Globalization Gravely Transforms Us: Here Is How
How Globalization Transforms Human Persons
Globalization reforms relations between women and men, adults and children, people of different cultures, and those with varying levels of technological competence.
Those who view globalization as a beneficial social system state that it encourages people to conserve scarce resources, distribute their wealth and opportunities, safeguard each other’s rights, and work together to further the common good, such as the long term health and welfare of the planet and its social foundations on which all our futures depend. People become more competitive as individualism and materialism characterize globalizing capitalism.
Cultural globalization
Globalization transforms people’s culture, a very extensive concept often used to describe the whole of human experience, including the economic and political. The process called cultural globalization refers to the intensification and expansion of cultural flows across the globe. Technically, cultural globalization is the symbolic construction, articulation, and dissemination of meaning.
A perceptible aspect of the cultural globalization is the flow of some cuisines such as American fast food chains. The two most successful global food and beverage outlets, McDonald’s and Starbucks, are American companies repeatedly named as examples of globalization, with over 37,000 and 29,000 locations operating worldwide, respectively as of 2018. Thus, American sociologist George Ritzer (born 1940- ) developed the termMcDonaldization to refer to the principles of the fast food restaurant coming to progressively dominate not only sectors of American society but also the rest of the world.
The most common interpretations of cultural globalization are the thoughts that the world is becoming more uniform and standardized, through a technological, commercial, and cultural synchronization proceeding from the West. More and more sociologists are nonetheless arguing against this thesis.
Some topics under the cultural dimension of globalization include (a) the development of a global culture (or lack thereof), (b) the role of the media in forming our desires and identities, and (c) the globalization of languages.
The development of a global culture (or lack thereof) pertains to the tension between sameness and difference in the emerging global culture. There is the debate on whether there is an increasing homogeneity (i.e., the world is becoming smaller, and people are all becoming more alike) or increasing heterogeneity (i.e., the world is fragmenting, and we are emphasizing our difference more).
Some claim that globalization all the more reinvigorates niche cultures instead of abolishing them, thereby increasing cultural heterogeneity. However, pessimistic hyperglobalizers argue that globalization causes the rise of a homogenized popular culture which is generally based on a Western culture industry.
For them, cultural globalization is best seen as “cultural imperialism” which is typically moving towards “Americanization” of the world. The diversity of existing cultures is said to be diminishing as the world is being homogenized or ”Americanized” despite the resistance of some countries.
Optimistic hyperglobalizers agree with the rise of sameness in cultural globalization, but they positively believe that it will have good results. For instance, some of them hope that Americanization of the globe leads to spreading out of democracy and free markets.
On the other hand, Roland Robertson (sociologist and theorist of globalization who lectures at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, United Kingdom) talks about “cultural hybridity” as a result of “glocalization” in which there is an interaction between local and global cultural traits. Cultural hybridization refers to the mingling of cultures as a result of globalization, and the ensuing creation of new and unique hybrid cultures that are not reducible to either local or global culture.
Glocalization refers to the interpenetration of the local and the global resulting in unique outcomes in various geographic areas. As a result of cultural globalization, there is less stable sense of identity among people around the world.
Transnational media corporations
Today, one cannot doubt the crucial role of transnational media corporations in disseminating popular culture and in forming our desires and identities. Powerful media facilitate cultural globalization. Nowadays, media is an enormous commercial market which is said to amount to creation of a global oligopoly like the oil. Global media networks are owned by a small group of transnational corporations, which are said to affect journalistic integrity.
Assisted by our flourishing mobile digital devices and the Internet, the leading symbolic systems of meaning of our age—such as individualism (stresses human independence and individual self-reliance and liberty), consumerism (encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts), and several religious discourses—can be more effortlessly and swiftly circulated, and intensely impact the way we experience our daily lives. Through media and new technologies, cultural practices are not located (or not exclusive) in a fixed town or nation. In interaction with prevailing global themes, cultural practices are also obtaining new meanings.
Effects to Language
A very significant aspect of cultural globalization is the change in patterns of languages around the globe. In globalization of languages, some languages are used in international communication while some others are set aside and sometimes vanish.
Some opposing hypotheses exist about the effects of globalization to language. Some claim that it leads to fortification of native tongues. In contrast, some forecast the rise of a ”globish” language. There are at least five variables which influence the globalization of languages: (a) number of languages, (b) movements of people, (c) foreign language learning and tourism, (d) Internet language, and (e) international scientific publications. … continue reading
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