W6. Cultural globalization/ Minseong Kim

1.Summary

 The subject of John Tomlinson’s article is ‘Cultural Globalization’. Before understanding about ‘Cultural Globalization’, Tom wants to define globalization first. He says that globalization is a multidimensional process, taking place simultaneously within the spheres of the economy, of politics, of technological developments, of environmental change and of culture. It means that ‘Cultural Globalization’ is regarded as one of the types of globalization – I interpret -.

 Unless globalization is regarded as multidimensional process, there is a tacit assumption as to the relative importance of each of these dimensions. Although there is no escaping dominance of the capitalist system, the sphere of the economy, John suggest that economy must not be considered as causal primacy in the globalization process.

 To return to the subject, Cultural Globalization, culture is a dimension in which globalization both has its effects and simultaneously is generated and shaped. In this article, particularly, shows what sort of shape is emerging.

 First, there is an uneven globalization process such as ‘cultural imperialism’ – with areas of concentration and density of flow and other areas of neglect or even perhaps exclusion. One of the very example is what western corporations are installing Western culture as global culture by their goods.

 A different way of approaching these issues is to view contemporary globalization in the context of a much longer historical context. A map from thirteenth-century Europe can be an example. In the century, there is a dominant religion, Christianity. So in the map, Jerusalem - the holy city – is placed at the center. It can be regarded as emphasizing the religion, but Slavoj Zizek argues that Christian universalism tendentially excludes non-believers from the very universality.

 So far, the article showed that what sort of shape is emerging. But, from now on, it shows the effects of globalization. Globalization is changing our experience of ‘locality’ and the idea of ‘deterritorialization’ represents the change. ‘Deterritorialization’ means that the significance of the geographical location of a culture. In the other words, culture is no longer tied to the constraints of local circumstances.

 Although the phenomenon of deterritorialization arises from lots of reasons, the article says that deterritorialization is mainly connected with ‘telemediatization’. ‘Telemediatization’ means our increasing routine dependence on electronic media and communications technologies and systems. Through these phenomena, what happens in distant parts of the world matters in our lives.

 In spite of cultural globalization, there is the pluralism of identity positions. As we know, identities are constructs not possessions. So we need to think culture more flexible than we so far possess.

2. New, interesting or unusual items I learned

 There are two interesting or unusual items what I found in the article. First, the word of ‘deterritorialization’ is very interesting word to me. Because what I have thought about globalization is interaction among the countries which have their own territory. After knowing about deterritorialization, I find that what are globally famous is beyond territory such as Hollywood movie, pop song, Apple and Gangnam-style.

 Second, the sentence, ‘identities are constructs not possessions’, is quite unusual to me. I have thought identities as neither constructs nor possessions. This sentence is connected to what I want to discuss.

3. Discussion

 There are two things what I want to discuss. First one is the sentence - ‘identities are constructs not possessions’. This is quite interesting sentence, but I’m not sure about difference between constructs and possessions. If identities are constructs, isn’t there any uneven relationship among cultures? What is exact definition of constructs and possessions about identities.

 Second one is that 'Westernization' is only considered negatively such as 'cultural imperialism'? I think there are better reasons that western culture is becoming dominant culture in the world than eastern or other culture. By adopting western culture, for example, South Korean has more liberal attitude so that we impeached former president. Because of this good reason, I think that we see 'westernization' not only negatively but also positively.