.com/Internet-Economy-Books/The-Borderless-World.htm http://www.frontlist.com/detail/0822321696 http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/madeleine_bunting/2006/09/post_393.html http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-2754%281996%292%3A21%3A4%3C716%3AGIQTIE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z&size=LARGE
http://www.smalla.net/infofeed/2004/05/12/the_lexus_and_the_olive_tree_understandi.shtml http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_17/b3626096.htm
http://www.itanalyze.ir/archives/2007/03/post_3088.php
http://www.bookrags.com/research/communication-eom/

Globalisation,culture,and economy

2007-02-25T18:07:00.001+03:30

The worlds of globalization have been incorporated into much of our everyday language. "Thinking globally" and "the global economy" are part of a jargon that assumes we are all part of one big global village, where national borders and national identities no longer matter. But what is globalization? And where is this global village? There is a tendency to conceive of globalization as primarily an economic affair ,but it is simultaneously as social ,cultural ,and political condition evident in, for example, an explosive growth of migration ,of tourist activity ,hybrid musical form, and heightened concern for global political strategies to meet threats and challenges to survival. It is obvious that the trend is towards the world being the context within which relationships are conducted, no matter how localized and particular an individual life may appear to be experienced .In fact; we involve four dimensions of globalization:

A-Globalization of the market

B- Globalization of production

C- Globalization of finance

D- Globalization of communication

Each of them requires and contributes towards an information infrastructure to cope with the change stresses and strains of world wide operation. So, globalization is not absolute concept but it is a process that has relative and unlimited concept .It is virtually a revolution, and reality .If we consider, it is essential to examine many globalizations. Among them, globalization o f economy is conspicuous.In some respects we are already living in it. The clothes in our local store were probably stitched together in the factories of Asia. Much of the food in our local supermarket will have been grown in Africa. It's easier than ever to buy music from America, read novels from Brazil and watch films from Japan. This process seems a very natural development if we live in a country like Britain or America. But it is not clear in third world country like Iran. Globalization works in the interests of all the world's people, not just a fortunate few. The dramatic growth in international trade over the past few years is one of the most striking features of globalization. The globalization of trade is the result not only of these new trade rules introduced by the world's governments. It is also dependent on two more concrete factors: - The development of communications technology, which allows orders to be relayed across the world in seconds -Cheaper transportation, which allows those orders to be fulfilled at greatly reduced cost. Multinational corporations can now set up factories in almost any country in the world, relying on increased levels of automation to take the place of the skilled workers who were formerly required to run the machines. Cheaper freight costs and instant communication facilities have allowed companies to coordinate production at different sites across the world. In fact, a third of global trade is just the international movement of goods between different parts of the same multinational. In the past, national investment regulations governed where and how a company could start production in a foreign country, and many countries regulated foreign investment on grounds of economic interest, cultural sensitivity or national security. Communications technology has made it possible to conduct financial transactions across the world at the click of a mouse. Over $1.5 trillion is traded on the world's foreign exchange markets every day.

Globalisation from below

2007-02-25T16:47:00.000+03:30

When most people talk about globalisation, they talk about globalisation of markets. They ignore fundamental further aspects of globalisation, which some call "globalisation from below." Globalisation from below is the way in which interest groups, self-help groups, third sector groups, and volunteer associations themselves draw upon international communication systems to establish themselves in the global arena. If you go back 30 years, you only had about 1000 non-governmental groups in the world, groups like Greenpeace and so forth. Now you have by some estimates 30,000 such groups, many of them operating at a global level, many of them fairly well resourced.If you are running a corporation, you ignore these forces at your peril. No matter what you are doing, in whatever part of the world, you will be watched. So corporations flirt with disaster if they ignore the leverage that the counter-power which globalisation from below is promoting in the world.

What Is Globalization?

2007-02-18T14:51:00.000+03:30

One often hears, ‘the world has now become a global village' thanks to narrowing down of geographical distances and of barriers in thinking patterns between developed and developing countries.
Globalization marks a paradigm shift in economic thinking on the part of economic philosophers and policy-makers and represents an on-going process of change and adaptation which is in no small measure aided by recent advances in means of transport, telecommunications, computerization and internet.
Globalization essentially means opening up of the economy and its integration with the other economies of the world.
Globalization involves deregulation and adoption of the policies of economic liberalization and economic reforms which are calculated to encourage the growth of private enterprise.Globalization implies change in external economic policy as well and involves abandonment by a country of protectionist stance in commercial policies and dismantling of tariff walls and encouragement of free and fair trade between nations.Globalization also essentially involves pursuit of economic policies which encourage free and fair competition inter se among public enterprises and among private and public enterprises as wellGlobalization involves release of the forces of competition within the economy which promote economic efficiency and result in an optimum allocation of resources.Globalization requires a country to promote consumer welfare and adopt customer-centric polices intended to give him the best deal.The success of a country's globalization programme depends on how it takes suitable steps to improve the investment climate domestically and is also able to attract foreign capital. If globalization has to succeed, the country has of necessity to build suitable financial architecture which involves banking and insurance sector reforms.
In my opinion,globalisation is not only economic but it involves various and different aspects.If we consider it only economic phenomen,it is a project that is consequense of industrialization.I think that it is the process of international interaction and dependency. It include political, cultural,social and environmental process.

http://www.globalenvision.org/library/8/1402/