THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD Sir JT :)

What are Regions? countries have experienced significant

• According to Mansfield and Milner, economic and economic and social development.

political definitions of regions vary but what is

agreeable is that regions are a group of countries Non-State Regionalism (New Regionalism)
located in the same geographically specified area • Not only states agree to work together in the
organized to regulate and oversee flows and name of a cause(s). Even smaller communities
policy choices.
also engage in regional organizing.

• A region is an area of land that has common • It is identified with reformists who share the same
features. A region can be defined by natural or “values, norms, institutions, and system that exist
artificial features.
outside of the traditional, established mainstream
• Regions, large or small, are basic units of institutions and systems.

Geography.
• Some organizations partner with governments to
initiate social change. These organizations are
Regionalism vs Regionalization referred to as “legitimizers.” They participate in
• Regionalism is a political process characterized “institutional mechanisms that afford some civil
by economic policy cooperation and coordination society groups voice and influence in technocratic
among countries, while Regionalization talks policy-making processes.

about the actual processes of real integration • These organizations’ primary power lies in their
which tie people or economies together moral standing and their ability to combine
irrespective of national political boundaries.
lobbying with pressure politics. Unfortunately,
• Regionalism describes the activities of the most of them are poorly financed.

organizations to establish the legal and non-legal • Another challenge is the discord that may emerge
framework which influences the operation and the among them. (e.g. pro-LGBTQ+ NGOs and
decision-making of each economic actors within religious NGOs.)

the relevant regional area, while Regionalization

can be viewed as the result of the independent Challenges to Regionalism
decision making of the economic actors.
• Resurgence of Militant Nationalism (Vladimir
Putin’s rhetoric against the NATO and why it is still
Countries respond to globalization in various existing even if the Soviet Union and the Warsaw
ways: Pact have been gone for so long. Plus, Donald
• Some are large enough that they are able to Trump is demonizing the NATO.)

dictate how they participate in global integration • Crises within regional blocs (e.g. Greece vs the
processes. Some offer their cheap labor to the EU; ASEAN members debating as to the degree
world. (e.g. China & India)
to which they will sacrifice sovereignty in the
• Some compensate for their lack of resources by name of camaraderie.

turning themselves into financial and banking • Differing visions as to what regionalism should be
hubs. (e.g. Switzerland & Singapore)
for.

• Singapore even developed their harbor facilities

and made themselves a first class transit port Religion vs Globalism
for ships carrying different commodities from • Religious fundamentals disagree with globalism:

Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Mainland • Religion is to sacred; globalism is to material
Southeast Asia to countries in the Asia-Pacific.
wealth.

• Some form regional blocs:

• Religion is to divine commandments; globalism
• Because there is strength in numbers.
is to man-made commandments.

• For military defense. (e.g. National Atlantic • Religion is to the possibility of communicating
Treaty Organization [NATO, which is also the with the transcendent; globalism is to how much
most widely known defense group] vs. Warsaw action will lead to the highest satisfaction, and
Pact [which was a reaction of the Soviet Union the wisdom earned from this.

against the NATO])

• Religion is to living a virtuous and sinless life,
• To pool their resources. (e.g. Organization of with less concern about wealth because wealth
Petroleum Exporting Countries [OPEC])
is said to be an evidence of humanity’s
• OPEC Members based on number of oil weakness; globalism is to less worrying about
barrels exported, from highest to lowest: heaven and hell.

Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, UAE, Kuwait, • Religion is to spreading holy ideas worldwide;
Venezuela, Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, Libya, globalism is to spreading goods and services
Ecuador, Rep. of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, worldwide.

Gabon.
• Religions regard earthly categories (race,
• To protect themselves from superpower politics. language, citizenship) as inferior and
(e.g. Non Aligned Movement [NAM])
membership to them is superior because they
• To unify and coordinate through economic are connected with the divine.

crises. (e.g. Association of Southeast Asian • Because of the difference in perspectives, some
Nations [ASEAN])
practice isolationism where they establish
fortresses where they can practice their religion
Global North and Global South free from the government and non believers who
• The Brandt Line - developed in the 1980s as a could distract or tempt them to abandon their
way of showing the global divides. Northern faith and become sinners. (e.g. The Followers of
Hemisphere countries tend to be the richer the Dalai Lama, The Knights of Rizal, The
countries and Southern Hemisphere countries Mormons)

tend to be poorer (except Australia and New

Zealand because they are part of the Global • Some religious communities justify their
North)
opposition to government authorities on religious
• Today, the world is much more complex than grounds.

the Brandt Line depicts as many poorer

THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD Sir JT :)
• Peter Berger says that, “the contemporary world same stories, their perception of the world
is furiously religious.”
would contract.

