[Reading 2] The relationship between globalization and culture

[Summary]

Globalization is a multidimensional process that generally takes place simultaneously in a wide range of areas, including economy, politics, technology, media and communication technology, environmental climate, and culture. Globalization is a complex, accelerated, and integrated global connection process. It is also a network of developing and changing interconnection and interdependence that characterize the world's material, social, economic, and cultural lives. Now globalization exists everywhere around our lives and crosses international boundaries. Globalization is increasing connectivity between countries, which is increasingly effecting our way of life. In here Connectivity is the use of media communication technology. Accidents in other countries can be easily accessed through the Internet. It also increases anxiety about terrorism, environmental problems, and diseases even though it didn't happen in their own country. Historically, global interdependence is increasing. It is easy to understand if you think of globalization as a process of increasing connectivity. The most important thing is the global capitalist market, which is the economic area. Cultural analysts stress that the capitalist system is an important factor that cannot escape global domination. However, there is a debate about to what extent the economy is involved in cultural practices. 

The impact of globalization on culture has a potential impact on the culture that people consume in the global market process. This is interpreted as the spread of cultural imperialism, Americanization, Western Europeanization, and global capitalist consumer unification. According to Clifford Geertz, culture is where social events can be attributed causally. herefore, culture is interpreted as the meaning of social sharing. The function of culture is to create meaning in life. Narrative is itself for culture. Culture is the context in which events can be interpreted meaningfully and the context in which human agency are created. Important practical or economical logic is always carried out within our individual cultural life. 

The results of the culture of globalization can be seen by identifying how much cultural known regional behavior can bring about the results of globalization. For example, even if you buy a pair of jeans, consumer activity is an behavior that constitutes a complex network of global markets. Consumption affects the overall industrial process, including the employment of workers in other countries, the operation of factories, and the consumption and production of natural resources. According to Anthony Giddens, cultural globalization involves the flexibility of modern life. Culture is the view that globalization represents and creates its effectiveness. 

There is speculation that globalization will lead to a single global culture, and there is an example that shows that it is possible. This is because integration effects appear in economic areas provided by uniform systems integrated in global markets, such as large franchise stores. The operation policy of the global franchise headquarters appears in almost every country without exception, and globalization has general unity in this aspect. n the past, society, economy, and culture can be seen as regional and independent phenomena, but as globalization progresses, unity and connectivity are revealed in many ways. However, global connectivity does not always mean integration in the broadest range. The Third World does not engage in economy or communications in the same way as the developed world, but the global economic system or culture has a significant impact on the entire Third World country. Globalization is a process that has not been refined because there are areas of these exclusion. As this form of cultural imperialism spreads all over the world, the tradition of non-western culture may disappear. There is criticism that the development of brands such as Coca-Cola, Google, and McDonald's or Hollywood movies from the West can dominate the world culture with Western culture. However, there are opinions about whether products from Western companies can really dominate the global market. because there is no evidence that has permeated the values of deeper Western culture. The connectivity of globalization is not to dismiss Western culture as a global culture, but to bring disparate cultures closer together.

Karl Marx's communist social model presents a bold vision of a future world where national division has disappeared with regional attachment. A communist society is a world with universal language, world literature, and international cultural tastes. Marx welcomed the destruction of non-European cultures to achieve radical global goals. Marx was an internationalist who despised ethnic sentiment in all societies against the global interests of the proletariat. Marx's view, formed in the mid-19th century, was a time when global capitalism was similar to ours and is relevant today. The lesson we can learn from Marx's example is that ethnocentric tendencies can revolve around rational and progressive humanistic visions.

Another way to approach cultural globalization is to feel the effects of globalization within a particular region. This is because globalization changes the way we think and experience about locality. Deterritorialization means that all ethnic boundaries and distinctions, including the geographical location of culture, physical and environmental, are not important. The connectivity of globalization is feared to undermine the cultural concept in functionalist traditions, as regionalism challenges the idea of isolating the nation from the culture of location and security. Deterritorialization is a phenomenon that breaks away from the daily meaning of people's standards in the community and gives strength, and is the most widespread effect of globalization in the long run. All of these factors support the myth of the origin of Christianity and express the world as if it were unified within Christian faith. but, from a more sophisticated point of view, sacred and empirical are not easily distinguished within historical and cultural contexts. Slavoz zizeck said Christians think they are chosen by God and Jews accept them as people who praise God, while Christians are considered non-believers and exclude them from the universality of humankind. But not all Christians should be considered exclusive. This tendency toward unwarranted universalization can be seen in the rationality of European Enlightenment, not limited to both religious and pre-modern cultures. In fact, Kant said in his paper on globalism that the continent will probably enact laws for everyone else in the future.

