Cultural Globalization

The View on Cultural Change from

Globalization Frameworks
• Hyperglobalizers: homogenization of world under
American popular culture or Western consumerism
• Political Sceptics: thinness of global culture
relative to national cultures. Cultural differences and
conflicts along geopolitical faultlines.
• Transformationalists: intermingling of cultures
and peoples: hybrids and new forms
What is Culture?
 What is Culture?
• Social construction, articulation ad
reception of meaning (Held, et al 1998)
– The arts
– Commodified output of the culture industries
(Film, TV, Music)
– Spontaneous expressions of everyday life
– Complex interactions between all of these
 What is Culture?
• Religion
• Ethnicity
• Nationalism
• Language
• Other forms of Identity

• The importance of forms of Communication

 Cultural Globalization-concepts
• Cultural globalization: the transmission of
culture globally
• Facilitated by the movement of people,
objects, signs and symbols.
– Travel
– Movement of books and cultural artifacts
• Key: forms of communication and
transportation
 Cultural Globalization-Concepts
• Stretching
• Diffusion
• Deepening: wearing the groove deeper
• Diverse encounters:
– Homogenization
– Contestation
– Hybridization
– Indifference
 Cultural Globalization-Concepts
• Is it all Coercion?
– Proselytism
– Evangelism
– Empire
• Better: “Modes of interaction”
– Imposition
– Emulation
– Diffusion: hierarchical, contagious, relocation
 Cultural Globalization-Concepts
• Infrastructures and Institutionalization:
regularized and embedded change
– Transportation and communication technologies
– Social organization and systems: shipbuilding,
mapmaking, shipping companies, international
satellite companies, regulatory regimes, TV
programming
– Languages: educational systems, training of teachers
Cultural Globalization: Historical Perspective

• World Religions
• Empires
• Modern national cultures
• Transnational secular ideologies
• Contemporary cultural globalization
Cultural Globalization: Historical Perspective

• World Religions: Christianity, Islam, Confucianism,

Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism- none is present
everywhere
• Some odd pockets
– 1 million Japanese Shintoists in Brazil
– Goan Catholics on west coast of India
• Religious/Political/Military Power
– Christianity
– Islam
• No proselytizing: Confusionism/Hinduism
African Religious Diaspora
African Religious Diaspora
Cultural Globalization: Historical Perspective

• By 3 C. bce: Buddhism and Hinduism had their

contemporary spread
• 700 ce: Islam in core regions
• 16th/17th C. :Christianity reaches global presence
(Books)
• World religions have given religious and political
elites immense power and resources, ability to
mobilize armies, and “governance”
Dominant Religious Traditions
 Empires
• Role of cultural power in creating and
maintaining political empires
– Difficult to enforce rule at a distance
– Armies and governments are expensive
– Indirect rule: Universal ruling class
• Kinship, belief, religion
• Political divisions become vertical between classes
– Diffusion of culture provides cohesion
 Roman Empire

• Capacity to deploy political power.

• Accomplished through innovations:
– Logistical capabilities and civil engineering
– Political community
– Class solidarity
– Shared cultural beliefs, rituals and aesthetics
• Literacy was key among ruling class
• Drama and poetry were used to build allegiance
 The British Empire

• Most global of any formal empire: “the sun

never sets on the British Empire”
• Imperial educational policy
– English medium schools in India, etc.
– Elites went to Oxford and Cambridge
• Imperial communications infrastructure
– Telegraph to India by 1870
 Modern National Cultures
• Nation: cross-class community, whose shared sense of
identity, solidarity and interest is rooted in an national
identity ad common historical experience (real, imagined
or interpreted) and whose central political project is the
possession of a distinctive state in a bounded territory.
• Nationalism: Psychological and cultural affiliation creating
a connection with the community of the nation
– Ethnic nationalism
– Civic nationalism
• National culture: complex bodies of real and imagined
practice, belief, ritual and attitude
 Modern National Cultures

• Non existent before 18th century: Treaty of

Westphalia
• National cultures invented and developed over time
• Cultural preconditions:
– Literacy
– National histories, myths and rituals,
– Importance of state powers of taxation and conscription
 National Cultures
• Task undertaken by diverse institutions
– Official language
– National schooling system
– Postal service and Communications structures (NBC, ABC etc.) National press
– Standing army
• Suppression or eradication of competing identities and peripheral
nationalisms
• Key factors
– Memories/histories/myths
– Role of land/landscapes/places:
• Monuments
• National Parks
• sites of battle
 Transnational Secular Ideologies

• European modern culture is secular

• Socialism and Marxism
• Enlightenment ideologies:
– Modern scientific worldview
– liberal political discourse:
• civil and political rights
• Limited government
• Self-determination
– Capitalism
• Globalism?
World Languages
Language Tree
 Cultural Globalization/Global Culture
Markets
• Technologically driven
• Economic liberalization driven: mergers and
acquisitions,deregulation, free trade barriers
reducedconcentration of ownership
• Dominated by US, but Japanese, UK, and
others are present (see chart)
 Global Media

• Radio and the music industry

– Political instrument: Voice of America, Radio Venceremos
– Instrument of Localism
– Major source of communication in developing countries
for community/political/entertainment
– Music is highly compatible with globalization: no need for
translation
– Musical diaspora: religious, African, American
– Modern forms are more mixed: Orquesta de Luz, El Vez,
World Music
 Cinema and Television

• US Dominates Film
• Increasing growth of new film industries
• Other industries: see chart
• Television: more recent, higher level of
individual capital investment
• Public quality initially, now Satellite and Cable
have changed control to private.
 Tourism
• Issues:
– Expanding Awareness
– Sex Tourism
– Ecotourism and Rural Tourism: Contradictions?
– Cultural Survival:
• Who controls the production of culture?
• Tourism as an economic generator
 Tourism

• 1950: 25.3 million tourists/$2 Billion

• 1995: 561 million tourists/$380 Billion
• International Tourists:
• Country % of Tourists
• Europe 53%,
• Americas 17%
• Asia (Japan, Taiwan, Korea) 17%
• Africa 2.5%
• Middle East 1.2%
• South Asia .6%