A Historical Approach to Globalization and Its Ethical and Educational Implications

Abstract

Introducing and teaching globalization increasingly becomes a very sensitive issue of which most inhabitants of industrialized countries are hardly aware of. Though the negative side effects of present-day global capitalism are critical issues, there is another effect, as dangerous, concerning the way globalization is presented and taught both by pro-globalists and anti-globalists. Both sides like to present globalization as a “Western” phenomenon. There are two questions here to be answered. First, is there indeed a “West” from which all universal values and institutions originate from? Second, if this is not the case, what caused this phenomenon, and how do we correct it? Of course this leads us to an alternative way of presenting and teaching globalization.