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Globalization And Sustainable Development In Africa
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 4]
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CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Human quest for sustainable development can be traced back to the very onset of human existence. This explains why human history is replete with various attempts by man to better his conditions at various points in time.
In our own time, this noble quest has assumed a more generic status in an attempt to transform the whole world into a global village, where humanity would share a common developmental experience. This emerging global order, known as Globalization, is a continuous process and no one can claim to possess a full knowledge of its dimensions or even to exist outside its influence.
While its proponents have stressed the opportunities and benefits of this phenomenon, there is also increasing disillusionment towards it among many schools of thought in both developed and developing nations. The rationale behind these changing perceptions and attitudes includes lack of tangible benefits to most developing countries especially those in Africa.
Hence, there are myriads of questions that challenge the philosophy of globalization and the authenticity of its numerous claims and promises. This explains why a critical inquiry into the intricacies of the current globalization process is not only pertinent but also inevitable.
1.2 PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE INQUIRY
Expectedly, many scholars have pondered and are still pondering on the overall effects of globalization on the entire human race. These studies are not only necessitated by the controversy hovering around the phenomenon, as explained above, but by the apparent marginalization and increasing impoverishment of its less privileged participants.
I, therefore, wish through an existential inquiry into the dynamics and the philosophical background of the current globalization process, to expose its contents. This would then enable us to extrapolate its possible implications to the quest for sustainable development in Africa.
As a philosophical inquiry, this study would try to analyze the raison d’etre of the current globalization process. My major contention is that sustainable development is all about human beings and business is about ethics. Hence, the terminus ad quem of globalization should be the holistic development of humanity in ways that are sustainable for people of all races and for all generations.
1.3 METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH
I wish to employ both expository and evaluative approach to this study. Thus, we shall delineate the philosophy of globalization vis-Ã -vis the existential status of Africa. These would serve as the premises for extrapolating the implications of globalization to African development.
In general, the work is made up of five chapters. Chapter one offers a synoptic view of the entire work as well as the views of various scholars on globalization. The second chapter exposes and examines the concept and nature of globalization as it pertains to this study. The notion of sustainable development and its current status in Africa is discussed in chapter three, while the fourth chapter carefully extrapolates the implications of globalization to sustainable development in Africa. Then, as a finishing touch, the fifth chapter critically evaluates the whole intellectual exposure.
With genuine humility, I do not intend to undertake an exhaustive inquiry into this topic: globalization and African development. Therefore, my research will be in tandem with those already carried out by erudite scholars on the subject.
1.4 LITERATURE REVIEW
Globalization is certainly at the heart of the contemporary age as an indispensable factor in its developmental process. Hence, our effort in this brief literature survey is to explore how some scholars conceive the globalization process vis-Ã -vis its implications to sustainable development in Africa.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 4]
Page 1 of 4
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