By Tim Butterfield
The political world is both united and divided, integrated and fragmented, but all of it, is organised around complex relations and interactions among people. While it is conventional to think about such relations and interactions as somehow contained within states, drawing national boundaries is only one aspect of the human enterprise. The human enterprise is social and cultural and economic, but, most of all, it is political (Tetreault and Lipschutz, 2005, pp. 165). This essay will discuss this statement in connection with globalisation and sustainability, and how concepts and issues relating to identities and power affect people as individuals and groups in a globalised world.
The political world is very much a part of globalisation. Globalisation is an interconnected process of institutional, demographic, and cultural connection not just economics (Brysk, 2003). Tetreault and Lipschutz (2005) defines globalisation as the closer integration of the countries and peoples of the world which has been brought about by the enormous reduction of costs of transportation and communication, and the breaking down of artificial barriers to the flows of goods, services, capital, knowledge, and people across borders. Political decisions can effect globalisation as does globalisation effects the political world. Politics are not the only variable in globalisation, the business world, the economy, art, and people are all contributors to the concept we call globalisation. According to Tetreault and Lipschutz (2005) most observers believe we are living in an age of globalisation, when nations and cultures experience increasing contact with one another and we are transformed by it. An issue that arises through globalisation is control. If contact between nations and cultures transforms us, shouldnt the people have a say in this matter. The current era of globalisation is distinguished by the combination and strength of four elements: connection, cosmopolitanism, communication, and commodification. Connection means greater traffic in bodies, goods, services, and information across borders. Cosmopolitanism describes the growth of power and influence above, below, and across national governments. Communication is an increase in technological capacity that strengthens transnational networks of all kinds and diffuses ideas and values more quickly and broadly. Commodification is the expansion of world markets, and the extension of market-like behavior. (Brysk 2002).
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