Ade 8240

ADE 8240 (THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT)

A RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT ON: IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU THINK GLOBALISATION CAN AFFECT COMMUNITY CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT AT THE GRASSROOT LEVEL IN AFRICA

BY NURA IBRAHIM MUKHTAR REG. NO. SPS/08/EDU/00008 PROGRAMME: M.ED (COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT) DEPARTMENT: ADULT EDUCTION AND COMMUNITY SERVICES BAYERO UNIVERSITY, KANO

INTRODUCTION Globalization has become a buzzword and a key idea for business theory and Practice and entered academic debates. It has also become a phenomenon that its foot and finger prints are boldly seen in the whole of the so-called modern life, be it political, economic social, e.t.c.Therefore,globalization is an important and sensitive issue worthy of being studied and discussed as it affects community change and development at the grass root level in Africa. For a clear understanding of the issue at hand on discussion, definitions of globalization, community change and development has to be mentioned, thus: WHAT IS GLOBALISATION Globalization has been defined in several ways by different scholars but here definitions provided by Scholte(2000:15-17) and El-baz (2001) will be used. According to Scholte (2000:15-17) cited in Shaw (2001) at least five broad definitions of globalization can be found in the literature as follows: (A)Globalization as internationalization: Here globalization is viewed simply as another adjective to describe cross-border relations between countries. It describes the growth in international exchange and interdependence. (B)Globalization as liberalization: In this broad set of definitions, globalization refers to a process of removing government-imposed restrictions on movements between countries in order to create an “open”, “borderless” world economy. (C)Globalization as universalisation:In this use, ‘global’ is used in the sense of being “worldwide” and “globalization” is the process of spreading various objects and experiences to people at all corners of the earth .A classic example of this would be the spread of computing, television e,t.c. (D)Globalization as westernization or modernization:(especially in an “Americanized” form).Here globalization is understood as a dynamic, whereby the social structure of modernity (capitalism,rationalism,industrialism,bereaucratism, e.t.c.) are spread the world over, normally destroying pre-existent cultures and local selfdetermination in the process. (E)Globalizations as deterritorialisation:(or as the spread of supraterritoriality): Here “globalization” entails a “reconfiguration of geography, so that social space is no longer wholly mapped in terms of territorial places, territorial distances and territorial borders.

On the other hand, ion El-Baz (2001) gives globalization some definitions base on some two approaches viz functional and structural approaches. Base on functional approach globalization is defined by El-Baz (2001) as achievements and manifestations such as great technological and scientific achievements, information and communication advancement, the power dynamism of the transnational corporations (TNCs), and global market that guarantee the free movement of capital, products and services, and labor. Taking the structural approach into consideration El-Baz (2001) defines globalization as a dialectical historical process, and an advance phase of an ever-changing human history, in terms of cumulative scientific knowledge and technology. Therefore, going with these definitions of globalization by Scholte (2000) and El-Baz (2001) I can say globalization is concept that involves integration of the parts of the world into a one economic system, one intellectual and cultural system and a common political mode and dimension with the domination of western world through the use of some vehicles like information-communication technology, United Nations, USAID, DFID, IMF, World Bank and so on. WHAT IS COMMUNITY CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT To explain what is community change and development is, it is imperative to know the meanings of the three key words in the phrase i.e. “community”, “change” and “development”. Therefore, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1995:271,213,374) defines these key words as follows: (a)Community is a group of people who share the same nationality or religion or who are similar in another way. (b)Change is to stop having or doing one thing and start having or doing something else instead. (c)Development is the gradual growth of something so that it becomes bigger or more advanced. Hence, I can say community change and development can be a transformation or re-formation that occurs among a group of people who share the the same nationality or religion or who are similar in another way, that results into a better living condition for the members of the group.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GLOBALISATION AND COMMUNITY CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT In addition, to think clearly on what ways globalization can affect community change and development at the grass root level in Africa, it seems a must to look at the relationship between the two concepts. Therefore, the relationship between globalization and community change and development, with the view of the meanings of the two concepts I provided above, is that of the effect and the affected i.e. globalization influences community change and development in form of tilting the latter towards integration the world into a single community base on the domination of western cultural, political, social, economic and intellectual norms and values. Going with this, globalization can affect community change and development in so many ways at the grass root level in Africa. This is as Follows: SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF GLOBALIZATION AT THE GRASSROOT LEVEL IN AFICA Socially, at the grass root level in Africa globalization has affected many Africans, that as a result of western media they started to view their indigenous social norms and values as primitive, including the useful viable ones. Take for example the issue of our local languages that have been made imperior to foreign languages like French, English, and Spanish and so on. African languages seldom find any legally meaningful protection under national laws (Kamanga, 2001) Politically, globalization has introduced Democracy where political right(s) of all the citizens is promoted, to the detriment of our African indigenous monarchial political system and military dictatorship. This resulted in sensitizing African masses to cater for their rights. An example of this is Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Economically, globalization has introduced capitalism, an economic system that promotes the concentration of resources in the hands of the bourgeoisies and making the poor ones poorer. This Capitalism is now making the Africans at the grass root level more manipulatable, dominable and oppress able. A typical example of this is what happens here in Nigeria during elections. As a result of the poor economic status the masses sell their votes for a meager amount of money that results in the installation of wrong individuals into public offices in Nigeria. Furthermore, globalization promotes free market economy where African markets are flooded with foreign goods that de-market African made

