Cultural Change in an Era of Globalization

Chapter 29

Michael Jordan Geography Major at UNC

Globalization…• …the expansion and

intensification of linkages and flows of capital, people, goods, ideas, and cultures across national borders.

Factors contributing to globalization:

1. The new international division of labor

--manufacturing production has been

decentralized from core to peripheral

regions. --new specializations (high tech and

producer services) have emerged within the core.

Factors contributing to globalization:

2. The internationalization of finance.

You can use your AmericanExpress for an acupunctureSession in China.

An ATM machine inHong Kong.

Factors contributing to globalization:3. Technological innovation

Robotics, microelectronics, biotechnology,

Digital telecommunications

Factors contributing to globalization:4. Growth of consumer markets.

Similar trends in consumer tastes among the world’s affluent--a new materialism in which people indulge in affordable luxuries that are marketed as symbols of style and distinctiveness.

Economic globalization is in its early stages, and the local response is sure to be an

important cultural struggle in the coming decades.

Some progressive changes have accompanied globalization…

• …increased overall levels of economic well-being.

• …strengthening of free enterprise and democracy.

• …an enriched flow of products, ideas, and culture.

One view…• "The homogenizing influences of globalization that are

most often condemned by the new nationalists and by cultural romanticists are actually positive; globalization promotes integration and the removal not only of cultural barriers but of many of the negative dimensions of culture. Globalization is a vital step toward both a more stable world and better lives for the people in it."

• -- David Rothkopf, "In Praise of Cultural Imperialism," Foreign Policy June 22, 1997

Globalization has also brought problems

• …economic decline in some areas as capital flows towards more profitable ventures elsewhere.

• …undercutting of the power of national and local governments to regulate economic affairs.

• …loss of local diversity with the economic success of global products.

another view…• "Many societies, particularly indigenous

peoples, view culture as their richest heritage, without which they have no roots, history or soul. Its value is other than monetary. To commodify it is to destroy it."

• -- Maude Barlow, "The Global Monoculture," Earth Island Journal.

Landscape convergence

• Borrowing of idealized landscapes--postmodern landscapes

Times Square Japan’s Ginza District

Landscape convergence• Architectural forms and planning ideals

SingaporeFrankfurt

New York City

Landscape convergence

• Individual businesses and products

Judging by the various products being advertised, this scene could have come from a typical American city. This is actually the

main shopping district of downtown Guatemala City, Guatemala

The Marlboro Man in Egypt

Picasso’s anti-war Guernica commemorated the 1937 bombing of a Basque village under Franco’s rule.

Picasso’s Guernica (NOT!)

Impacts of Globalization of culture:

• Dominance of American culture in music, television, and film.

• Concerns over cultural homogenization

The “glocalization”of culture? Marvel comics has adapted Spiderman in order to tap a large Indian market.

Folk Culture

• Clothing styles of Guatemala

• Kufiyah-capped Bedouin shepherds in the desert of northeast Jordan.

Amish

Popular Culture

Chinese food in Israel

Commodification;something that previously had

not been regarded as something to be bought or sold and turning

it into something to be traded in a market economy.

Reactions to Cultural Globalization

• Problem of how to accept some aspects of globalization without entirely subverting traditional practices.

• Concern over loss of local distinctiveness and identity (in the core and in the periphery).

• The building of a Walmart near Mexico’s Pyramid of the Sun has sparked protest.

Jihad vs McWorld?

Photo is from the cover of Benjamin Barber’s book.

• McWorld is shorthand for the globalization of culture that has accompanied economic globalization.

• Jihad is shorthand for cultural values (not necessarily Islamic) that are underpinned by religious fundamentalism, traditional tribal allegiances, and opposition to Western materialism.

• Barber suggests that the future will be one of “tribal warfare.”

• Barber’s book has been criticized for being too simplistic--he does not take into account the complexity of non-Western cultures.

Seattle protests against the WTO: