Economic Globalization, Possibility/ Impossibility of Other Alternatives (Islamic Approach)

Globalization is an integrative force that unifies the global society. On the one hand, this integrated form is an economic phenomenon which includes capital flow, transfer of technology and trade of goods and services. On the other hand, it has a non-economic nature that includes development of ideas, norms and values. From a genealogical point of view, globalization has its roots in liberalism. Facing other rivals or other intellectual partners and varied geographical regions, it has different effects and consequences. If the period of cold war and bipolar system was of contradicted ideologies, nowadays with the ruling of liberal thought and institutions, it is hard to talk about other alternatives. Meanwhile, the world of Islam and specially our country, Iran, is encountering different forms of the dominant atmosphere affected by a liberal economic globalization. It is using strategies such as countering, adoption, denying or nativization of globalization. The main question is that can we speak of Islamic models of growth and development in respect of privilege of globalization in different aspects (such as economics), its promotion by capitalistic institutions on the one hand, and countries' practical experiment in adoption and exclusion of its principles, on the other hand? We should also note that there are basic differences between Islam and liberalism in epistemological and ontological dimensions.