Page 113 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

GLOBALISATION

cultures and politics and the particular form that they nowtake rather
than the occurrences themselves.
The economic phenomenon of globalisation has seen the
deployment of business and capital across borders at an unprecedented
pace since the 1980s. It entails changes in the systems and structures of
trade. Examples include:
. communication systems through which business is conducted;
. work practices and the skills required to direct capital effectively;
. newlegal and institutional regimes required to control, order and
manipulate markets.

In the process, globalisation has seen international trade and capital
uprooted from national economies. E-commerce allows for the
trading of goods in international electronic space, stimulating the
creation of newservices and faster flows of capital, capable of
transcending direct government strategies of control and intervention.
With newtechnology foreign currency markets can transact billion-
dollar transfers across the world in a split second (see nasdaq). Not
only is the extension of the economy into areas beyond nation-state
governance causing concern over the ability of nation-states to act, but
the pace and magnitude at which capital is mobilised have left banks
incapable of influencing exchange rates in ways in which they are
expected to (Sassen, 1999).
The map of globalisation is one where separate national economies
are becoming part of a newdecentred economy. Nation-states nowdo
not have national economic strategies so much as ‘strategies operating
in a global economic system’ (Castells, 1999: 48). Fears that countries
will lose their autonomy – that globalisation will bring about the
dissolution of nation-states – have emerged as a result, reinforced by
the formation of trade blocks, a single currency for Europe and the
development of international law.
However, nation-state power is essential for globalisation processes
in many respects. States are complicit in globalisation as it is their
consent that advances the global economy in order to improve their
own economic standing. Furthermore, the dominant countries have
played an important role in the provision of legal and policy
frameworks essential to the operations of multinational corporations.
Globalisation is not simply an economic occurrence. Its cultural
dimension includes global entertainment, fast food, fashion and
tourism. Cultural globalisation is often understood as a form of
Americanisation (see Nordenstreng and Schiller, 1993). However,

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