Retrospection of Globalisation Process and the Sustainability of Natural Environment in Developing Countries

Introduction

Globalization is a multifaceted eco-politico- social phenomenon that tends to be a centre of controversy due to its nature of processes and output in the host countries. Whilst looking in terms of its actual benefits incurring to the host economies, the concept of globalization does become debatable and contested by the stakeholders. This may be its due to the complexity in its operation and processes being involved against the background of the chaotic nature of the host developing countries in regards to the sustainability of physical environment. The question generally arises whether the globalisation process serves the interest of all or only just benefiting few countries or corporates / group of individuals. This may be mainly due to the nature of definition of the concept of ‘globalization’ and while viewing across the various disciplines since each of this discipline offers a varying definition and interpretations of globalization process. Whilst in the past, the process of the globalization and its impact have been researched in the context of various empirical case studies but the definition of the globalization in these context tends to appear vague, elusive, and many times contradictory to its generic meaning. As Ardic (2009) comments that the term “globalization” is generally used to refer to a ‘single phenomenon’ but in reality it may not be a single phenomenon but rather a kind of unified process involving various stakeholders. Sometimes it becomes hard and there seems to be no ‘universal’ accepted definition describing the globalization process but as a matter of fact this process results and involves a high degree of interconnectivity, integration, interdependence and openness features stand out as used interchangeably by all the scholars in an attempt to give meaning to the concept (Mimiko, 2010). Take for instance, the arguments put forward towards the definition of globalization by De and Pal (2011) that the globalization can be defined as the process of opening up the host economies to the outside world in order to facilitate trade, reduction in physical and other barriers and to increase its mobility of goods and factors of production (land, labour and capital) in the host country. There is no doubt that the globalization process eventually creates a process of integration of economies through economic, social and political processes. But the lack of an essential definition may have to be contributed, at least partially, to keep globalization as a highly contested subject (Acosta & Gonzalez, 2010). Whilst keeping the pace with the main title of the book being on “sustainability practices through energy engineering and asset management” I did attempted to explore the process of globalization process and its sustainability of physical environment of the host country.