Marx and Engels predicted several characteristics of globalization. People's needs are becoming more diverse and they want products from faraway lands for their satisfaction. So we interact in all directions and depend on the state. The one-sidedness or narrowmindeness of the nation is reduced and global culture is born. Global culture can be analyzed by understanding how the media is changing our lives and shaping values. If media technology innovation is added to multimedia delivery systems such as broadband and online news, modern world culture has increased instantaneously. As immediateness increases, it affects a wide range of political, social relationships, and cultural values and creates new meanings. Deterritorialization not only changes local experience but also provides people with a wider cultural horizon. In a variety of ways, including increased mobility, new communication technologies, and integrated media, people are easily exposed to globalization culture. Therefore, things that happen in faraway parts of the world are connected with greater and greater meaning in our lives.

The formation of cultural identity is a modern entity that forms cultural practices, expressions, and imaginations by identifying personal relationships, places, or attachments to community. Usually, the regulated category of cultural identity consists of something common with oneself based on characteristic and politically altered discrimination, such as gender, class, religion, race, nationality, etc. Globalization creates this institutionalized form of cultural affiliation by spreading the institutional characteristics of modernity to all cultures. When this identity is linked to the internationalism problem, it is to understand the world that encompasses humanism, the rights and obligations that belong to it. The understanding of globalization is discussed whether to support universalism or politics of difference. The appeal to human universalism differs depending on context, which arises in a situation where local community attachment can reasonably be judged as oppressive. Universality can be created in an international world order. Clifford Geertz said that as different ethnic states face the world of the future, we need to be much more agile and urgently come up with cultural concepts than we had so far.

[Interesting]

I could see the cultural aspects of globalization, not just from a modern point of view, but from the past before technological development, it was good to see the cultural aspects of globalization as a whole. In particular, it was interesting to see how Christianity accepted other people in the historical and cultural context. It was interesting to look at examples of arguments that opposed the claim that Christianity was exclusive. It was also good part that globalization was related to medieval mapping. It's first time I learned a map 'mapa mundi' that reflected the religious value. 

 

In the pre-modern era, I was able to learn the ideas of globalism that have been revealed in theology. And It was interesting to see how connectivity and deterritorialization allow people to accept globalization. The connected media and advanced technology has greater significance as it exists around people's daily lives. Therefore, what happens in faraway countries is on the news of their countries, and people are interested in relief and fundraising at times. People are connected across borders globally.

[Discussion]

Personally, I think there are many advantages through cultural globalization. modern people can easily access culture in other countries through mobile phones and TV so that we can expand our view and thoughts. Thanks to the increased connectivity, you can sit still inside the house and share opinions about issues around the world by using Internet networks. Also It can be used to commercialize its cultural image and generate revenue. As a result, it increases the country's soft power. It also has a great influence on cultural diplomacy. We can also take new ethical responsibilities through cultural globalization and be more high-dimensional in dealing with problems occurring around the world. 

But I am not entirely in favor of cultural globalization. It is also mentioned in the reading,There are concerns that the cultural globalization could imply cultural imperialism. Cultural globalization is undeniably dominated by Western culture. because Western culture is powerful and easy to spread around the world. A good example is a franchise company. Disney, Coca-Cola, and McDonald's easily spread to many countries, but on the contrary, companies starting from developing countries are unlikely to spread to powerful countries. In this process, I think there is a possibility that even countries other than Western culture may be dominated by Western culture and lose their traditional unique culture. And I don't think that's a desirable direction. Is the end of globalization eventually integrated into Western culture? Each country needs to cooperate and be connected, but it should not lead to cultural imperialism. However, it is difficult to keep and prevent the line. Where is cultural globalization and from where is imperialism? Let's discuss this together.