globalization and its transitation towards ... … 03 15.pdf · 1 rosenberg, justin, (2005),...

Iulian Boldea (Coord.) Globalization and National Identity. Studies on the Strategies of Intercultural Dialogue

SOCIOLOGY, POLITICAL SCIENCES AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS SECTION

169

Arhipelag XXI Press, Tîrgu Mureș, ISBN: 978-606-8624-03-7

GLOBALIZATION AND ITS TRANSITATION TOWARDS DEVELOPMENT IN NORWAY

Emiliana Oana Tatarcan

PhD, ”Al. Ioan Cuza” University of Iași

Abstract: This paper aims to discuss the impact that globalization has on the evolution of "the good" of

society today. Our argument focuses on how globalization can take a toll in intercultural relations,

following an analysis of institutional arrangement to create an environment for its own development. We

must not forget that globalization has given increased welfare and increased movement of services,

people and goods between Norway and other countries.

Key words: state, governance, international relation, identity, development

In recent years, globalization has been regarded as the key challenge for nations and states all

over the world. Nevertheless there is still much uncertainty and lack of clarity with regard to what

globalization stands for and how it affects societies. What is globalization? There is a lot of confusion

about the term, and about the rhetoric of the „new world order‟ following the end of the Cold War. A

related and recent argument in the globalization debate holds that „the age of globalization‟ was a short-

term conjuncture phenomenon associated with the peculiar circumstances of the 1990s and that the world

is now more or less back to normal.1 It is obvious that the world is moving ever faster towards

globalization, towards a world seen as a planetary unity of identity and will operate with common rules

and standards. The specifics of each participant will contribute to a balanced international, especially

socio-economic at macro level, depending on its own resources and the ability to use them every human

community as actor accepted as equal, sovereign and independent. If we look at such things, globalization

does not appear as something destructive, something that cancels specifics. Globalization does not appear

as a threat to identity but as a phenomenon which preserves, enhances nations and states. The two sides of

the report - globalization and the desire to protect the identity - can be complementary.

1 Rosenberg, Justin, (2005), „Globalization Theory: A Post Mortem‟, International Politics, 42:1, p. 2–74.



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Globalization has an undeniably material aspect in so far as it is possible to identify. In fact,

globalization is a short form for a cluster of related changes: economic, ideological, technological, and

cultural. Economic changes include the internationalization of production, the greatly increased mobility

of capital and of transnational corporations, and the deepening and intensification of economic

interdependence. 2 Thus, globalization appears to them as a vector of development and of regulating

global balances. These assets work together with the unanimously recognized implosion of spatial and

cultural distances, of the world from the inside and from the outside. According to Holm and Sorensen 3

globalization can be defined as the intensification of economic, political, social, and cultural relations

across borders. However, these benefits have their down side: another part of these works, both

theoretical and empirical, refuses to see only the positive aspects. But the concept of globalization denotes

much more than a stretching of social relations and activities across regions and frontiers. For it suggests

a “growing magnitude or intensity of global flows such that states and societies become increasingly

enmeshed in worldwide systems and networks of interaction.”4 As a consequence, distant occurrences and

developments can come to have serious domestic impacts while local happenings can engender

significant global repercussions. In other words, globalization represents a significant shift in the spatial

reach of social relations and organization towards the interregional or intercontinental scale. Aside from

the “winners” – the countries, the social categories, and the individuals that gain certain and concrete

advantages from it – one finds the “losers” or the “absent”, those excluded from the movements in

progress in the world economy.5

A key issue in the debate over the effects of economic globalization is the role of the state. One

important aspect of this concerns the state‟s functions and power vis-à-vis the domestic economy and

towards the international system. It has been a widespread notion that economic globalization has eroded

the capacities of states to regulate, influence and direct economic outcomes of its own societies. As

2 Arie M. Kacowicz, (1998), Regionalization, Globalization, and Nationalism, Convergent, Divergent, or

Overlapping?, The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Working Paper 262, p.5. available at: https://kellogg.nd.edu/publications/workingpapers/WPS/262.pdf . 3 Holm, Hans-Henrik and Georg Sorensen. (1995),“Introduction: What Has Changed?” in Hans-Henrik Holm and

Georg Sorensen, eds., Whose World Order? Uneven Globalization and the End of the Cold War (Boulder, CO:

