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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