Fordism as the beginning of everything
The Ford model consisted basically of a production line, management hierarchies and technical control started by Henry Ford in his car factory in order to build the Ford T model. The term Fordism gained notoriety through Antonio Grasmci when he used the term as synonymous with mass production in which the product had its price reduced, becoming accessible to many people. (Gramsci, 1934). This mode of production helped the United States to leave with its post war economy practically intact, unlike the European economies that needed rebuilding from scratch. The United States became the dominant nation in the 50s and 60s. (Antonio & Bonanno, 1996). The Ford model blooms in these decades and reaches its ruin in the 70s because of the economic crisis of the time, where the successive oil crises and the devaluation of the US dollar led traditional industries (including the steel and metallurgical industries) to bankruptcy, causing great rates of unemployment and a worsening of inflation. The crisis continues in the 80s when Ronald Reagan became president in 1980 and started a number of deregulation economic projects and social budgets cuts in order to fight the stringent inflation that started in the 70s, following the same model of then English Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. American policies also had importance to reduce socialism and Cold War reinforced this in 89 with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the severe economic crisis of the Socialist block countries, including the Soviet Union. The lack of competition, low wages and the lack of products caused a serious global economic crisis.
Globalization
The process of globalization appears to meet cater to capitalism, where developed countries sought new markets in order to expand their own, that were saturated at the time. Capitalism consolidates itself and globalization is nothing but its more advanced form. \”A new and integrated way of capitalism\” (Friedman, 2000). Also according to Friedman, globalization is the system in which the free markets, technologies and organizations come to replace the frozen system of the Cold War of once. With the new technologies and the expansion of markets it was possible to connect companies, even though distant, linking markets in the world to each other. Thus, it is possible by increasing the flow of market and trade, finding the same products in various places around the world. The Global Village was formed, where not only the markets were connected, but also all cultural and social productions. The term was coined by the Canadian Marshall MC Luhan, who says that all technological processes reduce the world to a small village. The term emerged in the 60s, but only with the technologies from the 90s it starts to gain a more palpable sense. Many comment that due to the American power, the term globalization it is confused sometimes with the term americanization.
Americanization
With the end of the Cold War in 1989 and the Iraq war in 1991, there is the beginning of a new world order with the United States again in a position of the largest power. The americanization could extend the advantages of a progressive modernization in regards to the most recent evolutionary processes for the rest of the world (Parsons, 1971). The English language becomes the lingua franca for the business world and pop culture in general. American executives (as well as the people in general) speak only English, creating sociocultural bubble (Gray, 1998). The American way of life is sold as the American dream, making their culture and way of life also a marketing ploy to sell products. (Barber, 1996). People forming queues and filling waiting lists in Brazil, for example, to buy a new iPhone model from Apple, which costs more than 4 times the value of the minimum wage paid in the country, are a good example of the American influence to sell technology products. Americans are also the dominant nation in relation to the production of music, film and television series and movies that fill the grid of the prime time schedule of many television networks. Just go to any country in the world and ask about the TV series “Friends” or the movie sagas and comics of The X Men and most likely many fans will manifest passionate ideas about the subject.
The American model of work and business takes over the world, including Communist countries such as China, where you can go to a McDonalds and listen to a Ronald McDonald speaking in perfect Mandarin while eating a Big Mac that tastes the same in Boston. There is even a term called McDonaldization , coined by sociologist George Ritzer in his book “The McDonadization of Society”, where he says that \”the principles of fast food restaurants are coming to dominate more and more sectors of US society, as well as the rest of the world\” (Ritzer, 1993).
A dilemma
There is some confusion, so be said, between the terms globalization and americanization. Many scholars argue that the americanization came to be a result in the evolution of globalization. Multinational companies as Wal Mart, Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Burger King etc, even in international locations with their American work system: many hours of work and little rest in between them. Sometimes Americans working in foreign countries have difficulties understanding the way the work place is organized saying it is not productive enough.
Looks like what we see in society and in the business world is that globalization was abducted by the Americans on their favor, according to what Thomas Friedman wrote on his column for The New York Times: \”The globalization is, in many ways americanization: globalization wears Mickey Mouse ears, drinks Pepsi and Coca-Cola, eats Big Macs, work from an IBM laptop with Windows 98. Many societies around the world can’t get enough of it, but others may see it as a fundamental threat.\” (Friedman, 1998).
But, globalization is much more than that, it can change more than pop culture and means of production, it can change the way we live, work, study and even where we live and how we see the world as we approach each other in the small global village we call home.
References
Antonio, Robert J. & Alessandro Bonanno. 1996. “Post Fordism in The United States: The Poverty of Market Centered Democracy” in Current Perspectives in Social Theory 16
Barber, Benjamin R. 1996. Jihad vs the McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping The World. New York.
Friedman, Thomas L. 1998. Foreign Affairs; Angry, Wired and Deadly em The New York Times. Ace
Friedman, Thomas L. 2000. The Lexus and the Olive Tree. New York.
Gramsci, Antonio. 1929/1935. Translated 1971. Selections From The Prision Notebooks. Translated by Quentin Hoare e Geoffrey Nowell Smith. New York.
Gray, John. 1998. False Dawn: The Disillusions of Global Capitalism. New York.
Parsons, Talcott. 1971. The System Of Modern Societies. Englewood Cliffs. NJ.
Ritzer,George. 1993. The McDonaldization of Society. Pine Forge Press. Newbury Park.
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