Globalisation is the process of integration and interconnection of economies and societies; and the intermingling of different cultures (Upadhyah, 2016). Things such as advancement of technology dissolves international boundaries and opens cultures to new experiences ), enabling globalisation to occur. On one hand globalisation has the potential to promote a collective identity through socialisation and create a generally more informed and interconnected world, advancement of technology is a factor of globalisation that has helped dissolve international boundaries and open up people to learn about and experience other cultures. Globalisation can be empowering, as well as interconnecting the world, it can support economic development, provide information availability and assist in developing a global village. However, on the other hand globalisation arguably contributed to the eroding of local cultures rather than creating a bridge between local and global cultures, globalisation has as the ability to disempower cultures, provide a process for cultural imperialism and cultural homogenisation, through for example, the increasing influence of American media and culture that has been caused by things such as technology. Homogenisation of culture incites the loss of individualism and individual identity of local cultures. The entire world is becoming a cultural common market area in a way that technology, knowledge, fashion, music and literature, same kind of metropolitan mass culture is manufactured, bought and sold – Western ideologies, political beliefs, science, laws, social institutions, moral concepts, sexual symbols, beauty standards, working methods and activities, foods, pop culture and the concept of human existence have increasingly become cultural norms everywhere in the world (Communicationtechnology101, 2014), because of this, within this essay, I argue that despite its positive impacts, globalisation has had the effect of homogenising culture, therefore eroding local cultures and causing them to lose their individuality.
As well as interconnecting the world and promoting trade, globalisation has also increased international trade in cultural products and services, such as movies, music, and literature. . With the help of technology, the Western countries have captured the opportunity to use globalisation to shape the world in their likeliness, the motives of Western countries and globalisation can also be seen as a condescending and paternalistic outreach towards the developing countries it seeks to benefit. (Anwar, 2018). Although the cultural impacts of globalisation also allow countries and cultures to be exposed to new and foreign cultures, the fears of powerful countries inserting their influence over local cultures, stripping away unique cultural identity, could leading to cultural homogenisation. Cultural homogenisation is a reduction in cultural diversity, cultures begin to look more alike and become more uniform, losing their individuality, it links directly to cultural imperialism – the exercise of domination in cultural relationships in which the values,of a powerful foreign culture are imposed upon one or more native cultures. (Tomlinson, 2012). Cultural imperialism can be used to critique the cultural power domination of America, also known as Americanisation. Americanisation is the increasing influence of American culture on other countries, this influence is exerted through media, celebrity culture, music, technology, politics and even cuisine. Cultural Imperialism here refers to the creation and maintenance of an unequal relationships between countries , favouring the more powerful countries , Americanisation is a form of cultural imperialism because as a result of America being a huge global influence and superpower, this gives it huge global power and large global influence in culture. This was most prominent after the cold war with America trying to spread their values and influence. It is the idea that with the spread of American culture and values the local culture of the rural places which is being influenced are being destroyed and replaced by the American culture, homogenising it (Medium, 2018). The domination of Mcdonalds restaurants, also known as Mcdonaldisation is a way in which the cultural dominance of America has manifested itself around the world. In his book ‘Mcdonaldisation of Society’ George Ritzer defines Mcdonaldisation a “phenomenon that occurs when society institutions and its organisations are adapted to have the same characteristics that are found in fast food chains”, he states that these are efficiency, calculability, predictability, standardisation and control (Crossman, 2020) Although McDonald’s does have particularising tendencies in some countries, which means some menu items can only be found in local regions and specific countries, for example, only in India will you be able to order the McAloo Tikki, its basic menu and the fundamental way of operation remain the same all around the world – the universalising and particularising tendencies of Mcdonalds are a form of glocalisation. The expansion of such a standardised system such as Mcdonalds internationally, is an indication of cultural imperialism. It is not only the institution of Mcdonalds that is causing cultural imperialism and uniformity, but the values of Mcdonalds have manifested themselves in the existence of indigenous clones of Mcdonaldised organisations and institutions. For example, the success of the McDonald’s in Russia led to the creation of indigenous organisations such as Russkoye Bistro, which has over hundred outlets. Russkoye Bistro’s deputy director said, “If McDonald’s had not come to our country, then we probably wouldn’t be here.” As locals begin to see McDonald’s and McDonaldized institutions as their own, Mcdonaldisation will become embedded into the realities of their own cultures, for example, the traditional Japanese taboo against eating while standing has been undermined by the fast-food restaurant values.. McDonaldization represents a unique threat to cultural identity, unlike previous American exports they have an impact on both the way business is organised and on the way in which people live on a daily basis, they represent a set of values that can be completely disengaged from their just Mcdonalds, as the principles of Mcdonaldisation become dis embedded from just Mcdonalds and then re embedded in local structures identifying their origin as from Mcdonalds/American society will become difficult. As a result, opposing and dismissing Mcdonalisation and Americanisation as a foreign import will become more difficult, as will anti-American sentiment against its manifestations it has on culture as simply a product that retains its roots in America (GNCSNC, 2016). Homogenisation poses a challenge to the future of unique culture and tradition.
