Spiritual Perspectives on Globalization by Ira Rifkin

Topics: Globalization, Spirituality Words: 546 Pages: 2

Article summary

This is the summary of the article Spiritual perspectives on globalization by Ira Rifkin written in 2003. The article under consideration dwells upon globalization, its elements, and how it affects us. Economic, cultural and individual elements of globalization are considered as the most important for the world. Economic elements of globalization refer to the specifics of the world markets and financial flows. Cultural element of globalization describes regional side and national cultural peculiarities which are seen by the world society.

The author tries to underline the importance of the national cultural destinations of the powerful nationalities for the whole global society. Individual element describes the promotion of consumer value and the division people make between poor and rich nations in order to maintain equal global society. Further discussion in the article refers to the search for the places which globalization has not reached. The first signs of globalization occurred in 1944, when IMF was created as the department which promised to help countries in cases of global crisis. Since that time all the countries have been united in financial, cultural and individual elements.

It is impossible to imagine a country which is going to function individually. The main idea of the article is to show that globalization is the process which touches all the spheres of human life. Moreover, the author of the article wants to say that globalization is something more than just economical and cultural processes. It is the way how the whole world perceives the issue and how it is considered by the society.

Summary grid

Paragraphs	Main idea	Some supporting details
1^stparagraph	Article introduction	The first paragraph starts the discussion introducing the topic and dwelling upon the information which is going to be discussed in general.
2^ndparagraph	Elements of globalization and economic one	This paragraph speaks about financial flows, global markets and hegemony of the countries with higher financial potential. It also touches such global organizations as WEF, the World Bank, WTO, and IMF. It is essential to state that the author speaks about financial issues from the side of the world relations, not speaking about each country.
3^rdparagraph	Cultural element of globalization	The author considers the peculiarity of the countries’ tendencies which have occupied the whole world. Therefore, the American culture is used as an example which elements have become international, such as McDonalds, MTV, etc. Therefore, the author wants to say about the affect of the powerful country in the world on the cultural process of globalization.
4^thparagraph	Individual element of globalization	Speaking about individual elements of globalization, author dwells upon the freedom of choice among the services offered by other countries and presented at the national arena. The promotion of consumer values is discussed.
5^thparagraph	The speed of globalization spread	Here, the author speaks about the speed of globalization which occurs in the modern world comparing it with the ancient searchers. Globalization has always been present as our ancestries from well-developed and powerful countries also searched for new lands and tried to make those acquainted with the culture of their nation.
6^thparagraph	The beginning of globalization	The last paragraph dwells upon the day when globalization became the priority from the world society. It speaks about the meeting in Bretton Woods where the direction at globalization was taken.