I14002 Int’l Relations Kim, Bong Min Globalization and Regional Integration (Spring 2005) Cultural Globalization I14002 Int’l Relations Kim, Bong Min

What is Happening to Culture ? Homogenization, Polarization, or Hybridization ? By Robert J. Holton Professor of Sociology at Flinders University of South Australia A leading international figure in historical sociology and sociological theory Research on topics as wide-ranging as the origins of capitalism, social class, rational choice theory, immigration and multiculturalism, and Australian social structure.

Central Questions How has globalization been associated with a range of cultural consequences? How are cultural identities and practices articulated with other aspects of globalization?

Defining Culture High Culture / Popular Culture Ideas / Actions  blurring of distinctions between high culture and popular culture by Democratization and Commercialization of Culture Ideas / Actions both ideas and practices that have in common the function of providing meaning and identity for social actors and which combine cognitive, expressive, evaluative elements - Swidler a tool box of practices - help us to understand (science / religion), to act upon the world (technology, prayer), a source of emotional symbols (national identity) and values (freedom / justice) by which we orientate and justify our actions. Cause of change, also affected by change Either order-maintaining or order-transforming ?

Analysis of Cultural Globalization Homogenization Global culture is becoming standardized around a Western or American pattern. Globalization means Westernization Global processes function to impose Western cultural imperialism on the non-Western world  capitalism, profit-centered market economy, democratic politics, individualism, human rights, etc. Mernissi : Western cultural dominance within the Arab world (ex - standardized world-time, standardized calendar)

Homogenization Americanization of global culture - American cultural imperialism Herbert Schiller, Jack Lang… McBride Report - called for a more open world information order less dominated by US interests predominant role of the US in the export of television, film, and news information…. (CNN, X-files, Terminator 2) US’s role in constructing a regulatory framework within culture and info industries that favors US interests

Homogenization McDonaldization of Society (George Ritzer, 1993) broader cultural traits in the economy, organization, personal life of which McDonald’s is a manifestation. McDonald’s corporate strategy (efficiency, calculability, predictability, control over products and labor force)  the process of global rationalization Prefix ‘Mc’ is applied to Global System – “McWorld” : the effects of international McDonaldization of services and commercialization of goods and services as an element of globalization as a whole.

Homogenization Criticisms on Americanization thesis It’s capitalism rather than Americanization that is becoming globalized (Toyota’s just-in-time system, French croissanterie) Global interchange and some convergence towards similar types of business org and economic culture (MTV, Benetton) No single dominant center in particular markets and sectors

Homogenization Wallerstein : World-system approach to culture : one-dimensional, inadequate since power is far from unitary and economic power does not necessarily dominate all aspects of politics and culture Criticism on Homogenization culture is harder to standardize than economic organization or technology.. Deficient theory – it doesn’t provide a convincing account of the multi-centered nature of power

Polarization The presence of cultural alternatives and resistance to Western norms A greater level of complexity and successfully recognize competing logics Barber McWorld vs. Jihad  Global consumer capitalism vs. retribalization Huntington between civilizations in general the West vs. an emergent Islamic-Confucian axis in particular

Polarization Edward Said Works on Orientalism, Western cultural imperialism operates through discourses of power, whereby the non-Western world is constructed as “the Other” as fundamentally different in nature from the West. criticized for neglecting the wide variety of views held by orientalist scholars incl. Westeners who became Easternized through intercultural contact.

Criticism on Polarization A clash of civilizations remains unproven oversimplified and overgeneralized the nature of contemporary cultural schisms. Social Institutions such as markets, trading networks, tech innovation, religious communities  civilizational divide (capitalism, Christianity…)

Polarization Bassam Tibi human rights activists from Muslim countries like Iran Islamicize the notiong of rights fundamental antagonism between the theocentric cosmology of Islam and the cultural modernity of the global order is not a clash of civilizations. a clash between a global civilization that recognized individual subjectivity and a fragmented set of local cultures

Hybridization Cultures borrow and incorporate elements from each other, creating hybrid or mixed cultural forms. Flows of people, ideas, cultural styles across political and cultural boundaries Significance of interculturalism for cultural identity, the syncretic historic-making of cultural forms Evidence to support comes mainly from popular music (jazz, world music), art, literature, and religious life. – The Western style affect on non-western area and vice versa. But, it is hard to assess its scale and scope.  blurry conceptual status of cultural orientation.

Hybridization The notion of separate Western and non-Western sources becomes blurred “there is no such thing as a culturally pure sound” – Simon Frith Cosmopolitanism and deterritorialization is not that convincing Unclear about the limits of hybridity as a chosen cultural form

Conclusion No easy answers to questions to do with the cultural globalization. Failure of grand theories to properly explain the diversity and complexity of global cultural development. Globalization has depended on intercultural borrowing and exchange.