Cultural Globalization

     Cultural globalization is a simple term used to describe the complex concept that, traditionally, has meant the knowledge that a group of people share. This knowledge may include anything such as religion, myths, technology, political ideology, language, music, art, fashion, and consumption patterns. 

     Today, this global culture can be seen in the languages we speak, English being a common second language as well as an important language in business. Many aspects of Western culture are also seen around the world such as movies and television shows as well as in products such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.

    One example of how American culture has spread across the world can simply be seen in the ratings of the popular television show Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang Theory is one of the most popular shows today in Taiwan despite many of the cultural differences between the United States and Taiwan.

 

     

     Global culture is unique in that it is "existing outside the usual reference to geographical territory". Simply put there is a continuous and rapid flow of images, ideas, information, and products across geographical, political, and linguistic borders, as can be seen with the example of the Big Bang Theory.  

      It could be argued that cultural globalization would not exist without economic globalization. Economic globalization, simply put, is the movement of goods, services, and capital across nations and cultures. economic globalization connects the world and has created a system in the world that is “truly interdependent”. As goods and services move across borders so do people in search of work. Corporations, such as McDonald’s, attempt to meet the demands of foreign consumers through advertisements and specialization of their menus in order to suit the tastes of the locals. Through these processes, foreign cultures are susceptible to the influence of major western corporations.

     A particularly interesting example of cultural globalization can be seen following the foreign-exchange crisis in 1991 in India. Following the crisis, the International Monetary Fund removed restrictions on foreign investments and trade, creating a more liberal economy that allowed goods and services to move into the Indian market. Advertisers tried to reach the newly opened Indian market. Here, cultural globalization can be seen as international media began to spread in the once closed market. More specific examples can be seen when in 1991 cable television only reached 300,000 homes in India whereas in 1999 it reached over 24 million. In 1991 very few foreign films were shown in Indian theaters; by 2001 foreign films dubbed in Hindi were commonplace throughout all of India. India is also well known for its caste system, a social structure in which people are given ascribed statuses based on their birth that are nearly impossible to move in. After the changes in Indian foreign policy urban Indian men aspired to new goods and experimented with new lifestyles that may once have been socially prohibited due to new opportunities for employment, consumption, and entertainment.

     A very simplified way of looking at the views on globalization would be to separate those considered to be “pessimistic hyperglobalizers” and “optimistic hyperglobalizers”. Pessimistic hyperglobalizers like to see globalization as “cultural imperialism” or the “Americanization of the world”. Under this belief it seems as though the spread of American culture seems to be unstoppable and that Western norms and lifestyles are overwhelming to cultures that are considered to be more vulnerable. Globalization is not representative of all the cultures of the world but rather a homogenizing of Western popular culture. Benjamin Barber is an analyst of pessimistic hyperglobalization who coined the term “McWorld”. McWorld is used to describe the “soulless consumer capitalism that is rapidly transforming the world’s diverse populations into a blandly uniform market”. It is this force that drives people of other cultures to resist cultural globalization. Barber describes this resistance as a Jihad, the impulse to reject and repel the homogenizing forces of the West wherever found. 

     Optimistic hyperglobalization agree with pessimistic hyperglobalrizers in that globalization is creating a sameness amongst cultures; however they consider this to be a benefit. One well-known optimistic hyerglobalrizer, Francis Fukuyama, welcomes Anglo-American values and lifestyles as he equates the spread of Western culture to the spread of democracy and free markets. Another argument for the optimistic globalization view is presented by sociologist Ronald Robertson who contends that cultural flows can often reinvigorate local cultural niches, in other words local differences still play major roles in creating unique cultures. The term “glocalization” is used to describe this viewpoint.