Anthony Giddens, in his lecture on BBC Radio 4, gives an overview about the revolution that globalisation has been producing throughout the world.
Globalisation means international trades, wide range of goods and services, and moreover, hight level of finance and capital flows. However, it includes not only economical concerns, but also technological, political and cultural ones.
The input of this revolution has been given by the birth of the electronic way of communication. He says: " When the image Nelson Mandela maybe is more familiar to us then the face of our neighbour, something has changed in the nature of our everyday experience".
Owing to improvements in the speed of sharing news, travelling, and communicating, globalisation has modified people's attidudes and behaviours in "the little" as well as the Earth: family speaks about today's happenings and facts. On the other hand, globalisation is the reason for the revival of cultural identities. Local nationalism spring up as a response to these cosmopolitan tendencies.
However, this is not all flowers! There are so many drawbacks deriving from globalisation. The share of the poorest fifth of the world's population is dropping, whereas the portion taken by the richest fifth is rising. Economy must be found on stabil criteria. Nowadays, it is possible destabilize the world just with couple of mouse clicks.
Prof. Giddens finds on protectionism a point for a new growth for some under-developed countries. There is the need of a reform within powerful nations in order to carry out tasks they are called to perform. We need equity.