Unit 5.2.2.
Glocalisation and Cultural Hybridity
Content:
Geographic inquiry and concept (s)
 How global interactions bring cultural influences and changes to places
Geographic knowledge and understanding
 The effects of global interactions on cultural diversity in different places:
-Glocalisation of branded commodities, and cultural hybridity
-Cultural landscape changes in the built environment
Case study or detailed examples (neither required by the cyllabus)
Lesson aim:
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To have knowledge and understanding of the glocalization of
branded commodities.
To have knowledge and understanding of cultural hybridity.
To have knowledge and understanding of the cultural landscape
changes in the built environment.
Key term:
Cultural homogenisation: an aspect of cultural globalisation, listed as one of its main
characteristics, and refers to the reduction in cultural diversity through the popularisation
and diffusion of a wide array of cultural symbols – not only physical objects but customs,
ideas and values
e.g. Ikea having tweaked its products to ‘woo’ India’s shoppers, e.g. brighter colours
(differing from their normal white, beige, grey) rice steamers and woks for kitchen wear,
and locally made mattresses (firmer, as preferred)
Glocalisation of branded commodities:
1. Kitkats
2. McDonald’s,
3. Shanghai Disney,
4. Animated films
1. Kitkats
 How the brand has been glocalised
Originates from UK, 1935, called the Rowntree’s Chocolate Crisp.
Spread globally in 1950s, making its way to Japan in 1973.
Kitkats brought in on an island to diversity the snacks in a souvenir shop and introduced
a limited-edition variety strawberry-flavoured KitKat exclusive to the area.
The candy-makers offered Tamaruya-Honten brand wasabi KitKats; in the Kanto region,
adzuki bean sandwich KitKata; and KitKats flavoured link Momiji manju, a locally
produced pastry made of rice and buckwheat.
KitKats as good luck charms as the brand teamed up with the postal service to send to
university students before their exams.
McDonald’s –
-Started as an All-American joint has now transformed the lives of people worldwide.
McDonald’s isn’t just a fast food joint, it’s a culture.
Cultural hybridity
Example of cultural hybridity: K-Pop
L/O: Should be able to discuss the relative power of the different cultural elements and
the power of ‘final product’ K-Pop itself.
Alternative cultural hybridity example: Creolisation
Creolisation – used to refer to forms of culture that do not have historical roots, but are
the result of global interconnections (Hannerz, 1992).
(Google definition - form (a Creole language) from the contact of a European language with a local
language: (as adjective creolized)
-It is a useful way of thinking about hybridity, how different types of culture which exist
simultaneously and overlap, leading to new forms of culture.
What?
Creolisation is a process where Creole cultures emerged in colonial societies, mainly in
Louisiana and the Caribbean, but also in the Indian Ocean. In the Caribbean it was a mixture
of people of indigenous, European, and African descent.
Caused: the uprooting and displacement of large numbers of people in colonial plantation
economies. From the sixteenth century to the twentieth century European powers, such as
Great Britain, France, Spain, established colonies in America, Asia, Africa.
Today: difficult to pin point where their ancestors of the Creole people are from.
Therefore: being Creole today, for instance, aspects of traditional African religious beliefs
continue to exist alongside Christianity and the blending of the two has created new
religious systems such as Voodoo in Haiti.
Also: the Creolisation has subsequently been applied to food, architecture, music and
language.
Cultural landscape changes in the built environment:
Above: Building into the desert, a view from the Burj Khalifa.
Notes on: the cultural landscape of world cities
And traditional and hybrid city landscape
IB Geography at YIS: https://sites.google.com/yis.ac.jp/ibgeography/hl-extension-unit-5-1human-development-and-diversity/5-2-changing-identities-and-cultures