The term
globalization is used to describe the economic, political, social and cultural
changes of the world in the last odd fifty years, which was accelerated by the
scientific revolution to the diminishing of national and geopolitical
boundaries in an expanding transnational movement of goods, services and capital.
Globalization is
not an instant movement. It is a culmination of long term process. According to
scholars, they divide the entire process of globalization into two phases.
·
First stage of globalization – 1870 – 1940
·
Second stage of globalization – from 1970’s
Cultural Impacts of Globalization:
The proponents of globalization claim that it will lead to
convergence of income, access to knowledge and technology, consumption power,
living standards and political ideas. Adding on to that, integration of
economies would lead to increase in economic growth and wealth. They also argue
that more people would be able to enjoy the fruits of modernization and
civilization. Critics of globalization argue that it is hegemonic, antagonistic
to the poor and vulnerable and is weakening local and national economic
communities and the environment.
Therefore globalization has both positive and negative impacts.
The cultural aspect of globalization is something which
attained global attention recently. So I will be discussing about the cultural
impact of globalization much broadly compared to Economic, Social and Political
views.
Arjun Appadurai
argued that globalization has produced complex interactions between different
cultures. He discusses about five ‘scapes’ which influence culture and argued
that these factors ensure cultural diversity and not cultural homogeneity or
domination. The five scapes are about the types of movements in the form of
ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes financescapes and ideoscapes.
Ø Ethnoscape
refer to flows of people such as tourists and immigrants.
Ø Technoscape
include technology that crosses boundaries.
Ø Financescapes
refer to flows of currency markets.
Ø Mediascapes
refer to mass media technology and images.
Ø Ideoscapes
also refer to images but specifically to the political and ideological aspects.
Appadurai
argues that the act of consumption represents a convergence of global and
cultural processes. He further added that what we have now is something beyond
a consumer revolution (revolution of consumption) in which consumption has
become the principal work of late industrial society. Today we see the
availability of almost all kinds of goods and services in anywhere in the world
with respect to literature, cinema, music, food, clothing, accessories etc.
Western culture has diffused to all parts of the world to a considerable
degree. Anyhow the cultural transmission is not a one way process. The
popularity of Islam and cuisines of Asian, Latin American and African in western
countries is an example of two way process.
The very concept
of globalization is a major challenge for existing conception of world culture.
It is clearly been discussed by the political scientist Samuel P Huntington in
his book ‘The Clash of Civilizations and Remaking of the World Order’.
According to him, the fundamental conflict in the world will not be ideological
or political. But the great divisions among humankind and the dominating source
of conflict will be cultural. He also
argued that nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world
affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between
nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will
dominate global politics. He said, the fault lines between civilizations will
be the battle lines of the future.
When we talk about
cultural globalization the role of media and communication is also often
discussed under this title. Globalization and communication are deeply tangled.
There is a common agreement among the scholars that practically, there would be
no globalization without media and communication. Media have a central place in
globalization for three reasons.
Ø Media
corporations have increasingly globalized their operations
Ø Global
communication infrastructure facilitates global information flows.
Ø Global
media play a key role in how we view events across the world in developing
shared system of meaning.
The breaking up of
space and time as a result of electronic media has a lot to do with the global
interaction regardless of the disparities. The contemporary method of
communication was altered by the new phenomena such as participatory
journalism, online communities and transnational activism organized through
online networks. Globalization has resulted in a rapid growth of social
relations and social organizations on the internet. The emergence of new
communication through online has been influencing the minds and brains of
people through social networks, movies, blogs, online open debate forum etc.
Thus mass media plays a larger role in cultural diversity than in cultural
standardization.
The emergence
of an Americanized World is something that we saw with the growth of
globalization. A converging consumer behavior and tastes with the American
model as a blue print for global culture can be traced as one of the major
impact of globalization on culture. The emergence of English as the dominant
language in business and academic works is another example of how one culture
can gain dominance in the world with power and legitimacy when economic and
political forces enable the spreading of cultures and values. Ulf Hannerz used
the term ‘creolization’ to symbolize the process of western cultures being
transformed and re - conceptualized outside the Western world.
There are positive aspects for cultural globalization that will
foster diversity when there is an interaction between boundaries leads to
mixing of culture which results in pluralization. There is condensation and
differentiation on ideas which brought many unique aspects of certain culture
into lime light. The concept of globalization has gained popularity which would
help in improving standards of life, without hampering the local tradition.
Diversity itself has become a global value now which is been promoted by
international organizations and movements.
Thus, Globalization
has got huge impacts on cultural sphere. There is no question on the forms of
ubiquitous, homogenous and hegemonic forms that spread through everyday life. However,
there are also important forms of reproduction, interconnection and time-space
aspect of these cultures and associated cultural practices.