Globalization and Social Sciences: Impact and Opportunities

1. A Global World: Problems and Solutions

Globalization is a term used to define the twenty-first-century world, although one cannot understand how we got to this point without taking into account the history of past centuries.

Globalization is a logical consequence of technological development, allowing the world economy to function as a unitary system. This has negative consequences for a large part of humanity. Alternative movements have emerged that define themselves as anti-globalization, criticizing the current global economic system, which they blame for the poverty and lack of human rights suffered by a large part of the population.

Globalization is not inherently negative; it depends on how it is used. The economy knows no borders and is organized globally, thanks to the possibilities offered by modern transportation and communication.

Large international companies, multinational corporations, often have their origin and plants in developed countries: the USA, Japan, and the European Union. These countries run companies, and major decisions are made there. They are also the locations of design, marketing, advertising, and research.

These companies locate their production facilities (factories) in developing countries, especially in Southeast Asian countries.

The globalization of the economy has occurred because it is technically possible (due to current means of transportation and communication), because it is economically profitable for large companies, and because there is global economic liberalism, which allows and encourages it.

The consequences of globalization, both negative and positive, affect the populations of developed and developing countries. Some negative aspects of globalization are:

• The rampant growth of consumerism in developed countries.
• The deterioration of the environment worldwide.
• Increasing economic inequality worldwide.
• Increased conflicts.

Some positive aspects of globalization are:

• The dissemination of information and knowledge worldwide.
• The ability to intervene in a rapid humanitarian disaster.
• The possibility of serving a more equitable and sustainable development with all the technology and financial means provided by globalization.

The Millennium Development Goals

In 2000, the UN held the Millennium Summit. It identified eight major world problems and set specific targets for each one that could be achieved within 15 years.

• Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
• Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education.
• Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women.
• Goal 4: Reduce child mortality.
• Goal 5: Improve maternal health.
• Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
• Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability.
• Goal 8: Develop an international partnership for development.

The world has the financial resources necessary to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and eradicate poverty. What is lacking is the political will of many world leaders to make this possible.

The eight MDGs are a compact between rich and poor countries. Poor countries must do their part to achieve the first seven goals. Rich countries should give more and promote an international partnership for development.

2. A Walk in the World Today

The world is characterized by inequality. There is talk of an imbalance between North and South to refer to these differences between rich and poor.

Europe Seeks its Union

After the Second World War, small European countries decided to join together. First, they joined the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community) in 1951, and then in 1957, with the Treaty of Rome, the European Economic Community.

Since then, the political and economic community, now called the European Union, has not stopped growing.

Currently, it comprises 27 states, including Spain, which cooperate with each other for mutual development.

Within this area, nearly 500 million people enjoy the same rights and obligations.

The main European Union institutions are:

• European Parliament
• European Commission
• The Council of the Union

The European Union is founded on the rule of law. This means that all activities are derived from the treaty, agreed upon voluntarily and democratically by all Member States. The last treaty was signed in Lisbon in 2007 and revised the previous one signed in Rome in 2004, which aimed at drawing up a Constitution.

The American Giant Watches the World

America is the paradise of the capitalist system. This wealth has resulted in a deeply unbalanced society, home to the wealthiest people on the planet alongside millions of people living in poverty, as in a developing country. Specifically, 13% of the population lives in poverty.

The United States is the world’s leading exporter of almost everything. It has over 300 million people of all ethnicities, cultures, races, religions, etc. Its agriculture is the most productive in the world (corn, wheat, or cotton), and its industry is the world’s most powerful (iron and steel metallurgy, automobiles, weapons, oil, and high technology). Finally, many multinational companies have their headquarters in the United States.

But this nation has serious shortcomings regarding the respect for human rights.

Japan and China

Asia, the world’s largest continent, has many economic and social inequalities. Asia accounts for 60% of the world’s population, about 4 billion people, concentrated mainly in the southeast, while the interior is quite deserted.

In the southwest, we have what we call the Middle East, a number of Muslim countries whose economy depends almost exclusively on the sale of oil and whose social development is scarce.

The two countries representing the continent are China and Japan. Between them, we find the so-called “Pacific Dragons,” which are quite rich and industrialized, such as South Korea, Singapore, or Taiwan.

China is a country of 1.2 billion people. China’s economy is growing at a rate of over 9% per year. Production is expected to double China’s economy to that of Germany in 2010 and reach that of Japan, today the second largest in the world, in 2020.

China is not a truly democratic country, and human rights violations are quite common.

Japan, thanks to its cheap, skilled, and extremely hard-working labor, has overcome all these initial handicaps and has become a giant company dedicated to business and industry, especially electronics.

Latin America

A feature common to all countries of this region is political instability.

American society is also characterized by great ethnic diversity and tremendous inequality, poverty, and social injustice, which has produced many protest movements and armed revolutions.

The literacy rate in Latin America is higher than in Asia and Africa (although lower than in developed countries), but the situation is quite uneven across the region. It is highest in Argentina and Chile and lowest in the Andean region (Bolivia, Peru, and some Central American countries).

The economy is based on the exploitation of natural resources and their export to developed countries. These riches are almost always in the hands of multinational companies.

Latin America’s biggest problem is the constant interference of developed countries in the politics of the area.

Africa

Africa is the poorest continent of all. Almost half the population lives on less than a dollar a day (about 0.7 euros), and among the 48 least developed countries in the world, 34 are in Africa. Education, health, war, and nutrition are everyday problems here in Africa.

