Class 12 Sociology Book 2 Chapter 6 Globalisation and Social Change NCERT Solutions

Q. Choose any topic that is of interest to you and discuss how you think globalisation has affected it. You could choose cinema, work, marriage or any other topic.

Answer: This is an open, project-style question: pick a topic you can genuinely observe or discuss from your own experience. Below is a model answer built around work, using only what the chapter itself describes, to show how such an answer can be built.

Globalisation has reshaped work in India in several visible ways. A new international division of labour has emerged: routine manufacturing that once happened in developed countries is now increasingly done in “Third World” cities, exactly as the book’s Nike example shows, production moving from Japan to South Korea to Thailand and Indonesia and finally to India, wherever labour is cheapest. This has made India a production base for many transnational corporations, but also makes the labouring population vulnerable, since jobs can move again if labour becomes cheaper elsewhere.

At the same time, globalisation and the IT revolution have opened entirely new career paths for urban middle-class youth: instead of a routine B.Sc./B.A./B.Com. degree, many now learn computer languages and take up jobs in call centres, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies, or shopping malls and restaurants that did not exist a few decades ago. Yet the book is careful to add that this opportunity is not evenly shared: an ILO report the book cites shows that broader employment growth across Asia (1.6% between 2003 and 2004) has lagged far behind the region’s over-7% economic growth, so “new opportunity” for some coexists with a wider “employment gap” for many others.

Q. What are the distinctive features of a globalised economy? Discuss.

Answer: The book identifies several distinctive, interlinked features of a globalised economy, beyond simply “more global interconnections”:

(a) Liberalisation: Since 1991, the Indian state has taken a series of policy decisions opening the economy to the world market, breaking from an earlier policy of protecting Indian business, and involving IMF loans on the condition of structural adjustment.

(b) Transnational corporations (TNCs/MNCs): Companies like Coca Cola, General Motors, Colgate-Palmolive, Kodak and Mitsubishi produce goods or market services in more than one country, oriented to global markets and profits even if they have a clear national base.

(c) The electronic economy: Banks, corporations and investors can move funds internationally instantly, “with the click of a mouse”, which also carries the risk of sudden stock-market swings.

(d) The weightless or knowledge economy: The economy is no longer primarily agricultural or industrial; products are increasingly based in information (software, media, internet services), and much of the workforce works in a good’s design, marketing and servicing rather than its physical production.

(e) Globalisation of finance: For the first time, mainly due to the IT revolution, financial markets are globally integrated, trading billions of dollars within seconds, 24 hours a day, with New York, Tokyo and London as key centres (and Mumbai as India’s own financial capital).

Together, these show that a globalised economy is driven above all by information and communication technology, not economic forces alone, and operates within a political context of neo-liberal policy that favours free markets over state regulation.

Q. Briefly discuss the impact of globalisation on culture.

Answer: Globalisation affects culture in several distinct ways, per the book. One central debate is homogenisation versus glocalisation: some argue all cultures are becoming similar, while others point to a growing glocalisation, the mixing of the global with the local, seen when foreign channels like Star, MTV, Channel V and Cartoon Network broadcast in Indian languages, or when McDonald’s sells only vegetarian and chicken products in India (going fully vegetarian during Navaratri) rather than the beef products popular abroad.

Globalisation also touches gender and culture: defenders of a fixed traditional identity can wrongly use globalisation as a “bogey” to defend undemocratic practices against women, such as sati or excluding women from education, in the name of cultural identity. A third strand is the culture of consumption: cultural consumption of art, food, fashion and tourism now shapes the growth of Indian cities (shopping malls, multiplexes, amusement parks) more than manufacturing did before the 1970s, with media increasingly promoting spending over thrift. A fourth is corporate culture, a branch of management theory using company events and rituals to build employee loyalty. Finally, globalisation threatens indigenous craft, literary traditions and knowledge systems: Mumbai’s Parel and Girgaum theatre groups became defunct, weavers in Sircilla and Dubakka villages (Andhra Pradesh) faced ruin from power looms, and MNCs have tried to patent the use of Tulsi, Haldi, Rudraksha and Basmati rice. Culture, the book stresses, is not a fixed entity: globalisation is as likely to create new local and global traditions as to destroy old ones.

Q. What is glocalisation? Is it simply a market strategy adopted by multinational companies or is genuine cultural synthesis taking place? Discuss.

Answer: Glocalisation refers to the mixing of the global with the local. The book is explicit that it is not entirely one thing or the other: it says glocalisation “is not entirely spontaneous, nor is it entirely delinked from the commercial interests of globalisation”. This means both possibilities named in the question are partly true at once, rather than one excluding the other.

On one hand, the book shows glocalisation clearly serving as a market strategy: it is “a strategy often adopted by foreign firms while dealing with local traditions in order to enhance their marketability”. Foreign television channels broadcasting in Indian languages, and McDonald’s adapting its menu to Indian dietary preferences, are commercial choices made to sell better in the Indian market.

