Global Culture and Cultural Flows

Chapter 7

Global Culture and Cultural Flows

- Culture tends to flow comparatively easily throughout the world.

- Differences in flow. More powerful societies flow much readily than weak and marginal societies.

Cultural Differentialism

- "Cultures are essentially different and are only superficially affected by global flows".

- Catastrophic collision in interaction of cultures (Samuel Huntington).

- Critiques:

- Theory based on racist understandings "Muslims as being prone to violence"

- West-centric and imperialistic, belief of inherent superiority of the West and the inferiority of other
cultures.

Cultural Hybridization

- Emphasizes the integration of local and global cultures.

- Glocalization: Interpenetration of the global and the local, resulting in unique outcomes in different
geographic areas.

- Scapes (Arjun Appadurai): Global flows involving people, technology, finance, political images, and
media and the disjunctures between them that created cultural hybrids.
Cultural Convergence

- Homogeneity introduced by globalization.

- Cultures are deemed to be altered by strong flows.

- Deterritorialization of culture: It is more difficult to tie culture to a specific geographic point of origin in
the modern globalized world.

- McDonaldization: Global spread of rational systems (efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control)

- Grobalization (vs Glocalization): Process wherein nations, corporations and so on impose themselves
on geographic areas in order to gain profits, power and influence.