The good news is this: cultural globalization will, with time, become less of a polarizing issue in India and in other developing countries. The first Martian to arrive is the biggest news story, but at some point change becomes commonplace and ceases to attract much notice. At the subjective level, people eventually realize that globalization has preserved or enhanced many parts of India’s heritage. The bad news, however, is closely connected to the good. While cultural evolution in India is hardly over, it is possible that the exciting and heady feelings of change have already peaked.Here's the rest of the post.
This seems a very Thomas Friedman-esque argument, especially considering that the focus is on India. I don't know much about cultural and social globalization, but I'm a skeptic. After watching Friedman's video, The Other Side of Outsourcing, I can't help but get the feeling that producing animated cartoons about the goddess Vishnu for children is not quite the same thing as preserving and enhancing India's heritage.
2 comments:
While I am a proponent of globalization, I tend to agree that it has a homogenizing effect, both economically and culturally.
Some theorists have tried to argue that there is a "glocalization" effect where societies exposed to global trends will somehow adapt them to their own culture, thus preserving their unique identities. But even while this may happen on a small scale, the dominant trend will always be towards the culture that propagates itself most forcefully...ie America.
Seeing the fast food culture in other countries brought this point home. What once was a "fast food nation" has now become a fast food planet, and we are largely to blame for that.
Travel as often as you can, because soon the world will be a wholly different place.
Yes, the world will be a wholly different place but I prescribe to the notion that the 'homogenization effect' of globalization is less total and more piece-meal. Take McDonald's--while the familiar golden arches and it's staples the Big Mac and Coca Cola can be found in remote locations around the world there is a wide variety of regional offerings. Can you get a Fried Ebi (shrimp tempura) burger back in the States (shrimp tempura being a traditional dish, the concept of frying not being introduced by the Mac)?
Even the more important issue of homogenizing food habits, to which fast food has been credited as destroying the traditional meal and causing obesity, is simply not as profound as critics say. Mac Donald's in Japan is extremely popular but the portion sizes are much smaller than the states and you rarely have a person eating there for more than the occasional treat. Mac Donald's and other 'culturally homogenizing companies' may be the strong arms of spreading American culture, but they are by no means total or uncompromising. At the end of the day they have to market to local tastes in order to make a profit.
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