On the other hand, the book also points to outcomes that look like genuine cultural mixing rather than pure marketing: the growth of Bhangra pop, Indi pop, fusion music and remixes reflects a real blending of musical traditions, not simply a company’s marketing decision. The book’s broader argument is that culture is not a fixed, unchanging entity that either collapses or survives unchanged under social change; globalisation is likely to create new local traditions as well as new global ones. The honest answer, following the book, is therefore both: glocalisation is driven by commercial interest, but the cultural mixing it produces has its own, independent life beyond the marketing strategy that first encouraged it.

Q. Read any newspaper regularly for two weeks and note down how the term ‘globalisation’ is used. Compare your notes with others in the class. Note down references to the term ‘globalisation’ and ‘global’ in different kinds of television programmes. You can focus on news and discussions on political or economic or cultural matters.

Answer: A two-week record usually shows the term used in several different senses: economic (foreign investment, exports and imports, multinational companies, stock markets reacting to world events, trade agreements and WTO rules); political (international summits, regional groupings, global agreements on climate or trade); cultural (foreign films and music, fashion, fast food, “global Indian” lifestyles, sports leagues); and technological (the internet, mobile phones, IT and outsourcing). Some reports treat globalisation as an opportunity (jobs, growth, choice), others as a threat (job losses for farmers or small producers, loss of local culture). Comparing notes in class shows the point the chapter makes next: the word is used in many ways, so we need to be clear about what it means, and different subjects focus on different dimensions of it.

Q. Make a list of products that you either use or have seen in the market or seen advertised which are produced by transnational corporations. You can make a list of products such as: shoes, cameras, computers, televisions, cars, music systems, cosmetics like soaps or shampoos, clothes, processed food, tea, coffee, milk powder.

Answer: A typical list: sports shoes (Nike, Adidas, Puma); cameras (Canon, Nikon, Sony); computers and phones (HP, Dell, Lenovo, Apple, Samsung); televisions (Samsung, LG, Sony); cars (Hyundai, Suzuki, Toyota, Honda); music systems (Sony, Philips); soaps and shampoos (Hindustan Unilever’s Lux and Dove, Procter and Gamble’s Head and Shoulders, Colgate-Palmolive); clothes (Levi’s, Zara); processed food and drinks (Nestle’s Maggi, PepsiCo’s Lays, Coca Cola); tea and coffee (Lipton, Nescafe); milk powder (Nestle). The list shows how many everyday products come from companies that, in the book’s words, produce goods or market services in more than one country and are oriented to global markets and global profits, and that some Indian companies (for example Tata) have themselves become transnational.

Q. We have a host of new occupations that were unheard of a few decades ago, for instance event managers. Have you heard of them? What do they do? Find out about other such new services.

Answer: Event managers plan and run events for clients: weddings, birthday parties, conferences, product launches and concerts. They book the venue, arrange decoration, catering, lighting and sound, invitations, entertainment, photography and transport, and coordinate everything on the day. They are part of the knowledge economy described in the book, where people are employed not in physical production but in design, marketing and services. Other new services of this kind include wedding planners, website and app developers, social media managers, digital marketers, online tutors, call centre and BPO staff, fitness trainers, interior designers, travel planners and food-delivery services.

Q. Count the number of channels on television that are business channels and provide updates on stock markets, flows of foreign direct investments, financial reports of various companies, etc. You can choose whether you wish to focus on an Indian language channel or English channels. Find out the names of some financial newspapers. Do you see any focus on global trends? Discuss. How do you think these trends have affected our lives?

Answer: There are several business channels in English and in Indian languages (for example CNBC-TV18, ET Now, CNBC Awaaz and Zee Business), and financial newspapers such as The Economic Times, Business Standard, Mint, The Financial Express and Hindi business papers. Yes, they focus heavily on global trends: movements of stock markets in New York, Tokyo and London, the rupee-dollar rate, crude oil prices, foreign institutional investors buying or selling Indian shares, and results of multinational companies. These trends affect our lives because, as the book explains, finance is now globally integrated with 24-hour trading: a fall in world markets can reduce the value of people’s savings and mutual funds, change petrol and gold prices, affect jobs in export and IT firms, and influence interest rates and prices in general.

Q. Is there an Internet café in your neighbourhood? Who are its users? What kind of use do they make of the Internet? Is it on work purpose? Is it a new form of entertainment?

Answer: Where there is an internet café, its users are mostly students, job-seekers and people without a computer or good connection at home. They use it for work-related purposes such as filling online forms for admissions, exams and jobs, downloading admit cards and results, printing and scanning documents, sending e-mail and making online payments or bookings; some also use it for entertainment such as games, videos and social media. Today many cafés have closed or become form-filling and printing centres because smartphones and mobile data give internet access at home. This connects to the book’s point about the digital divide: cyber connectivity has been largely urban and reached many people through cyber cafés, while rural areas remained largely unconnected.

