What is the relation between culture and globalization?

 

Summary

Globalization is a multi-dimensional process that occurs simultaneously in the realm of environmental change and culture, such as economic, political, and technological development. So when we look at globalization from a cultural perspective, we can make a general assumption that the process of globalization leads to one global culture. But even if global interdependence, or the level of global connectivity, increases, it doesn't mean that the world is fully integrated, economically or politically.

At the same time as this view, there is an opinion that the concept of globalization in modern society is forcing global culture on other cultures. Cultural globalization implies a form of cultural imperialism. Examples include global brand companies such as Starbucks, McDonald's, Coca Cola, etc. The success of these Western brands can lead to the dominance of Western culture in the world, which is threatening the loss of non-Western culture. In this era, ‘Westermization’ dominates the world culture, resulting in the above concerns.

The role of globalization is to bring disparate cultures into close contact. However, there is an unfair universal tendency that Western culture is regarded as a global culture under the pretext of globalization. This also leads to the trend of generalization of Western-centered culture that has continued from the past. These include ‘Cosmopolitan’ thinkers after Kant, or Karl Marx, who welcomed the destruction of non-Western culture.

These discussions about globalization and culture are related to nationalism. But in the global era, nationalism can leave many mistakes. Therefore, the concept that emerged is ‘Deterritorialization’.

Examples of deterritorialization include 'searching for information in Google' and 'calling friends from other continents'. This can also be called increasing our daily dependence on electronic media and communication technologies and systems. These examples show that the most important thing in achieving deterritorialization is the development of electronic technology. This is called ‘telemediatization’, and the 'immediacy’ that occurs through this has contributed greatly to breaking down the regional boundaries of culture.

Despite these discussions, there are also people who consider globalization a threat to their cultural identity. They believe that ensuring the cultural relationship between geographical location and human experience is a means of maintaining culture. Globalization is therefore considered to destroy the local identity of culture. This may be the fallacy of confusing Western-centered culture with the universality of human experience. In order not to commit this fallacy, we must recognize the multiplicity of cultural identity and achieve internationalist globalization without resorting to specific cultural traditions.
 
Interesting point

Karl Marx's future communist society and eurocentric attitude was interesting. The future communism he claimed is a future society in which regional attachment and national division have disappeared, and a society in which the whole world has universal language and culture. Contrary to his ideals, however, non-Western culture shows a thoroughly ostracized attitude. After all, his ideal future society was centered on Western culture and there was no place for non-Western culture. I thought it contradictory to have an internationalist who despises national sentiment and also an eurocentric attitude that does not recognize the plurality of culture. I only remembered the fact that Karl Marx was the one who advocated communism and therefore thought that attitudes toward culture would also be equal, not different, depending on geographical location. So Marx's attitude toward non-Western culture felt heterogeneous, unlike the various theories he claimed.
 
Discussion

There is a question of the plurality of cultural identity. Is an internationalist culture feasible  that breaks down regionalism and does not rely on certain cultural traditions (e.g., Westermization) ?
No matter how we are in the global age, we have different cultures that people can actually experience and different nationalities. The development of technology has expanded the realm of human experience, but I think the development of technology alone is not enough to have a pluralistic understanding of cultural identity. The international situation has been seen from the past to the present, and this is the same in the cultural sphere. I think that perfect cosmopolitanism is a utopian view that can never be realized.