Globalization and Culture Global Mlange - Essay Example

A Response Paper on Globalization and Culture: Global Mélange Globalization is the trend of today. Many changes occur as technology improves together with the advancement of the knowledge of human beings. People tend to explore and look at the bigger picture of life. They want to connect with the world and share what they have, from knowledge to memories. They expand businesses and provide jobs for many. They also check out the condition of the environment in response to human activities. Jan Pieterse wrote his book entitled Globalization and Culture: Global Mélange to share his findings and insights regarding the effects of globalization to culture.

He explores the culture thoroughly as the geological barriers have been removed by the technology and migration of people today. He started off with the definition of globalization which may differ from the common meaning of it. Other people consider globalization to be a single perspective only wherein the main focus is on the business side or the expansion of the corporate world. In reality, globalization is a multidimensional process wherein culture, politics, economics and social dynamics are all factors that shape the face of globalization.

They may all differ from one another and can be very distinct, but they all mingle and affect globalization (Pieterse 14). The changes then bring about huge impact on the culture of people around the world. Pieterse particularly focused on culture as it contains the values, beliefs and norms of people that affect the social dynamics. He then attacks the current cultural change with a concept of mélange as he distinguished it from the common perspectives of multicultural existence like homogenization and clash of the civilizations.

Homogenization as the word implies pertains to the oneness or uniformity in any particular thing which means cultural homogenization is the presence of uniform culture. It is attributed to the advancement of businesses around the world. Some people pointed out that corporations and businesses like the franchise fast food chains together with capitalism drive the world into a cultural homogenization. They also call it Mc Donaldization as named after the largest fast food chain in the world (Pieterse 51-55).

Perhaps it is maybe the cause of the homogenization as the brands and endorsements of big businesses affect the lifestyle, norms, values and beliefs of people. The cultural change then follows as the businesses expand. Another perspective for cultural change is the clash of civilization coined by Samuel Huntington. He even cited the Cold War and wars and conflicts may continue to arise as people will protect their beliefs and norms. Wars may occur again in response to the threats of losing the political power and identity of people and those conflicts may happen in response to the growing numbers of believers for particular religions.

He even pointed out the coming of arms in East and Central Asia that can be the reason why clash may occur again to fight for their culture (Pieterse 41-46). the one that may occur widely is the global mélange. Cross cultures flourish nowadays as people migrate and visit other places. They bring with them their customs, traditions, beliefs and norms. They have the growing interest on other cultures as they may watch those through stage shows, presentations, clothing styles and so on. With that occurrence, differences are settled and growing respect for one another occurs.

People around the world now adapt much of Asian cultures and some Asian countries become industrialized and in America, the African-Americans are gaining their freedom and equality as much as the Whites did (Pieterse 75-76). Perhaps those three views may have solid support in reality as they all occur around the world. Despite of those temporary conflicts and clashes and the uniformity of culture, it is said that cross cultures shows the more detailed changes in culture around the world where people share their heritage through mix-up that create a global mélange.

Works CitedPieterse, Jan. Globalization and Culture: Global Mélange. USA: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2009.