markets like India and Southeast Asia, available at lower cost than domestic sour-
ces, induced numerous companies in the developed world to “outsource” many of
their labor requirements. Production facilities that contribute to the manufacturing
sector are frequently located abroad, but also facilities that provide services are
now situated outside the market service area. Examples are the technical support
services offered by cellular phone companies, computer hardware and software
makers, and other businesses. An American customer may contact a call center
for assistance and speak to a technician who is actually located in India or Latin
America.
Evenmajorretailoutlets,mostfromthedevelopedworld,havebecome
globalized—the American corporation Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, now
has stores (although not all operate under the “Walmart” name) in more than a
dozen countries located on five continents.
Cultural globalization is the outgrowth of cultural diffusion on a scale never
before seen in human experience. The Internet has clearly been an important
medium for cultural transfer and exchange, but the process of globalization began
long before the personal computer became part of millions of lives. Cultural glob-
alization began to accelerate during the era of Europeanimperialism, when lan-
guages, religious faiths, social and behavioral standards, and many other
dimensions of European culture spread from the “home” countries to the colonies.
The use of English in the British Empire among elites, as well as its continuance as
Globalization 153Group of Twenty (G-20)
The “Group of 20” formed from the G-8, or Group of 8, which was composed of eight of the
most influential economic powers in the world. The G-8 consists of the United States, United
Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia. The organization began holding
annual summit meetings to discuss policy as the G-6 in the 1970s. The G-20 is an effort to
include more emerging countries in the annual meetings, because a number of important
states were not part of the G-8, like China and India. Some countries in the G-20 are impor-
tant suppliers of resources, like Saudi Arabia and South Africa, while others play a vital
regional role in economic development, like Brazil and Argentina in South America. The 20
countries represent a disproportional amount of the world’s total economic output and vol-
ume of trade, at more than 80 percent of each, and also account for a large percentage of the
world’s population. The most influential and traded currencies are also included in the group,
primarily the U.S. dollar, the yen, and the euro. The rationale for the group’s conferences, to
be held yearly beginning in 2011, is that the era of economic globalization makes it imperative
that the most important players in the global market coordinate policy to avoid a worldwide
economic downturn.