ROBERTSON’S AND RITZER’S CONCEPTIONS OF GLOBALIZATION

Abstract

This article was primarily concerned with offering an exposition of the basic tenets of two important thinkers of the globalization. Focus of interest are elements of the theories of R. Robertson and G. Ritzer that are relevant for the context of the development of social thought on the phenomenon of globalization. Ronald Robertson recognized globalization “as a concept that refers both to the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole” (Robertson, 1992, p.8). Robertson, as a result of the globalization constructed a glocalization based on the link between the global and the local. In Ritzer’s work, “globalization is the worldwide diffusion of practices, expansion of relations across continents, the organizations of social life on a global scale, and the growth of a shared global consciousness” (Ritzer, 2007, p.4). He described globalization by the processes of grobalization capitalism, americanization and McDonaldization which are present in all spheres of social life. The concluding part of the paper provides an overview of the two authors’ theories of the global society, emphasizing their contribution to the body of theoretical analyses of the phenomenon of globalization. Today, these two conceptions of globalization are most fundamental, most representative and prolific for the cultural interpretation in the global space.