Westview), p. 1–17. 4 David, Held, Anthony, McGrew, (2003), The Global Transformations Reader, An Introduction to the

Globalization Debate, Second edition, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK, p.3 . 5 Carmela Maltone , Bernard Yvars, Hannah Brady, (2012) , Globalization and social inequalities in Europe:

assessment and outlook, Eastern Journal of European Studies, Volume 3, Issue 1, p. 5, available at:

http://ejes.uaic.ro/articles/EJES2012_0301_MAL.pdf .

https://kellogg.nd.edu/publications/workingpapers/WPS/262.pdf

http://ejes.uaic.ro/articles/EJES2012_0301_MAL.pdf



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regards the international activities of the states, it has been pointed out that in terms of international

collective actions, including the construction of international rules of the game; the states of the

developed North in particular have increased their activities and their control over transborder economic

activities.6 To relate this travelling to theories of globalization can turn out to be a useful analytical

starting point, because broadly peaking globalization can be understood as ideas from different areas

circulating between and within national and political contexts.

Today, new kinds of political actors, new types of communication, new international issues and

issue – areas, as well as new modes of international cooperation have come to exert pressure in this

organizational and conceptual model of the foreign office. These are the sundry faces of globalization,

and they have come to challenge the way that we think about, and respond to, the world outside our

borders. Concurrently, the nature of state society interactions is changing rapidly, stimulating new forms

of society – society interaction. In this new context, the role of state and other private actors has expanded

in the recent years. In more concrete terms, the process can be understood as a number of technical,

market and political development that have decreased the relevance of geographic distance; people are

able to maintain social, political and economic contacts, less inhibited by spatial or temporal difference.7

In that way theories of globalization seem to go beyond theories of diffusion focusing on how innovations

spread from members of a social system to members of another, implying societies rather bringing in

solutions from outside than solving problems “ their own ways”.

This project however is aimed at analyzing how processes of globalization are linked to the

welfare debates and the welfare arrangements chosen in Norway. The challenge then is to open for

globalization – along with diffusion and internationalization – as theoretical tools and actual forces when

analyzing travelling or cross national ideas – although without losing sight of national differences and

specific political actors. In order to understand the massive scope and support “for the Norwegian welfare

state it is important to stress ideas about welfare as a right earned by citizenship and over the state both as

guarantor and producer of this welfare”8. In this little brief we would like to provide bits and pieces of

6 Jorge Diege Pedersen, (2008), Globalization, Development and the State, The performance of India and Brazil

since 1990, Palgrave Macmillan, p.11. 7 Jonathon W. Moses, Torbjorn Knutsen, Globalization and the reorganization of Foreign Affairs‟Ministeries,

Netherlands Institute of International Relation “Clingendael”, Discussion Papers in Diplomacy, p.11, available at:

http://www.peacepalacelibrary.nl/ebooks/files/Clingendael_20020500_cli_paper_dip_issue80.pdf . 8 Nina, Berven, (2002) National Politics and Global Ideas? Welfare, Work and Legitimacy in Norway and the

United States Stein Rokkan Centre for Social Studies Bergen University Research Foundation, p.15.

http://www.peacepalacelibrary.nl/ebooks/files/Clingendael_20020500_cli_paper_dip_issue80.pdf



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what we believe are some plausible explanations for the relative success of the Nordic societies. If these

experiences can improve the understanding of our way of doing things and inspire debate and

development in other parts of the world we will be very pleased. Shared values are also about sharing

values and experiences with others.

Norway may be understood as both a traditional community, held together by a common

language and geography, and as a community of belief, sharing beliefs or values that stress solidarity and

interdependence.9 The traditional picture of the Nordic model has been one where a generous welfare

state based on universalist principles, implying generous transfers to households and publicly provided

services financed by high taxes, offers generous social protection at the same time as encompassing labor

market organizations play a major role in regulating the labor market in a corporatist fashion. Social

developments in Norway over the past decade have led to major changes of importance to the work on

universal design. The legislation has been developed and reinforced, the principle of sector responsibility

has been adopted and the number of players working on universal design has risen sharply. To allow

people who want to work to do so is a welfare objective in itself10

. Over the last twenty years, poverty has

continued to be a problem in many developing countries while the pressure on the earth‟s ecosystems has

been increasing. Poverty and threats to the earth‟s environment are the main challenges for a sustainable

development. How industrialized countries like Norway best can contribute in meeting these challenges

should be our main focus in the work towards sustainable development.

