Extended Essay Zheng

Globalisation has become a fashionable term used for numerous years amongst humanities and social sciences. Usage of this term has been driven by an academic fascination with the world as an increasingly interconnected place, in which localized forms of culture have become increasingly subject to homogenizing global influences (Maguire, J)

“So, you know, I think the age of exploration is just beginning, not ending, on our planet.” – Robert Ballard. Zheng He was a mariner, explorer and admiral during China’s Ming Dynasty. Zheng He was from a Chinese Muslim family. He was captured at an early age, castrated, and sent to the army as as orderlies. Zheng He became a great influence in the Yongle court and soon after he ascended the throne and was given the name Zheng. He first set sail in 1405 and died in the spring of 1433 completing a total of seven exped itions. Zheng He is also considered to be “the world’s most important crossroad of trade.” Zheng He was quite successful and accomplished the goal of his voyages and extended the wealth and power of China over a vast realm.

We are currently impacted by global processes, of unprecedented magnitude. On the positive side, our world is characterized (and increasingly) by a rapid increase in trade, both of capital, goods and services, including information, ideas, technologies and cultural patterns. On the negative side, we experience processes enormous concentration of wealth and social marginalization, and a rapid enlargement of the gap between developed and underdeveloped countries in the world, while appear on the horizon an ecological crisis of global reach.

Mckissick, Floyd. “CORE Endorses Black Power.” In Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices of Resistance, Reform and Renewal: An African American Anthology, edited by Marable, Manning, and Leith Mullings. Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.

The phrase of globalisation is becoming very popular around the world, and it gives free movement to communicate with people regarding cultural, economic, social, technological, political, educational and businesses. In the modern society globalisation has impacted on many human lives, which started in the western countries in (1492), according to Kevin H. O'Rourke, Jeffrey G. Williamson, and then it expanded all over the world. The word of globalisation can describe many different aspects such as globalisation of nothing, the making of the global society and the globalisation of wealthy and poor. According to Robert Shuey in (2001), ‘’globalisation is widely and somewhat loosely used a term, intended to describe the recent and rapid process of international, economic, social, and political integration’’. The idea of his words that globalisation is giving an opportunity to people, so they can travel, invest internationally, and communicate this can help many businesses people especially in Australia to invest more widely and internationally. Globalisation has impacted on Australian society in all terms of life, for instance, it has an enormous impact on health and education system, on technology, and on the Australian economy. But one of the categories is increasing so widely among Australian people who affect many young people’s lives is the impact of racism on the health and wellbeing of young Australians. The word racism is the very phenomenon aspect in the Australian society, especially between young people. On the very high percentage of many young Australians are experiencing racism between the nation, most of these racists are because of skin colour, cultural beliefs, different traditions from different countries, speaking another language and gender. Racism plays a significant role in the society, and many people are aware of this because when they face radical discrimination from any individual, they feel angry and frustrated, and sometimes they feel of not belonging to the local community.

Pankaj Ghemawant- A notable author of the book “World 3.0”, has done a significant research to understand how globalised we are. According to his research-

The end of the Cold War brought about the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, paving the way for an unprecedented new paradigm – one characterised by the end of hostilities between the two dominant ideologies: Soviet communism and American liberal capitalism. This dominant new paradigm encouraged the homogenisation of ideas, in the form of exchanging ethos and values along former cultural, ideological and geographical divides. As such, this integration of world societies has earned the title ‘globalisation’, forcing the global community to appear so united as to warrant the metaphor of a global village. (Note: This paragraph pains me to read – I will eventually re-write it.)

Word of Zheng He’s death set off a political firestorm among court factions within the Chinese government. As a result, there was swift movement to restrain future maritime exploration altogether. It also appears that the ever masterful Confucian scholars had a hand in orchestrating a largely symbolic message when they ordered the destruction of Zheng He’s entire fleet and years of meticulously kept documents. From historical perspective alone, it seems striking that those bearing witness to such vast undertakings, culminating in triumphant and prestigious accomplishments on the world’s stage, would relegate them to such an inauspicious end. However, as one might expect, there was more to the story. Powerful factions in the emperor's court

Modern society in its entirety is constantly shifting and developing in unify through communication integration, financial wealth, and economic status. This level of connectedness is the result of globalisation. But, what is globalisation and how does this term impact society and cultural environments? This essay will critically analyse if whether Thomas Friedman’s thesis surrounding the effects of globalization as creating a “flat world” which is the emergence of borderless countries is accurate, or if globalisation is indeed the natural subset of development. Critical analysis will focus on the three key sub-topics of globalisation including homogenisation, polarisation, and Glocalisation regarding their stance for or against the argument

The theory of globalization today is a field of intensive debate as the efforts towards defining globalization most often highlight its individual aspects. According to Held and McGrew (1999), “globalisation is an idea whose time has come, yet it lacks precise definition”. Despite the ambiguity of the term “globalisation,” the use of the term, according to Held and McGrew, reflects increased interconnectedness in political, economic and cultural matters across the world creating a shared social space. Given this inter-connectedness, globalisation may be defined as: “a process which embodies a transformation in the spatial organisation of social relations and

Globalisation is an ever growing process around the world, which has been an ever-lasting process throughout time and into the 21st century. Globalisation is described as “a process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture” (Al-Rodhan 2006). Throughout time, Golbalisation has impacted everyone, from the changing face of work (Occupational Psychology) through the Industrial Revolution to the more current Globalisation of hand held devices, such as mobile phones.

‘Globalization: What’s new? What’s not? (And so what)’, portrays the speed in which globalism has increased through many different factors; economically, military, environmentally and socially. This is an idealist analytic approach, not set in stone. This leads on to

Globalisation can be defined as the movement toward economic, financial, trade, and communications integration by countries and their populations globally. It is a constant process and it has resulted in the intertwining and generalisation of the needs and wants of people

Ever since the beginning of time, man was infatuated by visiting, seeing and interacting with other societies. Over time globalization, as it was termed, accelerated at an exponential rate. There were two rather recent major periods of globalization over the past five hundred years, one which began in the late fifteenth century and the other started in the middle of the twentieth century. Each of these new eras marked developments in advancements in communication, human rights, woman’s rights, religiosity and philosophy, technology and lastly in economics.

In this essay I will give a detailed explanation of what sociologists mean by the term ‘globalisation’ and how they have tried to explain it.