Globaloney: No, the world isn't flat

We've previously hypothesized about the fading relevance of national borders in this ever-globalized world. In response to our many class discussions the extent of globalization and internationalism with Professor Hayden, a reality check from Professor Pankaj Ghemawat, an economist and professor at IESE Business School in Spain:

In his TED talk, which centers on a few key data points, Ghemawat chalks up the popularity of talking about the “world being one” and how “the world is flat” to lack of research, peer pressure, and "exaggerated conceptions of how technology is going to overpower—in the very immediate run—all cultural barriers, all political barriers, all geographic barriers.”

He acknowledges how he is often confronted with questions about Facebook’s role in connecting people across borders. “Theoretically,” he says, “[Facebook] makes it as easy to form friendships halfway around the world as opposed to right next door.” However, he poses, “What percentage of people’s friends on Facebook are actually located in countries other than where they are based? For all this talk about how flat the world is, Ghemawat highlights how approximately only 10 to 15 percent of Facebook users have friends that are not geographically located in the same country in which they live. This amount—although not negligible, he admits, indicates that although “we don’t live in an entirely local or national world,” the level of globalization in the world is “very, very far from the 90 percent level you would expect.” 

So, he argues, extreme views of globalization propagated by authors such as Naomi Klein and Tom Friedman (for whom the game of golf is an inspirational source) is pure baloney, or as Ghemawat puts it, “globaloney!” 

He goes on to say that:

“Globaloney is very harmful to [our] health. Being accurate about how limited globalization levels are is critical to even being able to notice that there might be room for something more, something that might contribute further to global welfare. Avoiding overstatement is very helpful because it reduces and in some cases even reverses some people’s fears about globalization.” 

His data supports such assertions. Taking an extreme view of globalization does seem at worst, naive, and at most, dangerous. Erring on the side of caution is best. Overestimating how interconnected our world is—and how inclusive it is, in Castell's sense of the word—puts us as risk for pigeonholing our perspective of the true effects and the short-, medium- and long-term trajectory of communication.