As opined by Lawrence and Almas (2018), globalization is perhaps the single most important factor which has drastically changed the nature of the business world in the past two centuries. Ritzer and Dean (2015) are of the viewpoint that the process of globalization can be defined as the “trans planetary process(es) involving increasing liquidity and growing multidirectional flows as well as the structures they encounter and create”. The emergence of the construct of globalization can be traced back to the 19th century when the telegraph system and the steam boats were introduced for the first time in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution (M?rginean, 2018).
Hopper, Lassou and Soobaroyen (2017) argue that the improvement in the communication as well as the transportation systems were the major factors which propelled the emergence of the construct of globalization. In a way it can be said that the process of globalization by interlinking the different markets of the world has converted the entire world into a global village wherein the different business enterprises regardless of the nation to which they belong can conduct trade and commerce (M?rginean, 2018). In addition to this, mention also needs to be made regarding the various dimensions of globalization like economic, socio-cultural, technological and others (Banerjee & Jackson, 2017). These dimensions of affects the contemporary organizations as well as individuals both at macro and micro level because of their correlation which the various business processes and products or services offered by these organizations to the customers. For example, it is seen that the customers are having access to increasingly diverse products or services of different brands or organizations and this has affected their lifestyle in a positive manner (Haque & Azmat, 2015). This paper seeks to delve into the economic, social and technological dimensions of globalization by analyzing the life of a young girl, Farzana.
Globalization offers better quality of opportunities to the individuals in terms of culture, technology, lifestyle, industrialization and others yet the negative aspects of the same cannot be overlooked. This fictional character of Farzana is being used throughout the paper to shed more light on this thesis statement. The primary focus of this paper is on the socio-cultural, technological and economic impact of the process of globalization both on the macro and the micro levels. The paper through the use of a fictional character intends to analyze the positive as well as the negative changes that the process of globalization wields of on the lives of the common people. The character belongs to an impoverished economic background, that is, the nation of Bangladesh wherein globalization has just begun to make inroads. Thus, it is likely that an analysis of the above mentioned fictional character will offer insightful details regarding the socio-cultural, technological and economic impacts of the process of globalization on the lives of the common people. The first section of the paper brings to life a fictional character with a realistic background and life condition. The second section of the paper will analyze the manner in which the different dimensions of globalization wield an impact of the life of this character.
Farzana is a 14 year old girl who lives in the Kurigram area of Bangladesh. She has no clear idea regarding the identity of her true father since her father left right after her mother became pregnant. Her mother because of the limited amount of education that she received and also the impoverished economic background from which she hailed worked in a brothel. In addition to this, she had received no formal education and also does not have any vocational training which is likely to help her to get a good high paying job. More importantly, she is below the standard age of employment and this makes it even more difficult for her to get a job in the area under discussion here.
Bangladesh is a developing nation with very limited amount of technological advancement and also the quality of education which is being offered to the people is not very high. In addition to this, it is seen that because of the plethora of political struggles, strikes, turmoil and others that the nation has faced since its establishment had deterred many international business enterprises from establishing their business in the nation under discussion here (Haque & Azmat, 2015). As a matter of fact, it is seen that more than 70.87% people of the nation live below the poverty line because of the limited job and other kinds of growth opportunities available to them (Sen & Ali, 2015). The net result of this is the fact that the majority of the people still had to depend on agriculture for livelihood and it is only recently that different international business enterprises following the path of globalization are outsourcing their manufacturing process to this nation because of cheap labor.
The high percentage of people who live below the poverty line in the Kurigram district can be attributed to the limited number of employment, financial and other kinds of growth opportunities that are available to the people. This can at the same time attributed to the lack of effective presence of different business enterprises in the concerned district of the nation. The different international business enterprises following the path of globalization are outsourcing their manufacturing and other important departments of their organization to Bangladesh because of the cheap labor factor (Belal, Cooper & Khan, 2015). This is one of the major reasons for the large number of sweatshops and similar kinds of industries in the nation under discussion here which offers meager economic opportunities to the people although they had to work hard for long hours for the same. Globalization is offering economic and other kinds of opportunities to the people through which they are being able to meet the basic requirements of their life. The people of the district at the same time had to face the negative consequences of the process of globalization as well. For example, it is seen that they had to work for long durations of time for very low wages. This is adversely taking a toll on their physical as well as emotional wellbeing.
The fictional character, Farzana was raised in the Chilmari village until the death of her mother. Her mother died when she was just nine years old and because her mother did not leave behind any substantial value of property she had to look for work so as to sustain herself. Living in the village in which she grew was not feasible for her because of the limited amount of employability options that the village offered to her. This can be attributed to the fact that the only employability options which were available to the people was to work in the various sweatshops and because of her age it was not possible for her work in these sweatshops. Moving out of the village she finally gets work in a sweatshop named Rana Plaza in Dhaka. The major work that she was to do in the sweatshop was to stitch the cloths and for this she was required to work for more than 12 hours a day. In addition to this, she and more than 20 other people shared a small room in which they had to work in very low light and also limited basic amenities (Dailymail.co.uk, 2018). This began to take a toll on her eye sight and at the same time she started to show signs of depression as well. She soon changed her work and started to work with the workers who used to mine sand in the Brahmaputra river valley. This was an illegal job since the national government of Bangladesh since the sand which was mined was illegally exported to other nations at a very cheap price. This in turn adversely affected the national economy of the nation and this was the main reason why the national government prohibited this activity. This job like her previous job was also taking a toll on her physical as well as emotional health and thus when she was given the offer to migrate to Singapore and work as a nanny or babysitter she readily accepted. However, getting permission from the national government for migrating to Singapore was not an easy task since she did not have a passport, birth certificate and other relevant documents to gain permission. Thus, she took the help of some local brokers who in exchange for money helped her to leave the nation illegally via the sea route in cargo ships.
