The Sociology of Globalization: History, Causes and Consequences

Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Sociology - Political Sociology, Majorities, Minorities, grade: 1, University of Vienna, course: Economic Sociology, language: English, abstract: We eat Spanish tomatoes, drink French wine, drive Japanese cars and wear clothes produced in Bangladesh. Europeans celebrate Halloween, the whole world is listening to American Pop Music and our neighbours come from all over the world. This shows that economy and society have reached a global level. Due to this, globalization has become a key issue in the social analysis of economy over the past years. In this work, I will analyse the sociological understandings of globalization, its causes and its consequences. Starting from a definition of globalization and the connection of globalization and capitalism, I will then point out the origins of globalization and the subjects in sociology of globalization. I will analyse the causes and consequences of globalization from a sociological point of view. I come to the conclusion that globalization led to an increase of welfare all over the world but there are also new problems which need to be solved.