The question whether development is sustainable depends on whether it is possible to say

something about developments over time since “the needs of today shall be meet without inflicting

damage to the next generation ”11

. It is evident that this is a demanding condition, and in Norway we

have a less ambitious starting point, focused on potential future developments rather than trying to predict

what the actual developments will be. However, we do not argue that a favourable development of over

all national wealth necessarily ensures that sustainable development in fact will take place. Maintenance

of our national wealth is therefore only a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for sustainable

9 Kjell Å Modéer, Hanne Petersen, Believing in Norway, Beliefs in Norway: A “Humanitarian Great Power” under

Globalization, Report 2009, Univerity of Oslo, Norwegian Center for Human Rights, p. 7, available at:

http://jura.ku.dk/cecs/dansk/ansatte/?pure=files%2F19371370%2FPDF . 10 Tarmo Valkonen, Vesa Vihriälä, (2014), The Nordic model – challenged but capable of reform, TemaNord , p. 46,

available at: http://norden.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:715939/FULLTEXT02.pdf . 11 World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (1987): Our Common Future, Oxford University

Press, Oxford, New York,available at: http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm .

http://jura.ku.dk/cecs/dansk/ansatte/?pure=files%2F19371370%2FPDF

http://norden.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:715939/FULLTEXT02.pdf

http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm



173


development. Norway‟s stability, safety, wealth, and welfare system make it an attractive destination for

migrants from many backgrounds, in spite of its cold climate and peripheral location. The fast growth in

immigrant numbers must chiefly be understood in this context rather than as something encouraged by

state policy.12

However, globalization has also contributed to the development and awareness of threats

and conflicts new and old in other parts of the world. Events that used to be distant have come closer to us

through the interconnectedness of the world. The new and enhanced awareness of threats to Norwegian

security, as well as the increased proximity of external threats, has had an impact on how we understand

Norwegian security.

Globalization has had a significant impact on what are regarded as possible threats to societal

security in Norway and authorities have acknowledged that the Norwegian threat landscape is partly a

result of Norway‟s participation in a globalized world. “Threats with a global character – for example,

terrorism – is seen as objective threats to the society and official Norwegian documents do not question

the perceptions, value sets and political discourses on which ideas of societal security are based.”13

The picture given in this paper has been one of indeterminacy and complexity, of uneven

globalization and regional differentiation. Globalization, nationalism, and regionalization are important

trends that shape world politics, though their inherent importance is relative to one another through

dynamic linkages of convergence, divergence, and uneasy coexistence or overlapping. Globalization, it is

sometimes claimed, produces converging effects on countries‟ education policies. All nation states

struggle to maintain or increase their competitiveness in the global market place. It is evident that regimes

and governments (as representing states) are under stress, civil societies are contesting state roles, and

citizens everywhere are turning away from their active support for their states in the direction of

alternative foci of loyalties and identities. The key issue is the ability to learn to adapt to rapidly

changing surroundings of production. Learning has to take place on a lifelong basis within or connected

to working life.“Under these conditions a global legal realism would need to take into consideration that

Western and Northern countries, a century ago still countries of emigration, have during the last decades

become goals for migrants wanting to improve their own living conditions as well as that of the host

12 Immigration and national identity in Norway by Thomas Hylland Eriksen, p.13, available at:

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/TCM-Norwaycasestudy.pdf . 13 J. Peter Burgess, Sissel Haugdal Jore, ( 2008) , The Influence of Globalization on Societal Security: The

Norwegian Context, available at:

http://file.prio.no/Publication_files/Prio/The%20Influence%20of%20Globalization%20on%20Societal%20Security

%20-%20The%20Norwegian%20Context.pdf .

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/TCM-Norwaycasestudy.pdf

http://file.prio.no/Publication_files/Prio/The%20Influence%20of%20Globalization%20on%20Societal%20Security%20-%20The%20Norwegian%20Context.pdf




174


countries.”14

Because globalization reduces geographically related social and cultural constraints, the

context in which discursive struggles over power and ideological dominance take place is expanded; such

struggles occur on a larger geographical scale than before, implicating more stakeholders than before.

From this perspective, questions related to ideological power struggles become increasingly central in the

context of globalization.

