The purpose of this essay is to expose and analyze the impact that globalization has had in Mexico on the economy and as a phenomenon that influences different aspects and areas of national life, as a requirement of the International Market Perspectives subject that I course in the 8th. Semester of the Bachelor of Commerce and International Business at the Chiapas Campus Banking and Commercial School.
Contextualizing globalization as the dependence that has been created between countries at a commercial level, due to the extension beyond national borders that generates a close relationship between countries; a growing integration of the economies of the world through trade and financial flows and encompassing cultural, political, social and environmental aspects.
The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy of the language defines the concept of globalization as: Tendency of markets and companies to expand, reaching a global dimension that goes beyond national borders. (Last edition, 23rd, published in October 2014.)
Globalization is the phenomenon that has impacted throughout the world in different countries, relating and integrating the different economies, making large brands grow in different countries.
It is important that we point out that at the end of the Second World War, the world was experiencing a process of internationalization of capital; With different plans, reconstruction is supported, bringing different countries into integration. This is a watershed and basis for the development of what we now call globalization.
At first it seems that globalization fully has a mostly economic meaning; However, the impact of this phenomenon is not only economic, it impacts all daily aspects of the life of a country. For this reason, globalization, by influencing different aspects, has what can be called a global political culture; respect for human rights, quality of life, democracy, employment, concern for the environment, among others, are listed in the so-called global agenda.
We are currently impacted by global processes of unprecedented magnitude. On the positive side, our world is characterized (and increasingly) by a vertiginous increase in exchanges, both in capital, goods and services, as well as in information, ideas, technologies and cultural patterns. On the negative side, we are experiencing processes of enormous concentration of wealth and social marginalization, and a vertiginous widening of the gap between developed and underdeveloped countries of the world, while an ecological crisis of planetary scope looms on the horizon.
When talking about globalization, two great opinions about it quickly jump out, there are opinions in favor and opinions against. It is clear that as a whole phenomenon that influences the areas of daily life of the inhabitants of a country, it has both favorable and unfavorable repercussions for the different countries. This model is highly criticized since it is common for developed countries with greater power over other countries to gain a greater benefit than small and less developed countries. There has been talk of the great and rapid growth of some countries, over the little and almost zero growth of some others. Talking about globalization also shows a loss of sovereignty on the part of nations, which many argue against this phenomenon.
Cultural impact of globalization
We can say that culture is the set of forms and expressions that characterize a given society. By this set of forms and expressions, we understand beliefs, common practices, rules, norms, codes, clothing, religion, rituals and ways of being that predominate in the common people of that society.
So we see that culture are all those forms of expression and traditions that characterize a certain society. But how these traditions and customs are influenced, when society is immersed in globalization.
As in many other areas, culture is also impacted with the arrival of globalization in a country. Since with this come new customs and new ideas that are shown to the new societies that are immersed.
When we speak of the impact that globalization has on culture, we speak of the adoption of cultural and consumer practices that are characteristic of capitalist nations and that include the use of certain already established brands. With globalization comes the consumption of brands, consumption of media, consumption of symbols and celebrities, which we take as representative icons of a society, which are regularly associated and related to commercial models of large brands.
Regarding the impact that globalization has on culture, it can be generalized by grouping three statements that explain its impact.
- There has been the emergence of a global culture, which is largely a globalization of basic aspects of current American culture, with a generous mix of ingredients from other advanced cultures. This is the culture of the groups that in the various countries are more identified with the processes of globalization, because they are inserted and have benefited from the applied model. There is also a resurgence of local cultures, as a reaction against globalization, as a revaluation of one's own. This process takes very different forms, from the almost romantic search for one's own cultural roots to militant and exclusionary fundamentalism. Countercultures are being generated in the excluded or marginalized groups of the process, which will probably clash with those of the non-excluded,in a dangerous and conflictive coexistence, in the same time and space, of groups with divergent values and meanings of life, as can be seen in many of the current criminal forms of the struggle of the poor against the poor.
Globalization in Mexico
Mexico has been a participant, and many times a pioneer, in globalization processes in the world. It was the most important country in the globalization process of the Spanish empire that began in 1492, and the most important in declaring its independence from the same empire in 1810. With its revolution of 1910, it was also the predecessor of the Russian revolution of 1917. During the subsequent period After World War II, Mexico fully participated in the globalization movement represented by the founding of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 1945.