Q. Try and organise a discussion in the class on the reasons for the amazing growth in cell phone usage in India. Has it happened because of clever marketing and media campaign? Is it still a status symbol? Or, is there a strong need for remaining ‘connected’, communicating with friends and near and dear ones? Are parents encouraging its usage in order to lessen their anxieties about children’s whereabouts? Try and find out the different reasons why the youth strongly feel the need for cell phones. In 2020-21, due to COVID-19 pandemic, lakhs and lakhs of children began using cell phone and attended online classes. How do you see this change sociologically?

Answer: All these reasons play a part. Marketing, falling prices and cheap data made phones affordable to almost everyone. Expensive smartphones are still a status symbol, but the phone itself no longer is. The strongest reason is the need to stay connected: the book shows that telephony in India serves a strong socio-cultural need of keeping in touch with family, which is why advertisements show mothers talking to their children. Parents also encourage phones so they can know where their children are. Young people want phones to stay in touch with friends, for social media, music and videos, for study material and for a sense of independence and identity. Sociologically, online classes during COVID-19 showed both sides of technology: phones kept education going and made learning possible from home, but they also exposed the digital divide, since many poor and rural children had no smartphone, data or network, and girls often got less access than boys in the same family; it also blurred the line between school and home and increased screen time.

Q. Find out from media on the employment situation today in Asian countries including India.

Answer: Media reports generally show a mixed picture: several Asian economies, including India, have grown fast, but job creation has not kept pace, especially for young people and educated youth; a large share of workers remain in informal, low-paid or self-employment; women’s participation in paid work is low in many countries; and automation and global slowdowns threaten jobs in manufacturing and IT services. This continues the trend the book’s ILO report described: a growing employment gap, with economic growth outstripping the growth of new jobs.

Q. Some of the best known INGOs are Greenpeace, The Red Cross, Amnesty International and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). Find out more about them.

Answer:

• Greenpeace: an international environmental organisation that campaigns, often through peaceful direct action, against pollution, deforestation, nuclear testing, climate change and harm to oceans and wildlife.
• The Red Cross (International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies): gives humanitarian help to victims of war, disasters and epidemics, cares for the wounded and prisoners of war, and promotes international humanitarian law; the Indian Red Cross Society is part of this movement.
• Amnesty International: campaigns for human rights worldwide, against torture, the death penalty and unfair imprisonment, and publishes reports on rights violations.
• Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders): sends doctors, nurses and medical teams to provide emergency medical care in war zones, epidemics and disasters, regardless of the patients’ nationality, religion or politics.

All four fit the book’s definition of INGOs: they are independent organisations, not affiliated with government institutions, that make policy decisions and address international issues.

Q. Identify other instances of glocalisation. Discuss. Have you noticed any changes in the films produced by Bollywood? While at one time there were scenes shot in foreign countries, the stories remained local. Then there were stories where characters returned to India even if part of the story was set abroad. Now there are stories set entirely outside India. Discuss.

Answer: Other instances of glocalisation: pizza chains in India offering paneer and tandoori toppings; global fast-food chains serving vegetarian burgers and Indian spices; foreign car and phone makers giving their products Indian features and advertising in Indian languages; international television formats remade with Indian hosts and contestants (for example Kaun Banega Crorepati, based on a foreign quiz show, which the book itself mentions); festival offers on global shopping websites for Diwali and Eid; and fusion clothing such as kurtas worn with jeans. In Bollywood, films moved from local stories with song sequences shot abroad, to stories about Indians living abroad who return to India or keep Indian values, to stories set entirely abroad with Indian characters living global lives. This reflects the growth of the Indian diaspora as an audience, the globalisation of the film market and a more global outlook among viewers, while the films still keep Indian families, festivals, music and emotions at the centre: the global mixed with the local.

Q. Compare the traditional shop and the new departmental stores that have come up. Compare the mall with the traditional market. Discuss how it is not just goods that change but how the meaning of shopping changes. Discuss the new kinds of food that is now served in eating places. Find out about the new fast food restaurants that are global in their menu and operation.

Answer: A traditional shop is small, sells a limited range, the shopkeeper knows customers personally, gives credit and home delivery, and prices may be bargained; a departmental store is large and self-service, offers many brands under one roof with fixed prices, discounts and card payments, and the relationship is impersonal. A traditional market is open, crowded, mixes many small sellers and serves everyday needs; a mall is air-conditioned and branded, and combines shops with food courts, multiplex cinemas and play areas. So the meaning of shopping changes: from buying what is needed to a leisure activity and a family outing, a way of spending time and showing status, exactly the culture of consumption the book describes, in which shopping is a pastime actively encouraged and being careful with money is no longer a virtue. Eating places now serve pizzas, burgers, pasta, noodles, sushi and coffee-shop menus alongside Indian food, often in fusion forms. Global fast-food chains such as McDonald’s, KFC, Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Subway and Starbucks follow a standard global system (same logo, menu style, uniforms and service) while adapting menus to Indian tastes.