W6. Cultural globalization / Yeonju Heo

Cultural globalization

 

1. Summary  

This article by John Tomlinson covers Cultural Globalization. To understand cultural globalization, we are looking at globalization first. Globalization is a multi-dimensional process that occurs simultaneously in economics, politics, environment, and culture. The interconnectivity and dependence of modern society has developed rapidly, and the network has become dense increasingly.

 

This increasing connectivity affects a variety of areas, from individual lifestyles such as food, music and movies to global warming and influenza. We live in a more connected world than before, and it was unprecedented.

 

Clifford Geertz says culture can be the cause of social events. Culture is the creation of life. It is also the context in which events can be interpreted meaningfully, and the basis for human beings. Cultural meaning and interpretation motivate people's choice and behavior and direction.

 

Ways to satisfy the physical needs are also part of the culture. Consuming activities that buy things and express themselves through it form a network of global market connectivity. It is also a resource for workers to be hired and consumed, and an industrial resource for production.

 

Globalization brings the integration effect of the market in the economic areas. But that does not necessarily mean that the world will be unified economically and politically. The concept of globalization is an uneven process that can ignore or exclude other areas.

 

Cultural globalization begins with the assumption that the western (especially, the US) capitalism is spreading to all regions and there is a threat. In this process, the Non-Western cultural traditions are lost. Microsoft, Google, McDonalds, CNN, Hollywood movies, and Western pop music appear in many places like ' totalitarian culture '.

 

However, we should not confuse these cultural products with cultural practices. Culture includes meaning and interpretation of goods. Western culture is easily spread to global culture. We can approach these problems in a different way from the perspective of the modern world.

 

This can be seen through 'maps' that depict the world directly. Christianity reproduces and dominates the map through the theological factors. The sacred city of Jerusalem is located in the center and east of the map are described in the garden of Eden. There are also various Christian elements. These elements reinforce the myth of Christianity and describe the world as a unifying entity in Christianity. This is the imaginary world of Christianity. A particular culture that seems to be a universal culture should be careful not to be confined to a pioneering cultural worldview. To use particular cultures as ‘ clear ’ models, it must be sincere, rational, and good.

 

We can approach cultural globalization by understanding the impact of globalization in a particular area. Almost everyone lives in the area. obalization changes our experience of locality. We can identify these changes through deterritorialization. Deterritorialization is the loss of natural, culture, geographical and social territory. It also indicates the importance of the geographical location of the culture. It means that the practice of boundary and boundary setting, as well as physical, environmental and climatic locations, is collapsing. Culture is no longer tied to the constraints of the local circumstances.

 

Deterritorialization is the integration of events, processes, and causal relationships in our lives. We can easily experience deterritorialization in our daily lives. We eat in a restaurant in various countries and watch American dramas sitting in the living room of the house. We hear reports about political events in faraway lands, and contact friends from other continents, and log in to Google to get information.

 

Deterritorializations transform local experience and provide broader cultural horizons to people. Through the increase in mobility, the use of new communication skills, and the experience of globalizing the world, people naturally absorb the cultural data of the region and the world. Through these processes, what happened in the far countries has become quite significant in our lives.

 

We must take cosmopolitan cultural politics seriously. But this is not something to do for global governance. This is a dilemma. We can think about the identity of cosmopolitan disposition through the understanding of international tendencies. The debate on human rights can be done to prevent cultural differences, such as universal justice, medical care and education. Universal world order can be used as a way of understanding our human beings and conversations with others, and can function as a global order. We are facing the future world and need a more flexible cultural concept than we have ever had.

 

 

 

2. New, interesting or unusual items I learned

 

I was interested in the part about deterritorialization. The world on the map physically clarifies its boundaries. But culture is different. I can easily enter the restaurant that sells food from other countries, and I can always watch Hollywood movies and listen to famous pop music. It is the same with anyone in any other country. The world constitutes a super connective network beyond connections. The boundaries of culture have been destroyed, and nobody can rebuild the boundaries. With the use of communication technologies and the globalized media experience through deterritorialization, It was new that the work of a distant country became important in my life.

 

 

 

3. Discussion 

Cultural boundaries have disappeared with deterritorialization. But, cultural superiority seems to exist. Sometimes, some cultures are considered more important than other cultures. For example, the culture of developing countries is regarded as a research subject, and it is difficult to become a universal culture in the world. As mentioned in the article, the culture of the West (especially the US) is considered to be a very powerful culture that encompasses the world. How can we overcome the division of cultural superiority?