When the world pace of globalization accelerated with the policies of Thatcher and Reagan in the 1980s, Mexico began to apply policies of liberalization, deregulation, internationalization and privatization in business.
The most important steps in Mexico's foray into globalization were: The entry into the GATT (now the World Trade Organization-WTO) in 1986. The opening towards foreign capital represented by the establishment of the NAFIN Fund in 1989 and its public offering later in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 1991. The privatization of banks between 1991 and 1992. The globalization process was strengthened with the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 1994, and the joining the OECD in the same year.
As well as these data, we can also mention some not positive for the country, such as the way of seeing the economic crisis that Mexico suffered in 1994, which was a consequence of globalization. Despite this crisis, due to the size and level of development of its national capital and money markets, due to the wide availability of investment and financing instruments linked to Mexico in international markets, due to the penetration of foreign financial institutions in its system financial, and exports of a large number of products including precious metals, Mexico can be considered one of the most globalized emerging markets. Mexico will continue to be among the most important emerging markets due to its size and sophistication of its financial system.
In the last 30 years, Mexico's exports went from 15,512 million dollars in 1980 to 349,375 million dollars in 2011, implying an average annual growth * / of 10.6 percent.
Export table. (Figures in millions of dollars)
Globalization and its cultural impact. Export table
Table of imports. (Figures in millions of dollars)
Globalization and its cultural impact. Import table
SIICEX information)
Globalization and its cultural impact. SIICEX information
Cultural impact of globalization in Mexico
Globalization, like all phenomena, has also brought economic, political, social and cultural consequences for Mexico.
In view of groups that are not in favor of globalization or groups that maintain arguments against it, globalization is causing the culture of a country to be lost little by little. Adopting traditions and customs that arrive as acculturation.
Studies on globalization (Globalization, regions and borders. Roberto Abinzano) mentions that globalization could "go sideways through multicultural Mexico, without modifying its current state of economic and social marginalization" (first hypothesis), or have repercussions on ethnic communities in two opposite ways (second hypothesis). The first foresees the disintegration and / or dissolution of different cultures, either through the dispossession of their territories or by increasing urban migration. The second predicts reintegration into the modernization process "from the creative incorporation of innovation and a selective, economic and cultural change, from the logic of its own identity."
It can be seen that in the first hypothesis, the culture of our country could not be affected or modified because of globalization, being the opposite, because we identify ourselves more as citizens with national identity with cultural rescue and preservation that allows us in regions of the country such as Jalisco, Guanajuato, Puebla, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Yucatán to name the most representative that in a joint effort between the three orders of government and civil society groups carry out research, forums and exhibitions so that living cultures have the least impact.
Globalization refers to the intensification of universal social relations that unite different localities, in such a way that what happens in a locality is affected by events that occur very far away and vice versa, this is a very complex phenomenon that covers a multiplicity of other social and cultural dimensions. If globalization has a very important cultural dimension, it is partly due to the mediatization of modern culture. This consists of the communication media that are increasingly shaping, on the one hand, the way in which cultural forms are produced, transmitted and received in modern societies and, on the other, the ways in which people experience the events and actions that occur. in spatially and temporally remote contexts,electronically created and transmitted symbolic media can more easily abstract space and shape or change an identity more constantly, in addition to that from before birth we are influenced by them, for which they are an important part in the forging of an individual, collective identity and cultural.
But what has been the true cultural impact that globalization has had on our country? With the signing of the free trade agreement with North America, Mexico began to take off in its foray into foreign trade and the opening of its borders to trade through them, with different partners, as was the case with NAFTA.
Since Mexico is a less developed country than its commercial partners in this treaty and since it is a contiguous neighbor of the United States, it is obvious that the opportunities are not the same for Mexico as for the northern neighbor. With globalization and the arrival of multinationals from abroad with brands and products that previously did not exist in our country or were very difficult to find, society was getting to know, acquiring and adopting new lifestyles and with this came new symbols, new ideologies and new traditions.
Being located as a neighbor of the United States, culturally a strong influence is received from this country. In the northern part of Mexico, on the border with this country; customs have been changing over time. Society increasingly tries to yearn for and replicate the North American way of life, even though the gaps of asymmetry and economic convergence and well-being are uneven.
Tequila, mariachi and tacos, internationally recognized as symbols of Mexican culture, give shape and identity, as they are a happy and party-loving people, a stereotype that distinguishes the country and that has been difficult to change. In an effort to follow a lifestyle that the media has modeled and replicated as the correct one, many of these traditions and aspects that formerly characterized us have been lost or modified.
