Global Culture

Globalization is likely one of those words that must appear in newspapers every day. But the recent post about an article canadians & globalization got me thinking about doing a little historical research of my own: browsing through the digital archive of the Toronto Star (Canada), I found the first use of “globalization” was in the Sunday edition of May 20, 1984.

From a conversation with then Harvard professor Kenneth Goodpaster “There is a globalization of business” was the quote used in the article. This in the context of a discussion about the ethics that business must adhere to specially in an increasingly global economy. You have to admit that it is a bit ironic that the first reference I found deals with ethical problems such as worker’s rights, the rights of citizens in other countries and the rights of the environment. I guess it wasn’t hard to forecast the sort of damage that uncontrolled businesses could do if left unchecked.