Breaking down the question
The command word examine asks for a considered investigation that weighs gains against losses rather than a one-sided verdict. The subject is dual — labour and society — so the answer must move from the world of work outward to the broader social order it shapes.
Globalization here means the intensified cross-border flow of capital, goods, technology and information, and the integration of national economies into a single competitive market. Its social impact is the object of study: what this integration does to workers, employment relations, inequality, and the texture of social life.
A balanced answer records both faces — new opportunities, mobility and integration on one side; insecurity, informalisation and widened inequality on the other — and roots the discussion in the sociology of labour and society.
How to approach it
Frame globalization as a double-edged transformation of work, then examine its effects on labour first and on the wider society second. Avoid a simple denunciation or a simple celebration; the examiner rewards the tension between the two.
On labour, address the new international division of labour, the flexibilisation and informalisation of employment, the rise of precarity (Guy Standing's precariat), the feminisation of the workforce, and the weakening of trade unions. Manuel Castells's network society and Ulrich Beck's risk society supply theoretical anchors.
On society, address widening inequality, migration, consumerism and cultural change, and the erosion of the welfare compact. Conclude with a synthesising, evidence-aware verdict.
Model answer
Globalization has restructured the world of work and, through it, the wider social order. Its impact is genuinely double-edged: it has opened new opportunities and integrated economies, while also generating insecurity and deepening inequality. Both faces must be examined.
Impact on labour.
A new international division of labour. Capital's mobility allows production to be relocated to wherever labour is cheapest, creating a new international division of labour in which manufacturing and services are dispersed across the globe. For developing economies this has meant employment growth and integration into global supply chains, but also exposure to volatile external demand and a competitive "race to the bottom" in wages and standards.
Flexibilisation and informalisation. To stay competitive, firms have pursued flexible labour — contractual, part-time, outsourced and casual work in place of stable, protected employment. In economies such as India this has swelled the informal sector, where workers lack job security, social protection and collective bargaining. Work has been individualised and destandardised.
The rise of precarity. Guy Standing describes the emergence of a precariat — a growing class of workers in chronically insecure, low-protection jobs. Ulrich Beck's risk society captures the same shift: risks once borne collectively by firms and states are transferred onto individual workers, who must navigate uncertain and discontinuous careers.
Feminisation and new skills. Globalization has drawn women into the paid workforce in large numbers, especially in export manufacturing, services and call centres — a feminisation of labour that brings income and autonomy but often on low-paid, insecure terms. Manuel Castells's network society highlights a parallel divide between highly skilled "informational" workers who thrive and a mass of routine labour that is easily displaced.
Decline of collective power. Capital mobility and fragmented, informal work have weakened trade unions and eroded the bargaining power of labour, shifting the balance decisively towards employers.
Impact on society.
Widening inequality. Globalization's rewards have been distributed unevenly, sharpening inequality both between and within nations. A prosperous, globally connected stratum has pulled away from those left in insecure or declining work, straining social cohesion.
Migration and mobility. The search for work has driven large-scale internal and international migration, reshaping cities, families and communities, and creating diasporic and multicultural societies alongside new tensions over jobs and belonging.
Consumerism and cultural change. Global markets have spread a culture of consumption and new lifestyles and aspirations, transforming identity and values, while also raising anxieties about cultural homogenisation and the erosion of local ways of life.
Pressure on the welfare state. Competitive pressures and mobile capital have constrained the capacity of states to tax and to sustain social protection, weakening the post-war compact between labour, capital and the state just as insecurity has grown.
Assessment. Globalization has been neither an unqualified boon nor an unmitigated disaster for labour and society. It has generated employment, integration, mobility and new opportunities, particularly for the skilled and for women entering the workforce. But it has done so at the cost of informalisation, precarity, weakened collective protection and sharpened inequality. The central sociological lesson is that the risks of a globalised economy have been shifted onto individual workers, while its rewards have concentrated. A just response lies not in resisting integration but in rebuilding social protection and worker voice for a globalised age.
Examiner's perspective
The frequent failing is a one-sided script — either a celebration of opportunity or a lament of exploitation. The examiner wants globalization examined, with benefits and costs held in tension and a reasoned verdict at the end.
Marks rise when candidates deploy the right vocabulary — flexibilisation, informalisation, precariat, new international division of labour — and anchor it in theorists such as Standing, Beck and Castells. Concrete reference to the informal sector, feminisation of work and the weakening of unions lifts the answer above generalities.
The strongest scripts treat both halves of the question, moving deliberately from labour to society, and close with the insight that globalization transfers risk to individuals while concentrating reward — a synthesis that demonstrates analytical control.