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APARAJITA SEN




FACES AND FACETS OF GLOBALIZATION

‘It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity’ said Kofi Annan, a view shared by the majority of present day economists and political scientists. Yet in the last three decades we have witnessed the growing importance of alter-globalization movements all over the world by those who are not against global cooperation and interaction per se, but oppose what they describe as the negative effects of economic globalization. It seems evident that there is no consensus on the concept and outcomes of globalization – the effects of globalization depend on a host of factors –economic, political, social and cultural universes in different countries, presence or absence of redistributive justice, level of consciousness about ecological issues etc. It seems evident that globalization can be perceived as a boon or a bane depending on the point of view of each person. Sangsoptok dedicates the March 2016 issue to globalization to understand these different points of view and forwarded the interview questionnaire to several economists. We would like to thank Mary Scully, Jayati Sarkar and Mita Chakrabarty, Mousumi Roy for their contributions in this issue.

In addition to the economic and societal factors cited above, I think that there is a generational dimension to globalization. Millennials, born and growing up in a largely globalized world have a very different vision of the phenomenon and its effects on their lives. In fact, in most countries this generation does not have much idea about a different world order. But surprisingly, we found that the two young men who replied to our interview growing up in societies in two different corners of the world do have an excellent understanding about the different factors relating to globalization. Our sincere thanks to Arin, Aninda, Adrij and Aroni Chaudhuri for taking time to answer our questions.

The main objective of Songsoptok is to bring into focus different themes that merit reflection. It is our contributors who use Songsoptok to express their thoughts, ideas and opinions. But the editors do have the obligation to present the whole picture on any given topic with their own contributions. That is the reason why we chose to publish a series of comments in the ‘Last Page’ section made by prominent personalities who look at globalization differently, highlighting the possible negative effects on different countries and societies, on environmental problems at a global level, on the risk of disappearance of cultural diversity, on increasing economic polarization and domination by the major economic powers. We hope the different quotations we have chosen will give our readers a glimpse of a different thought process, pointing the way to a different world order.

We look forward to the feedback of our readers and contributors and thank them once again for their continued support.


Aparajita Sen
EDITOR

SONGSOPTOK


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