• The different media extend and amputate the

• Religions are the foundations of modern senses - Media may expand the
republics.
communicational reach, but it may dull the
• Iranian Leader Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini says users’ communicating capacity.

that Islamic rule is the superior form of • e.g. The invention of the Papyrus, Egypt, 400
government because it is spiritual and the secular BCE: Before it, people exchanged stories
ideals are flawed.
orally, which means they had to memorize
• Secularism - a society where the powers of the everything. But then, people realized they
state and church are separate.
could just write everything down, avoiding the
• Theocracy - a system of government where hassles of having to memorize everything.
religious leaders rule in the name of God or their This, according to some philosophers, dulled
god.
the capacity to remember.

• The Nahdlatul Ulama in Indonesia does not only • The TV was introduced back in the 1960s. And it
teach about Islam but also about the Social has steered families away from the dining room
Sciences, Modern Banking, Civic Education, to the living room to eat while watching
Modern Banking, Woman Rights, Pluralism, and primetime shows. TV has also drawn people
Democracy.
away from playing games or reading books.

• In some cases, religion was a result of a shift in

state policy. (e.g. Anglican Church)
• After McLuhan, many scholars further grappled
with the challenges of global media culture. A lot
• José Casanova states, “Historically, religion has of these thinkers assumed that global media had
always been at the very center of all great political a tendency to homogenize culture.

conflicts and movements of social reform. From • Although it must be noted that the media are
independence to abolition, from nativism to neither inherently good nor bad.

women’s suffrage, from prohibition to the civil

rights movement, religion had always been at the • Herbert Schiller argued that not only was the
center of these conflicts, but also on both sides of world being Americanized, it has also led to the
the political barricades.”
American capitalist values like Consumerism.

• Consumerism - the belief that personal

• Old world religions (Islam and Christianity) see wellbeing and happiness depends to a very
globalization less as an obstacle and more as an l a rg e e x t e n t o n t h e l e v e l o f p e r s o n a l
opportunity to expand their reach all over the consumption, particularly on the purchase of
world.
material goods. The general view of life in a
• Religion is NOT the regressive force that stops or consumerist society is consumption is good,
slows down globalization; its is a pro-active force and more consumption is even better.

that gives communities a new and powerful basis

of identity.
• John Tomlinson says that cultural globalization is
• Religion and globalism disagree but religions just a euphemism for “Wester n Cultural
benefit from globalist products:
Imperialism” since it promotes “homogenized,
• Fast, long-distance transport and Westernized, consumer culture.”

communications.

• Availability of English as a global vernacular.

• Commentators and scholars believed that due to
• The know-how of modern management and the globalization of media and American
marketing.
leadership, there would be Cultural Imperialism.

• Although tensions between religion and globalism • Cultural Imperialism - The imposition by one
still exist:
usually politically or economically dominant
• Some Muslims think globalization is a “trojan community of various aspects of its own culture
horse.”
onto another, non-dominant community.

• The World Council of Churches thinks it is

accountable to the negative impacts of Challenges to Cultural Imperialism
economic globalization.
• Media consumers are active participants in the
• Pope Francis says globalization is “fatally meaning-making process, who view media texts
destined to suffocate hope and increase risks through their own cultural lenses.

and threats.”
• Ien Ang said Viewers don’t just receive American
• The Lutheran World warns that, “our world is culture in a “passive and resigned way,” she
split asunder by forces we often do not noted that viewers put “a lot of emotional energy”
understand, but that result in stark contrasts into the process and they experienced pleasure
between those who benefit and those who are based on how the program resonated with them.
harmed, especially under the forces of Her study was expanded further by Katz and
globalization…”
Liebes, concluding that People from diverse
cultural backgrounds had their own ways of
• According to Bayer and Beaman, “religion, it understanding.

seems, is somehow ‘outside’ looking at • The Cultural Imperialism thesis has been belied by
globalization as problem or potential.”
the renewed strength of regional trends in the
globalization process. Thus, it is no longer tenable
Media and Globalization to insist that globalization is a unidirectional
• According to Jack Lule, the media is a means of process of foreign cultures overwhelming local
conveying something, such as a channel of ones.

communication.

