Globalization: A Very Short Introduction

By Manfred B. Steger

Book Overview

'Globalization' has become one of the defining buzzwords of our time - a term that describes a variety of accelerating economic, political, cultural, ideological, and environmental processes that are rapidly altering our experience of the world. It is by its nature a dynamic topic. This Very Short Introduction has been fully updated for a fourth edition, to include recent developments in global politics, the global economy, and environmental issues.

Presenting globalization as a multifaceted process encompassing global, regional, and local aspects of social life, Manfred B. Steger looks at its causes and effects, examines whether it is a new phenomenon, and explores the question of whether, ultimately, globalization is a good or a bad thing. In this fourth edition Steger discusses some of the key features of recent years, such as the EU fiscal crisis, the rise of robot technology and new war technology with civilian usage such as drones, the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and new identity discussions around gender fluidity and sex change in the media.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198779550
• ISBN13: 9780198779551
• Release Date: July 2017
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 4.4" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Sterling Introduction and Primer

This is the best single volume for getting all the basics without more. Highly recommended as starting book.

Very Short Review of Globalization

Manfred B. Steger's book Globalization is part of the Very Short Introductions series put out by Oxford University Press. The series is called that because each book in the series is a brief treatment of a particular topic, like Cosmology, Postmodernism, Intelligence, Drugs, or Animal Rights. In Globalization, Steger keeps his introduction to 147 pages, making it true to the series name. Steger has written Globalization with both erudition and clarity. Striking that balance between precision and perspicuity is no easy task, but Steger manages to succeed. In chapter 1, Steger decides not to protect the reader from the controversies surrounding the concept of globalization. He then takes his readers on a historical tour, showing how globalization has been happening in different ways ever since humans appeared on the scene (ch. 2). The meat of the book comes in chapters 3-5, where Steger expounds on the economic, political, and cultural dimensions of globalization. In chapter 6 Steger makes a careful distinction between globalization and globalism. The former, he explains, is a description of social processes, while the latter is an ideology endowed with neoliberal meanings and values. Earlier in the book Steger gave his readers another helpful distinction, separating globalization as social processes from globality as a social condition (p. 7). Chapter 7 highlights the recent key challenges to globalism in the form of particularist-protectionism and universalist-protectionism. Chapter 8, capping off the introduction, contains a brief assessment of the future of globalization. Although I had read about globalization before, and most of the concepts discussed inside are not new to me, Steger's volume on globalization has turned out to be the best introduction to the topic that I've come across

Steger's Globalization a winner!

This little book is a concise and sophisticated and very readable account of a very significant process in the world today. It objectively examines the positive and negative consequences of the globalization process and intelligently evaluates it's role in world development. He also includes some very interesting statistics on a variety of economic statuses of particular countries and corporations.

A superb brief introduction to a complex issue

This truly is a dazzling brief introduction to a subject that could not be covered even by a very long book. As Steger points out, the fact of globalization is the predominant issue of our time. Far too man, as he points out, tend to treat the subject in monolithic or simplistic fashion, focusing on merely one aspect of globalization, and assuming that that aspect defines all of globalization. Anyone familiar with Thomas Friedman's THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE (who is frequently described as a "hyper globalizer") will recognize one such very narrow approach. Despite his brief space, Steger wants to do justice to the complexity of the subject. For the past decade, most writers on globalization have focused on economic globalization, but Steger emphasizes that the process has political, economic, religious, cultural, environmental, and ideological conditions. Many people who tackle the question of globalization seem to want to know, "Is this a good or bad thing?" Steger is anxious to emphasize that this does not admit of an easy answer. Clearly, the massive increase of economic inequality--which occurs both on international and national levels, e.g., wealth has more and more been concentrated in the industrial countries of the northern hemisphere, and within those countries, more and more in the hands of a small economic corporate and investing elite--is not a good thing, but that is not the only aspect of globalization. Steger seems to suggest that there are both significant advantages and some lamentable dangers in globalization. The one aspect of globalization concerning which Steger is clearly and rightfully concerned is the promotion of globalization in the ideological terms of the Neoliberal project of promoting free markets over all other concerns. The term "Neoliberal" might throw some people, since the leading Neoliberal of recent decades would include Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and most members of the George W. Bush administration (though also many in the Clinton administration, including Clinton himself). Too many are unaware that Reagan and Bush are not conservatives by traditional understandings of the label: they both pushed for massive governmental intrusion into the markets, in taking an active role in eliminating regulation, and actively employing the government to control the economy, none of which are conservative projects. One reason that the Progressive movement gained so much steam during the McKinley, Roosevelt, and Wilson years was observing the extraordinary corruption and narrow concentration of wealth (and subsequent economic inequality) that resulted from an unregulated market economy. Steger, along with a host of others, points out that with the unfettered promotion of free market capitalism with little or no governmental regulatory control (Neoliberalism's big project) is once again resulting in extreme economic inequality. Numerous studies, to some of which he refers, have undermined one of the

Excellent Brief Introduction to a Vast Topic

Manfred Steger does an excellent job summing up the most important subtopics within the vast and complex field of Globalization. He also provides an excellent bibliography for further reading. This tiny book is a great jumping-off point for those looking to delve deeper into the subject as well as a great overview for those simply interested in the major pluses and minuses of the world's greatest social trend.