While the analyses are anchored in a Norwegian context, and findings must be seen in light of

this, what may be of interest to other contexts is the global-local dynamic, in which rhetorical patterns

play an important role. Globalization is a largely irreversible. This process will continue producing

experiments more or less clumsy, whatever the outcome. You have to admit that what we have now in

front of listen and obey the logic of collective action proportions which causes a high degree of

homonyms and impersonal in the actions and reactions of human and therefore a degree rather

unpredictable the results. We believe that the very idea of "leading" or "rein in" the complex processes of

globalization will be very difficult.

Bibliography

Berven, Nina, (2002) National Politics and Global Ideas? Welfare, Work and Legitimacy in

Norway and the United States Stein Rokkan Centre for Social Studies Bergen University

Research Foundation ;

Burgess, J. Peter, Sissel Haugdal Jore,( 2008) , The Influence of Globalization on Societal

Security: The Norwegian Context, available at:

http://file.prio.no/Publication_files/Prio/The%20Influence%20of%20Globalization%20on%20So

cietal%20Security%20-%20The%20Norwegian%20Context.pdf ;

Eriksen, Thomas Hylland, (2013), Immigration and national identity in Norway ,Migration

Policy Institute, available at: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/TCM-Norwaycasestudy.pdf ;

Held, David, McGrew, Anthony, (2003), The Global Transformations Reader, An Introduction

to the Globalization Debate, Second edition, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK ;

14 Trine Kvidal (2011), Tensions of Consumer Individualism. Norwegian Identity in the Context of Globalization,

Nordicom Review 32, p.121, available at: http://www.nordicom.gu.se/sites/default/files/kapitel-pdf/345_kvidal.pdf.



http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/TCM-Norwaycasestudy.pdf

http://www.nordicom.gu.se/sites/default/files/kapitel-pdf/345_kvidal.pdf



175


Kacowicz, Arie M. (1998), Regionalization, Globalization, and Nationalism, Convergent,

Divergent, or Overlapping, The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Working Paper

262, available at: https://kellogg.nd.edu/publications/workingpapers/WPS/262.pdf ;

Kjell Å Modéer, Hanne Petersen, (2009) Believing in Norway, Beliefs in Norway: A

“Humanitarian Great Power” under Globalization, Report 2009, Univerity of Oslo, Norwegian

Center for Human Rights, available at:

http://jura.ku.dk/cecs/dansk/ansatte/?pure=files%2F19371370%2FPDF;

Kvidal, Trine, (2011), Tensions of Consumer Individualism. Norwegian Identity in the Context of

Globalization, Nordicom Review 32, available at:

http://www.nordicom.gu.se/sites/default/files/kapitel-pdf/345_kvidal.pdf ;

Holm, Hans-Henrik and Georg Sorensen. (1995), “Introduction: What Has Changed?” in Hans-

Henrik Holm and Georg Sorensen, eds., Whose World Order? Uneven Globalization and the End

of the Cold War (Boulder, CO: Westview);

Maltone Carmela, Yvars, Bernard, Brady, Hannah, (2012) , Globalization and social inequalities

in Europe: assessment and outlook, Eastern Journal of European Studies, Volume 3, Issue 1,

available at: http://ejes.uaic.ro/articles/EJES2012_0301_MAL.pdf ;

Moses, Jonathon W. , Knutsen, Torbjorn, Globalization and the reorganization of Foreign

Affairs‟Ministeries, Netherlands Institute of International Relation “Clingendael”, Discussion

Papers in Diplomacy, available at:


;

Pedersen, Jorge Diege, (2008), Globalization, Development and the State, The performance of

India and Brazil since 1990, Palgrave Macmillan ;

Rosenberg, Justin, (2005), „Globalization Theory: A Post Mortem‟, International Politics, 42:1;

Tarmo, Valkonen, Vesa Vihriälä, (2014), The Nordic model – challenged but capable of reform,

TemaNord, available at: http://norden.diva-

portal.org/smash/get/diva2:715939/FULLTEXT02.pdf ;

World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (1987): Our Common Future,

Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, available at: http://www.un-documents.net/wced-

ocf.htm ;

https://kellogg.nd.edu/publications/workingpapers/WPS/262.pdf

http://jura.ku.dk/cecs/dansk/ansatte/?pure=files%2F19371370%2FPDF

http://www.nordicom.gu.se/sites/default/files/kapitel-pdf/345_kvidal.pdf

http://ejes.uaic.ro/articles/EJES2012_0301_MAL.pdf






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