With globalization, a large part of the population has become an instrument of consumption for large companies and large brands; that try to consolidate themselves through consumer marketing, selling us experiences, symbols and brands; that are adopted as ours and are nothing more than a sign of how global the world is.
The mass media have gone hand in hand with companies and with this globalization model, to sell us all the brands and products that come with the opening of markets to our country. But also these means of diffusion have been modified, altered and to the convenience of globalization and companies.
The Mass Media are the foundations of globalization. Without them, this would not be possible. Through radio, television, the internet; they allow themselves to spread ideas to hundreds or billions of people, convincing them to buy products, merchandise, drinks, food, or even take a new ideological stance.
Although it is true that through technology, daily life is more comfortable and satisfying; Because it is no longer necessary to write a letter and wait for it to reach its destination, or go shopping, or pay for services, with the internet and the telephone many things can be done without having to leave the house. But just as it has its advantages, it has disadvantages; television is a mass medium of great importance and power. Currently, a large percentage of the population has a television, through it, positions are adopted that are not from the entity where they live, such as wanting to imitate an anorexic girl from a foreign movie, or wanting to have two or three cars outside the house, or take a vocabulary that is not from the nation, etc. In other words, through this channel, trade is globalized,and ideas and it is implanted that people compete with each other for material goods, as it were, better than those of their neighbor.
Internet users. (Data from the Mexican Internet Association; AMIPCI).
Internet users. (Data from the Mexican Internet Association; AMIPCI).
With the above, we can compare and analyze how in our country, the mass media have been collaborators of globalization to submit us as individuals to large brands and products. Long before there was talk of globalization, television had come to stay, but what happened to television after the commercial opening? Many and varied are the dreams and images that television carries and penetrates to the very heart of the houses. Television in many cases is what educates societies and in Mexico it is no exception. Many of the programs that air in our country have been produced abroad. From the point of view where the mass media sell us a life to which we aspire and a life with bases and traditions very different from ours; from this perspective,the geographical limits of a particular nation will gradually lose their ability to unify and distinguish its inhabitants, as the globalization process increases.
In Mexico, being a country where television has so much influence on society and culture, the impact that globalization can cause to the modifications of our own culture is considerable.
As a consequence of this, in recent decades, Mexican society has been involved in the need to imitate the life behaviors of our neighbor and of other countries with which we have a greater commercial relationship. This when seeing young people who at an early age want to imitate characters or icons that are seen as characteristic of a society.
But today, we are experiencing a loss of our cultural identity as Mexicans. When we grow up watching brands and products on television from a young age and we want to have everything that it sells to us. We put aside our roots and seek satisfaction in the products that the globalized world offers us. Currently, it seems that there is a struggle to rescue traditional features of our culture, since apparently we are going through a moment where culture seems to be standardized, since the influence of the more developed countries on the less developed countries is of great magnitude that is imitated even the lifestyle.
It is necessary that as a society and as a country, we watch over our interests and our roots, which are what characterize us as a society before other countries. This does not suggest that globalization is a bad phenomenon that eliminates the identities of nations; but if it is a phenomenon that is changing life around the world. And that is why each of the countries must face this situation, since we cannot standardize culture, since we lose the most valuable thing in each society.
conclusion
Globalization is a phenomenon that is experienced throughout the world. There are discomforts and disagreements in both rich and poor countries. The famous international competition is expensive, increases and generates social problems. We have to make the most of the advantages that cultural globalization provides, which brings people closer and enriches them, and represents a great opportunity to raise the standard of living of communities.
We are involved in a constant bombardment of information and transformations in all senses: cultural, economic, social and political, where the domain of the economy is above production and transnational or global corporations have an influential power over the States. dominated. Companies merge to raise capital so they can compete with each other.
It only remains to say that this new trend forces us to obtain a better preparation in every way to be at the forefront of the new times. We must also be clear that as countries we have to be aware of our capabilities, since to compete in this global market, we need to be at a certain level to be able to enter. It is necessary that the less developed countries receive support from the more developed countries so that they promote and can have a greater and better commercial performance with other countries.
In addition to the economic sphere, where the greatest benefits of globalization are seen; one must be aware of the other effects that this phenomenon entails. In order to achieve this, the different countries work together and not lose the cultural foundations and bases of each region.