The fear of Americanisation has caused some regions and countries to attempt to combat it in a fight to preserve their languages, traditions, foods and general unique cultural identity. China’s attempts to regain control of its film market in the age of the dominance of Hollywood is an example of an attempt to combat Americanisation. China has limited the number of Hollywood films allowed to be shown in a year across cinemas nationwide, this has been done by the Chinese government both in the pursuit of showing more authentic Chinese films and intended to damage the US industry as tensions between both of the world’s two largest economies remain high (Allen, 2019). However, this is arguably not a way to preserve local and national Chinese culture and is just a dangerous form of suppression and censorship being imposed by the Chinese government. Furthermore, another interesting case study of the erosion of culture due to Globalisation but no evident combatting of this, is India. Alike it has to most countries and cultures globalisation has brought influence from all worldwide o India, it has not just brought in their goods, but has come in the form of new concepts, ideologies and change in lifestyle. In the form of language globalisation has changed India, here was a time when Indians used to greet each other with “Namaste” or something similar in regional dialects, now this has changed “Hi” and “Hello” among a large section of the population, which is a more universalised greeting (Bose, 2014). The possible impact of globalization on the societal values is a controversial issue in India. Some find it to be beneficial while other condemn the whole idea of globalisation and cite it as a cause for the weakening of societal values, according to Upadhayah (2016) studies have shown that the affect processes of globalisation have had on Indian economy and the society is causing damaging to social structure and economic system of India, whilst some uniqueness is lost the changing of social structure and values is not necessarily negative it has helped in bringing some positive social changes in Indian society such as providing employment opportunities in organised sector to down trodden sections of society. There are significant differences between the Indian and western life styles and similarly Indian urban and rural life style. Upadhayah suggested that the process of globalisation is blurring the lines between the differences in local cultures within India and Western culture, as urban India becomes more influenced by Western culture so does rural India. For example, the way people dress in India is changing, the acceptance of Westernised style of clothing in rural India is becoming more accepted, less people are wearing traditional Sari or Dhotikurta. There is also a case of less traditional Indian festivals being celebrated in favour of Westernised ones. However, Globalisation has brought very positive changes to India too such as propelling womens rights movements and providing forms of cultural hybridity.
Some people have critiqued the suggested that inference of a universal common culture and the idea of cultural uniformity and homogenisation as a natural outcome of globalisation, saying that this suggests that there is no place for the accommodation of existing multiplicity of cultures. However, there is the idea that rather than Americanisation being a form of cultural imperialism. local cultures choose to accept American culture rather than the western culture forced upon them – local people are not passive they actively accept American cultural influence in the form of literature, media, celebrity culture and so on, the western culture is then used to adapt and develop their own culture. After the second world war, many countries chose to adopt the American culture, because in many cases the globalisation and western culture allowed cultures to develop in ways and allowing cultural hybridity. An example can be used with the influence of western culture on Asian entertainment through the popularisation of KPOP. This is the rise of pop music throughout Asia like with the rise in K pop in South Korea which is an example of how Americanisation has led to other cultures trying to adopt the American influenced culture. The American influence in K-Pop is shown within s=the styles of music to the music videos. i (Medium, 2018) .The influence of American music on the Korean music started during the Korean War. The USA MGIK, which was the name of the USA troop situated in South Korea, provided the opportunity for the Korean citizens to experience the “American Music” through a radio channel called the AFKN (Stephen, 2018) Another example could be seen through the rise of Bollywood in comparison to the western Hollywood. Bollywood is watched by millions and is an example of cultures using western culture as influence rather than directly using western culture.
To conclude, globalisation definitely has its benefits being able to experience new cultures and the coming together of cultures has positive impacts of diversifying culture and exposing local people to new foreign cultures. However, cultural imperialism whilst I don’t think it should be labelled as an extremely dangerous threat, has impacted the uniqueness of some cultures, the imposing of American culture by institutions is a by-product of capitalism, it is disguised as globalisation by countries like America in order to make profit as well as gain more power and therefore, influence within other countries and local cultures , making them uniform and homogenised, and therefore more easy to control. Unprecedented interaction and influence have not completely eroded local cultures and uniqueness but it is on the path to doing that.
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