products, which result in closure of local industries, as a result of which many people at the grass root level lose their jobs and become miserable unemployed. In some cases, some of those foreign goods are sub-standard. Take for example the case of Chinese products that occupied our markets and eroded our economy in Nigeria. To crown it all, globalization is more of evil than good to the world in general and Africa in particular. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF GLOBALIZATION (i)THE ADVANTAGES: 1. Promotion of political awareness and enlightenment. 2. Scientific and technological discoveries and inventions that make life easier and efficient 3. Information-communication is made easy and efficient e.g. the use of internet e.t.c. 4. Globalization promotes free movement between the borders of countries that brings the people in the countries close to one another. 5. Globalization facilitates intellectual activities and extension of intellectual views and products that help in making life better and promoting intellectualism. (ii)THE DISADVANTAGES: 1. Globalization promotes racism and ethno-centrism by making western culture superior to others 2. Globalisation undermines African economy by promoting economic interdependence e.g. African countries produce the raw materials at cheaper rates and western countries produce industrial goods and sell it to Africans at higher rates 3. Globalization is more of westernization than modernization 4. Globalization promotes the feeling of imperiority-complex among Africans 5. Globlization emphasizes the use of machines than manpower, which brings about unemployment, which results into so many menaces 6. Globalization creates an enabling environment for moral decadence to prosper. A typical example of this is the availability of pornographic websites on the internet and prevalence of pornographic videos among our African youth. 7. Globalisation promotes the prevalence of interest or usury based economy that results in financial and economic slavery of the masses to the capitalists 8. Globalization destroys pre-existent culture instead of improving it

CONCLUSION In conclusion, going with the details provided above, globalization can affect community change and development at the grass root level in Africa in the following ways: (i) People will be exposed to western culture and cultural domination (ii) Local industries will shut-down and unemployment would be created (iii) People will be politically enlightened to know their rights politically (iv) People can benefit from some community development programme ideas borrowed form other parts of the world e.g. micro-finance banks (v) People may be more western than African out of the effects of globalization (vi) People will leave their indigenous lifestyle that is based in their environmental, belief, values and natural condition for western that is opposite to theirs (vii) People will benefit from the products of scientific and technological achievements of globalization like the use of GSM and CDMA handsets e.t.c (viii) People will be exposed to other cultures and civilizations other than theirs (ix)As a result of globalization people may be compelled to acquire literacy skills by circumstance (x)Health care skills and knowledge will be conveyed to people through the enlightenment campaigns by different global agencies through different media

REFERENCES 1. Shaw, M. (2001) ‘Review-Jan Aart Scholte: Globalization.Acritical introduction.Millenium. A journal of international studies Htt//www.sussex.ac.uk/users/hafaz/scholte.htm 2. El-Baz, Shahida (2002) “Globalization and the Challenge of Democracy in Arab/North Africa Region. “A paper prepared for 10th CODESRIA’sGeneral Assembly on “Africa in the New Millenium”, Kampala, Uganda 8-12 December, 2002 3. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1995, 3rd Ed,) London: Longman Publishers 4, Kamanga.2001 “Globalization and Its Legal Implications on Higher Education in Africa”. Paper presented on November 12 at the African University Day at the University of Dar es Salam