Globalization as a concept has elicited diverse debates among different factions of both the elite, affluent, and ordinary people in the society. The First World War led to the emergence of the cold war, which in return created communism and capitalism. Both ideologies have their traditions which when merged results to cultural globalization. Arguments presented will show the different views held by each group of people and thus take a position concerning the debate on the changing face of cultural globalization.
The interconnectedness of diverse cultures to assimilate and be thought of as a single culture is what encompasses cultural globalization. While such a statement can be true, it has resulted in the emergence of different sets of perspectives holding contradicting views on cultural globalization. The three perspectives are global, traditional, and transformational. Each sees cultural globalization from various points of views. Each view may represent the actual reflection as exhibited in different regions of the world.
Globalists see cultural globalization as a necessary development move, which many areas in the world cannot resist or cannot primarily be prevented by the significance of human intervention. Through the traditional political paradigms, cultural globalization in effect is seen through many sociocultural interactions. The U.S. as a state shows the dominance of cultural globalization. Most people, who go to this land of free men and opportunities, usually end up being absorbed into the culture, and ultimately are absorbed and become one culture which welcomes cultural globalization.
Traditionalists base their arguments on asserting that cultural globalization is an exaggerated concept that should not be given significant interest. These people believe that both economic and social activities are regional rather than universal. A closer look at their proposal shows that their claim may hold some truth, as seen in the sales of Apple products in the Asian market. However, the paradox lies in the fact that Samsung, a leading brand in the region could not compete with Apple products thereby dominating the African market. The dynamo effect shown in the example as mentioned earlier indicates that traditionalist views shed some light on the idea of cultural globalization in a different unique way.
Conversely, transformationalists hold a view that neither concurs nor agrees with the opinion of the two other groups. Morley (2005) found out that people’s beliefs are significant to cultural globalization, and represents a significant shift, which questions the inevitability of its impacts. They base their thoughts on the concept that there is still considerable scope for both national, local and as well as other agencies. In their model of cultural globalization, transformationalists see the shift in cultural globalization as being a real lifetime event, which one only acknowledges after the careful consideration of the other two perspectives.
The views held by the globalist and traditionalist aspects seem extreme and adverse. Globalists advocate that the world is evolving towards a homogenous global culture and different types of new global structures. The traditionalists, on the other hand, are of the opinion that nothing new is taking place. Traditionalist perspective is more of a realistic approach to the three concepts floated in the argument, as it is less extreme and can be depicted as a more modest interpretation of the actual occurrences taking place in many societies around the world. This revelation as shown by the arguments suggested by their theory shows the accurate reflection of the changing face of cultural globalization.
Works Cited
Hopper, Paul. Understanding Cultural Globalization. Cambridge, UK: Polity. no.1 (2007): 35-39.
Kraidy, Marwan. Hybridity, or the cultural logic of globalization. Temple University Press, no 2 (2005): 56-58.
Morley, David. "Globalisation and cultural imperialism reconsidered." Media and cultural theory no.3 (2005): 30-43.