It is a sparsely populated continent, rich in natural resources but with a very low level of development.

The wealth of a territory is not exploited by its inhabitants but by large foreign companies, which are the ones who reap the benefits.

That is the main cause of Africa’s economic problems.

To this, we must add many territorial problems, wars, rebellions, dictatorships—in short, huge political instability.

In Africa, we can differentiate two different realities:

• First, there is sub-Saharan Africa, which is south of the Sahara Desert, also known as Black Africa, and we can consider it very underdeveloped. It is a victim of AIDS, wars, and natural disasters such as droughts, which are becoming more common. Constant hunger kills millions of people annually.
• For its part, North Africa, also known as the Maghreb, cannot be considered a least developed country but is in a state of poverty less than the rest of the continent.

3. Thinking About Women in the World Today

The Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 defined the human rights of the individual, a concept that, of course, includes women. However, some individual rights of women and girls were not included.

Between 1975 and 2000, the United Nations held five world conferences on the legal and social equality of women.

Poverty has a female face: in the world, approximately 1.5 billion people live in absolute poverty, and the majority are women.

Women in Underdeveloped Countries

Women in developing countries live in much more difficult conditions than those in rich countries, but also their situation is much worse than that of men in those countries.

Women in developing countries must also bear the weight of the children and home, and work outside, especially in agriculture.

Illiteracy rates are much higher for women (which will hinder their access to positions of power), as is healthcare, since complications of pregnancy and childbirth remain the leading cause of death in young women.

We have to differentiate between women in rural and urban areas.

• In the rural world, in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, women are primarily dedicated to housework and childcare. And besides, they tend to develop hard labor in agriculture.
• In urban areas, married women bear most of the financial burden of maintaining their homes, especially with the increasing unemployment in recent years. The most common activities are trading in fruit, candy, and crafts and working as maids for hours.

Special mention should be made of countries like China, where women have traditionally been marginalized and seen as a burden to their families. Nor can we forget about some Muslim countries with a radical interpretation of Islam, where women are doomed to invisibility and confinement at home or behind the burka, the huge veil that covers them completely.

Women have gained international recognition. This is the case of Rigoberta Menchú, Nobel Peace Prize winner for her work on behalf of Native Americans, or Aung San Suu Kyi, also a Nobel Peace Prize winner, who could not collect it because she was under house arrest in Burma (Asia).

But there are times when swimming against the current comes at a heavy price, as in the case of the murdered Indira Gandhi (Prime Minister of India) or Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan.

Women in Developed Countries

Also, in developed countries, in some areas, there is discrimination against the 52% of the population who are women.

Advertising is a reflection of society because it attempts to cater to its tastes as much as possible, and our advertising sometimes betrays us, illustrating some of our social failures.

Women have been gaining their equal space in advanced societies.

Despite how much progress has been made in developed countries, for example, in access to education, in the world of work, women may encounter the following problems:

• Inequality of opportunity: Women generally occupy positions of lesser responsibility, under the pretext of their lesser dedication to work due to their domestic burdens and family expectations.
• Production of all unpaid domestic work.
• Discrimination and sexual harassment.
• Unequal wages for equal work. Women are paid an average of 30% less than men, and in some industrialized countries, such as Japan, the average is 51% less.
• Unemployment rates are higher among women, as many companies fear maternity leave. There are places where things are even worse, in Asia, because the labor participation of women is half that of men, and in Arab countries, for every 100 men working, just 16 women do. But we also need to improve this situation.

Anyway, we cannot forget that today women in rich countries have a much better position than in poor countries, and it is becoming common to find women in key positions in the economy, politics, or social life.

4. Career Prospects of Social Sciences

Social Sciences are those sciences or scientific disciplines that deal with aspects of behavior and activities of human beings not studied in the natural sciences.

Their aim is to interpret human actions, although in recent times, there have been abundant scientific attempts to make predictions and laws that explain the development of social phenomena.

Social Sciences are subjective. This does not mean that social science is arbitrary. Although in many cases interpretations are made that are not scientifically proven and are therefore of questionable scientific rigor, one should try to argue and provide arguments and evidence for the interpretations of social phenomena.

In Elementary and Secondary Education, two subjects with high academic tradition are often associated with the social sciences: Geography and History. In addition to Geography and History, disciplines such as the following also belong to the field of social sciences:

• Economy
• Business
• Sociology
• Political Science
• Law
• Planning
• Anthropology
• Communication Sciences

Most of the disciplines mentioned above have few career opportunities. Social Sciences are a major source of employment due to the labor market in which we are inserted. This makes the public sector, and especially the field of education, the main source of employment for persons who obtain university degrees related to many of the social sciences.

Not all social sciences are just theoretical and not very productive from the standpoint of the interests of business and consumer society. Studies of Economics and Business are in fashion, and career opportunities are extensive in the world of private enterprise.

Vocational training is an excellent option for people who want to acquire specific training geared to the working world.

Vocational training in our region is currently experiencing great development. Notably, the administration is making an effort to increase and improve the qualifications and alternatives available for study purposes: in person, by increasing the number of centers that offer it, and at a distance, providing the possibility of studying through educational platforms like this one where you are currently located.

A professional family is a set of vocational training qualifications or higher-level qualifications that are related to the same workplace.

The catalog of professional families that can currently be taken in Andalusia is broad.

The Certificate in Secondary Education allows you direct access to a large number and variety of degrees of Intermediate Vocational Training. Direct access to the qualifications of Higher Vocational Education requires possession of a Bachelor’s degree.