BR: List three globalizing
factors other than Fast food
• BR: Music: Janka Nabay and the Bubu
Gang
• Country: Sierra Leone, Africa
• Style: Bubu
Globalization
What is
Globalization?
Global industrialism
or globalization is a
process of forging
international
political, economic,
religious, and
socio-cultural
interconnections
7-11 Beijing
KFC Kuwait
What doesn’t
Fit?
Global Culture: Homogenization


Technology (Internet, TV, cell phones etc.) is sweeping
away cultural boundaries creating the possibility and even
the likelihood of a global culture.
Global entertainment companies shape the perceptions,
values, and dreams of people, everywhere.
This spread of values, norms,
and culture tends to promote
Western ideals of capitalism and
consumerism.
 Resulting in the disappearance
of local cultures, traditions, and
identities replaced by a single
commodity/ single identity world
– the Westernization of culture

Ladies only line Saudi Arabia
Asymmetry in Power Relations and Flows
 Coca-colonization: Coke, McDonald’s, Levi’s, MTV, Disney,
computer games, American (or American style) TV shows,
look-alike shopping malls with look-alike goods
 the meaning of good, appropriate, success changes
 Banana Republicanization
 Move from the dominant to the weaker
Big Bird does China
like to teach the world to sing
 Globalism - a euphemism for
western cultural imperialism?
Russia
Israel
Japan
India
Golden
Arches in
Yangshou,
China
Global Culture as a Source of Universality
 Globalization is
assumed to erase
differences among
human societies and
create a universal
culture in which
particular
characteristics of
national and local
cultures are no longer
relevant.
The Colonel looms large in
Guelin, China
Mr. Softee in Hong Kong
On the main street of
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, ©
Dick Waghorne
250 million Chinese have learned
English as a second language
Culture becomes more homogeneous - Not in the sense
that all cultures are incorporated equally, but biased
towards American culture and those presented in English
Global Capitalist Monoculture


Incorporation of all national cultures into
the global capitalist economic system is
creating a universal culture of capitalism.
Penetration of multinational companies
into national cultures creates not only a
uniform process of production and its
associated forms of deregulation, but
uniformity of consumer tastes, choices
and habits.
Tokyo
Standardization
The overwhelming dominance of multinational
companies in the production of cultural goods
creates a “convergence effect”.
From clothes to food to
music to film and
television to
architecture, we
encounter similar styles,
brands and tastes
anywhere in the world.
 Will local cultures inevitably fall victim to this
global consumer culture?
 Will English eradicate all other languages?
 Will consumer values overwhelm peoples’ sense
of community and social solidarity?
 Will a common
culture lead the way
to greater shared
values and political
unity?
 Or will cultures
select elements to
incorporate
Korea
McDonaldization
“ the process by which a society
takes on the characteristics of a
fast-food restaurant”
(1) efficiency: ”fast”, method of
production scientifically proven
(2) predictability: ”a world of no
surprise” – standard menu, taste,
décor, service
(3) calculability: quantity rather than
quality
(4) Control: standardized employees,
non-human technology
McDonald’s /Hong Kong
(1) Standardization: food, interior design,
layout etc.
(2) Initially presented itself as uncompromising
American food
- no Chinese name at first
- transliteration later
- no Chinese food
(3) Standard of cleanliness: clean washrooms
in restaurants
(4) Customer discipline: line up for food
(5) Idea of a regular meal: (a) exotic to ordinary;
(b) snacks versus meals [customers:
middle-class, like exotic American culture 
all ages, all social classes, look for a simple
meal]
Global Culture?
 Identity has intense
emotional ties
 Cultural attachment is
bound in tradition
 Mass marketing & pop
culture is no threat!
 No common pool of
memories
 No common global way of
thinking
 Blurs boundaries
Thailand
Glocalization
globalization + localization
Nova Scotia, Canada
Globalization Issues
 Poverty: Enhanced or Diminished?
 Child Labor: Increased or Reduced?
 Women: Harmed of Helped?
 Democracy at Bay?
 Culture Imperiled or Enriched?
 Wages and Labor Standards at Stake?
 Environment in Peril?
 Corporations: Predatory or Beneficial?