|
home > about isp > overview & history > Globalization
Globalization: Today's Reality
Much has changed in the world since ISP
began its international activities. Many factors challenge our traditional
vision and our approaches to international programming. Among them are:
- The end of the Cold War
- A movement toward democratization and market economy in many countries
- Strong economic development and concomitant growth in geopolitical
influence throughout much of the world
- The emergence of the European Union, NAFTA,
and other regional trade blocs
- The increased political and economic interdependencies of countries
and regions
- The rise of significant middle classes in many countries
- The development of modern and effective university systems throughout
the world
- The instantaneous information connection of the world through technology
Our current reality is one of increasing globalization-defined as
the social, economic, cultural, and demographic processes that take
place across national boundaries. Although arising from easier communication,
travel, migration, and the mass dispersion of cultures, globalization
is played out in local contexts and mediated by existing linguistic,
cultural, political, and historical patterns. Globalization blurs cultural
and institutional boundaries, sometimes causes strong counterreactions,
and intensifies interactions among social, cultural, environmental,
political, and other issues. This reality reaffirms the importance of
area and regional knowledge and scholarship; it also challenges practitioners
to cross borders in knowledge and understanding and to apply interdisciplinary
approaches to address international problems and opportunities.
To remain internationally engaged, we must recognize the influence
of globalization on our mission. We are challenged to think more broadly
about how we and our constituents are affected by forces abroad and
how our instruction, research, and outreach must change to meet the
tests of globalization. In this new era, we must acknowledge global
forces that have changed . . .
- assistance to partnership: International development no longer
means simply providing assistance but rather forging close cooperation
and collaboration with partners abroad for mutual benefit.
- disciplinary to cross-disciplinary problem solving: The complexity
of community and world problems demands a wider array of knowledge,
expertise, and problem-defining and problem-solving abilities that
cross disciplinary and regional knowledge boundaries.
- local market to global market competition: The visible impact at
the local level of a worldwide economy and the international mobility
of capital, labor, and technology have taken market competition from
the local to the global level.
- slow and linear to rapid and complex exchange of information: The
rapidity of political and socioeconomic changes-forced in part by
a more complex set of world actors, issues, and problems-challenges
our ability to acquire and manage relevant information and meet demands
for immediately available knowledge about a wider array of nations,
economies, cultures, and languages.
| 
