Globalization remains the most common and quite controversial concept in modern social discourse. Within the theoretical and conceptual sociological dimension, the authors analyzed the essence of economic globalization (EG) as its defining type. They studied globalization as an objective process (first of all, the international division of labour) and the subjective process of forming a global capitalist economy under the auspices of leading Western countries, supranational financial and economic institutions (primarily the World Bank and the IMF), TNCs. As the main drivers of globalization, they determine its forms and directions in the interests of the "core" of global capitalism. Within the empirical sociological dimension of EG (which involves measuring the various manifestations of the EG process itself as well as its social consequences), the authors paid particular attention to the analysis of social changes in Ukrainian society. The capitalization of the Ukrainian economy, which took place in parallel with Ukraine’s entry into the global economic space, led to degradation of the national economy, significant deterioration of living standards of most citizens, creation of anti-social state with the systemic crisis as its main attribute. To prove these conclusions, the authors analyzed the dynamics of the principal macroeconomic and sociological indicators of Ukrainian society’s life for almost 30 years of drift to the roadside of the global capitalist world, based on the study of numerous domestic and foreign sources. The authors focused on the research of eight critical areas of social changes: deindustrialization of the economy, global competitiveness and innovation, GDP dynamics, employment, income and welfare of the population, socioeconomic inequality, debt dependence and degradation of Ukrainian science. The analysis shows the need to abandon the neoliberal paradigm of development and search for the alternative and more fair models of EG.
