Globalisation theories

The meaning of globalisation is subject to multiple interpretations. Such interpretations can include: The movement of people across the world in response to economic, educational or political factors to facilitate the movement of goods across borders; cultural changes as a result of participating in global media empires through the use of media and technology; or,

acculturation of individuals as a global phenomenon (Sassen, 2007). Such global changes have both advantages and disadvantages for societies, nation states and individuals (Al-Hudithi & Abdul-Aziz, 2011).

Globalisation redefines the relations between production, economics, organisations, institutions and social processes. While many scholars focus on the impacts of globalisation on global

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economics, for the purposes of this thesis the work of Sassen (2007) is more relevant as it takes into account the impacts of globalisation on social life, which helps to explain globalisation influences on families and individuals (Robinson, 2009). Sassen concentrates on the significance of place, scale, and the meaning of the nation when studying globalisation. She identifies two sets of processes that contribute to globalisation. One (and more commonly referred to) is the process of global institutions, such as the World Trade Organisation, global financial markets, the War Crimes Tribunals, as well as the processes involved in the new global cosmopolitanism (Sassen, 2007). However, the second set of processes, which occur on the national and local levels, is overlooked by most social scholars (Robinson, 2009). These processes can contain state monetary and fiscal policy, networks of activists that have an explicit or implicit global agenda, and local and national politics that are part of universal networks and which include similar localised efforts (Sassen, 2007).

By emphasizing the interaction between universal and local phenomena, Sassen (2007) introduces readers to new sorts of conditions such as global cities, transnational communities, cross border immigrations, commodity chains, new networked technologies and changes within the liberal state that result from transnational processes. This approach to globalisation presents a new explanations and analytical tools to help understand the complex ideas of global

interdependence (Robinson, 2009).

Sassen’s (2007) main focus is on two connected topics: Global cities and transnational migration.

The new transnational structure of 40 global cities produces new forms of articulation between various geographic areas and transforms their roles and policies in the global economy (Sassen, 2001). Some global areas can now be recognised as export processing zones, and others as labour reserves or offshore banking centres, all of which connect via the command structure of

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the network of global cities. These global cities, then, become points of stimulation for the permeation of global processes locally; they also facilitate the globalisation of a nation and/or region, as well as supply the structure, control and coordination in the global economy as a whole (Robinson, 2009). Sassen (2001) argued that existence of global processes appears to increase the separation between cities and sectors within cities that are interacted with the global economy and those that are not.

The implications of global economic trends are such that there are now new and distinct organisational and spatial orders in different urban systems. Thus whilst some cities are now participating in transnational networks, others have become separated from the main centres of economic growth in their regions or nations. Sassen (2001) proposes that a new spatial order is being created as part of the globalisation process, which is based on networks of global cities joined by a digitalised infrastructure and including new transnational flows of people, power, and cultures. She suggests that in the age of telecommunication, there is an apparent increase in the central corporate functions of organisation in developing countries. When these functions

become more complex, many organisations tend to outsource some of their functions, which can impact on local organisation. When the state connects into such global, cross border economies, its own nature, power and policy start to change (Robinson, 2009).

During the 1970s and 1980s, an increasing number of scholars encouraged the study of

transnational processes such as those found in multinational corporations, tourism, international non-governmental organisations, migration and religious associations (Robinson, 1998). Sassen (2007) insisted on the increasing importance of cross border migrations as an example of such transnational processes. The latter decades of the 20th century and its first two decades were the beginnings of massive global migration movements. The largest labour flows were from:

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Southern Europe and North Africa to Western Europe; the Caribbean Basin and South-East Asia to the United States; and, from the Middle East and South Asia into the Arab oil-exporting countries.

Capital mobility and the movement of production have created new conditions for the international mobility of labour. Global technologies, state economic policies and investor planning now creates suitable environments for the formation of transnational spaces in which capital can be circulated (Robinson, 2009). Sassen (2007) focuses on the relationship between the movements of capital globally and the migration across borders. In the 1960s there was a considerable growth in global investment flows by multinational corporations and industrialised countries, which increased the flow of emigrants from Third World countries to developing ones. These migrations impacted on local communities, encouraged movement from rural to urban areas, produced a cheap labour force, and exploited young women in the new export processing zones (Nash & Fernandez-Kelly, 1983).

Khulais people, to some extent, are influenced by the global economic process and policies. People are becoming more consuming, small traditional industries are disappearing and

agriculture is impacted on as many rural people move to big cities. Further, global labourers are creating new industries and work is becoming cheaper for employers than hiring Kulais

labourers, which has increased unemployment (GCPH, 2009). This impact on the ability of the head of the family to provide for her/his family’s needs, which in turn can influence daily family communication.

In general, Saudi Arabia, as elsewhere, people, economics, society and culture are influenced by globalisation. The revolution of media and technology and the commitment of Saudi Arabia to

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implement the laws of international organisations such as the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank and the Human Rights Commission have impacted positively and negatively on the social life of Saudis. Sassen’s theory provides valuable analytical and conceptual inputs for these socio-economic changes and interprets the interdependent relationships between global and national issues, which are very important for this study.