• Marshall McLuhan
• Social media have pros and cons.These forms of
• The Global Village - He said that as people sat communication have democratized access.
down in front of their TVs and listened to the
THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD Sir JT :)
Literally anyone can access social media • Association of South East Asian Nations HQ is
anywhere where there is an internet connection.
in Jakarta.

• European Central Bank is in Frankfurt.

• Critics in the early 2000s began referring to the • Global Cities are centers for higher learning and
emergence of a “splinter net” and the culture.

phenomenon of “cyberbalkanization” to refer to • The New York Times carries the name of New
the various bubbles people put themselves in York City but it is read not only in New York
when they are online.
but all over the world.

• Boston is home to the top university of the

The Global City world, Harvard University.

• Global cities are just how we imagine them: • Copenhagen is slowly becoming one of the
concrete jungles, buzzing metropolises, world’s culinary capitals and is home to the
zigzagging train lines, etc…
“New Nordic Cuisine.”

• Globalization is spatial:
• Manchester is home to some prominent pop-
• It occurs in physical spaces, and what makes it punk and new wave bands such as The
move is the fact that it is based in places.
Smiths, Joy Division, and Happy Mondays. It
• Cities act on globalization and globalization acts is also home to two of the biggest footballing
on cities.
teams in the world: Manchester United
Football Club and Manchester City Football
• The concept of Global Cities was first introduced Club.

by Saskia Sassen. She initially identified New • Singapore City is home to the region’s top TV
York, London and Tokyo as global cities and her stations such as MTV Southeast Asia and
basis was purely economic.
Channel News Asia.

• These three cities are home to the world’s top

stock exchanges:
Challenges of Global Cities
• New York Stock Exchange
• Sustainability issues:

• London Financial Times

• Cities like Los Angeles have massive freeway
• Nikkei Tokyo
systems, which forces people to drive and
spend money on cars and gas.

• Although limiting, Sassen still remains right in • Cities like Manila, Mumbai, and Bangkok have
saying that economics is one of the biggest poor public transport conditions, thus adding to
attributors to being a global city.
carbon emissions because it forces people to
• Economic opportunities in San Francisco’s drive.

“Silicon Valley” have seen IT Experts from Asia • Cities are just 2% of the world’s total land mass
and all over the world because of its strong but they consume 78% of the world’s energy.

internet industry.
• Gentrification - Driving out the poor from the
• China’s economic growth has turned Shanghai, cities, in favor of newer, wealthier citizens.

Beijing, and Guangzhou as trade and financial • e.g. Poor Australian Natives (aboriginals) are
hubs.
forced out from the cities, far from job
• Los Angeles is home to Hollywood, and one of opportunities, government services, and better
the biggest industries in the world: the movie transportation.

industry.
• In Paris, Poor Muslim migrants are driven out of
• Other cities are considered global just because the city to live in tenements with poor living
they are great places to live in. Melbourne now conditions called as “banlieue.”

rivals Sydney as the most livable city in

Australia.
• A large global city may be a paradise for some,
• Some commentators and scholars added the but a purgatory for others.

following parameters to what constitutes a global • It is a glaring example of the disparity between the
city:
rich and the poor.

• The Economist Intelligence Unit added:

• They remain sites where we see the best things
• Market Size
that globalization has to offer, however they also
• Purchasing Power of Citizens
remain sites of inequality, where global servants
• Size of the Middle Class
serve and work for global entrepreneurs.

• Potential for Growth

• Livability Index must satisfy the following:

• Stability

• Healthcare

• Culture and Environment

• Education

• Infrastructure
GOOD LUCK!!!! :)
• Global Cities are the centers of authority.

• Washington D.C. may not be as rich as New

York but it is where The White House, The
Capitol Building, The Supreme Court, The
Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington
Monument are.

• Canberra is the home to Australia’s politicians,

bureaucrats, and policy advisors.

• Global Cities house major international

organizations, which connotes to strong political
influence.

• United Nations HQ is in New York.

• European Union HQ is in Brussels.