Farzana after going to Singapore for around six months worked as a babysitter in a family of three children. However, she was having difficulty in understanding the language of the people of the nation (Mandarin). More importantly, the family tried to communicate with her in English but because of her illiteracy she was not even being able to comprehend this language as well. The net result of this was the fact that because of communication barrier she had to leave the job after six months. After leaving her job as a babysitter she joined an Indian restaurant wherein her major job role was to clean the dishes. This was a suitable job for her since did not had to communicate much with her employers and the manual or the physical labor that she was required to perform actually suited her. More importantly, there were other Bengalis working in the restaurant from whom she gained rudimentary knowledge regarding the Mandarin language which she felt would help her to get better employment opportunities in Singapore.
An analysis of the character of Farzana as well as the problems that she faced clearly reveals the positive as well as the negative impacts of the process of globalization and its different dimensions on the lives of the common people. For example, it can be said that the social framework in she lived acted both as an opportunity as well as threat to her. In this regard, it needs to be said that her lack of education and also the impoverished background to which she belonged acted as an impediment to her. On the other hand, she was able to work as well as economically sustain herself because of the opportunities offered by globalization in the nation of Bangladesh.
The negative impact of the process of globalization gets manifested in the extremely laborious work that Farzana had to do at the sweatshop, sand mining at Brahmaputra river valley and others. More importantly, from the case of Farzana it becomes apparent that the different international business enterprises taking undue advantage of the poor economic condition of the developing nations like Bangladesh are outsourcing their manufacturing and other processes to these nations for cheap labor. The net result of this is the fact that the workers in these nations had to work for extremely long hours for very low wages and that too in very uncongenial working conditions. These are adversely taking a toll on the physical as well as emotional health of the individuals as becomes clear from the case of Farzana. More importantly, these actions of the international business enterprises are helping them to earn revenue yet they are not making any substantial economic contribution towards the economic, social or technological growth of these nations (Banerjee & Jackson, 2017). The movements of Farzana from one region to another in Bangladesh and finally to the nation Singapore might at first glance represent her as a vagabond character who constantly shifts from one region to another and constantly changes her profession. However, a closer analysis of her movements as well as changes of her job roles indicates the impact that the process of globalization had wielded on the lives of the common people. For example, the work that she does in the sweatshops, sand mine and also the ones that she does in Singapore were available to her because of the globalization of trade and commerce in the recent times. Thus, it can be said that the process of globalization has affected the lives of the people positively as well as negatively.
To conclude, the process of globalization has become an indispensible part of the contemporary business world because of the plethora of benefits that it offers to the business international enterprises. For example, an effective use of the process of globalization helps the organizations to explore new business markets, earn a higher amount of profit and others. However, there are various negative aspects of the process of globalization as well for example it is seen that the different international business enterprises rather than positively contributing towards the economic, social and technological growth of the nations in which they are operational merely exploit their resources for the purpose of their growth. It is pertinent to note that both the positive as well as the negative aspects of the process of globalization becomes apparent from the analysis of the fictional character of Farzana who has been described in this paper. In this regard, it needs to be said that there are various dimensions of the process of globalization like socio-cultural, economic, technological and others on which the overall effectiveness of the process under discussion depends substantially.
References
Banerjee, S. B., & Jackson, L. (2017). Microfinance and the business of poverty reduction: Critical perspectives from rural Bangladesh. human relations, 70(1), 63-91. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726716640865
Belal, A. R., Cooper, S. M., & Khan, N. A. (2015). Corporate environmental responsibility and accountability: What chance in vulnerable Bangladesh?. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 33, 44-58. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045235415000167
Dailymail.co.uk, (2018). Dailymail Home [online]. Retrieved from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3339578/Crammed-squalid-factories-produce-clothes-West-just-20p-day-children-forced-work-horrific-unregulated-workshops-Bangladesh.html
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Lawrence, G., & Almas, R. (2018). Globalisation, localisation and sustainable livelihoods. Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351760478
M?rginean, S. (2018). Globalization Is Dead: Long Live the Globalization!?. In Emerging Issues in the Global Economy(pp. 221-227). Springer, Cham. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-71876-7_20
Ritzer, G., & Dean, P. (2015). Globalization: A basic text. John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=CumNBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA174&dq=Ritzer+and+Dean+(2015)+globalisation+&ots=evdQDF1-Qg&sig=FFTzha3zlkBSHv6wITowGtndhHk#v=onepage&q=Ritzer%20and%20Dean%20(2015)%20globalisation&f=false
Sen, B., & Ali, Z. (2015). Ending extreme poverty in Bangladesh during the Seventh Five Year Plan: trends, drivers and policies. Background paper for the preparation of the Seventh Five Year Plan. General Economics Division, Planning Commission. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f965/1b414c2128c0501c41c2382f397c2ff35aea.pdf
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