The idea of globalization is nothing new, it has been around for years. As we know, there are multiple theories on globalization. These theories have different thoughts and ideas on how globalization works and is effective. Of these theories two stands out the most to me, that of the World-System Theory and the World Culture Theory. Both have their way of thinking towards globalization and what influences them. In this week's discussion, I will cover both these ideas.
Looking at The Globalization Website we were able to gain an understanding of the World-System Theory and what it means. We learned that the world-system theory is based around the idea of three types of countries, Core, Periphery, and semi-periphery. Each of these types has its function in world-system theory. Starting with core countries we see that they are diversified economically and are considered wealthy industrialized. Countries such as Japan or the United States would fall into this category. Next, we see periphery, these countries focus on extracting raw materials, providing support for the core countries, and will be relatively poor. Last we have semi-periphery, these countries fall in the middle between core and periphery countries. To view these countries you would want to look at a transition between periphery to core or core to the periphery. Since the world is an ever-growing and evolving environment, the strength and weaknesses of countries can shift, thus causing them to move between the sections. The world-system theory is not without its own flaws. There does appear to be less focus on individual culture and more focus on that of the core countries.
Shifting to that of the world culture theory, we gained an understanding of The Globalization Website of this theory. From our reading, we can see that the overall idea of this theory is the spread and overall idea of culture. Thinking to countries around the world we can see how this impacts those in the region. This can be found by looking at the values of cultures and how they transcend their own culture into others. Living in the United States I have had the opportunity to live in New York City, one of the most diverse cities in the US. Because of mixed cultures, there is a great deal of cross-culture influence. To me, there was always a higher level of understanding because of this.
Between world-system theory and world culture theory, you can easily see how they compare to each other. World-system theory focuses much more on the economic gain and the core countries than that of the cultural value. World culture theory focuses much more on the cultural value than that of the economic gain of countries or individual corporations. With the world-system theory’s focus on gain towards the core countries and the economic value, there is a clear benefit to this model. In theory, more immediate income should come from this theory than that of the world culture theory. With the world culture theory, the long term focus of building up culture should provide a better gain overall.
In conclusion, between world-system theory and world culture theory, you can see strengths and weaknesses between the two systems. Depending on what you feel would be best effective will determine what you may focus on. From my past experiences and understanding of globalization, I am in favor of world culture theory than that of world-system theory. Building up culture in general across the world allows for many benefits that can’t be provided through the world-system theory. Having a level of understanding across cultures is important, especially for organizations that are looking to succeed across borders. The world culture theory is not perfect, but I do feel it has a strong shot at being effective.
References:
The Globalization Website. (n.d.). World-System Theory. Retrieved April 9, 2020, from https://web.archive.org/web/20130529201438/http://sociology.emory.edu:80/faculty/globalization/theories01.html
The Globalization Website. (n.d.). World Culture Theory. Retrieved April 9, 2020, from https://web.archive.org/web/20130602170544/http://sociology.emory.edu/faculty/globalization/theories03.html
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