Pro-globalisation

It does not make sense to talk of a world of 6 billion people becoming a monoculture.

The spread of globalisation will undoubtedly bring changes to the countries it reaches, but change is an essential part of life. It does not mean the abolition of traditional values. Indeed, new global media, such as the internet, have proven a powerful means of projecting traditional culture (and the culture of radical opponents of globalisation).

Capitalism is essentially diverse, as the traveller from Tokyo to Hong Kong, Zurich, Buenos Aires and New York will discover. The fact that American cultural products are successful in world markets reflects no more than their popularity. US cultural exports are strong, and it is influential. That reflects the success of the US economy and the popularity of its products.

American culture should no more be vilified than should non-American culture be placed on a pedestal beyond criticism, for example cultural practices as female genital mutilation/

To the extent that globalisation does imply some integration of culture, this may be no bad thing. Tribalism, and fundamentalism have been divisive sources of violent conflict throughout history.

Links

English is the language of globalisation; by 2050 half the world will be more or less proficient. What are the implication for languages as repositories of culture and identity? http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=883997

Clark Judge, in "Hegemony of the Heart", argues if a truly new order is to endure, the idea that the United States is the dominating global nation, powerful as never before, must be addressed - http://www.policyreview.org/DEC01/judge.html

The Hoover Institution carries a digest, entitled Empires and Roles, by historian John Lewis Gaddis on the post-post-Cold War asking how the United States should respond.
http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/publications/digest/014/gaddis.html

A paper by Gary Madison, Professor of Philosophy at McMaster University outlines the issues involved in the globalisation of culture. http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~global/workpapers/madison/98-1mad.html

The US Ambassador to Morocco addresses the question of whether globalisation represents cultural imperialism in a speech. http://www.usembassy-morocco.org.ma/Themes/EconomicIssues/globalization.htm

An article in the journal, Foreign Policy, by the professor of international affairs at Columbia University, David Rothkopf, outlines the case in favour of cultural imperialism. http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/globcult.htm

An article looking at the way Thai culture has been preserved on the internet has been published by the online journal, First Monday. http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_8/hongladarom/index.html

Anti-globalisation:

A report by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), showed that the world trade in goods with cultural content almost tripled between 1980 and 1991: from 67 billion dollars to 200 billion dollars. At the core of the entertainment industry - film, music and television - there is a growing dominance of US products. World Trade Organisation rules do not allow countries to block imports on cultural grounds.

It is argued that one of the consequences of globalisation will be the end of cultural diversity, and the triumph of a uni-polar culture serving the needs of transnational corporations. Hence the world drinks Coca-Cola, watches American movies and eats American junk food.

American culture is seen to be dominated by monetary relationships and commercial values replacing traditional social relationships and family values.

Links

An example of cultural clash in the name of globalisation was the destruction of a McDonalds outlet in southern France by a farmer, Jose Bove, who supplies milk for French Roquefort cheese. http://www.gascd.com/josebove.php

Arab radicals associate the globalisation of American culture as leading to the extinction of traditional cultures. http://www.fav.net/special_issue_on_globalization.htm

Benjamin Barber's essay Jihad Vs. McWorld posits that the two axial principles of our age -- tribalism and globalism -- clash at every point except one: they may both be threatening to democracy. In The Atlantic Magazine of March 1992
http://www.theatlantic.com/election/connection/foreign/barberf.htm

Paul Lubeck and Bryana Britts, also address this question in their paper "Muslim Civil Society in Urban Public Spaces: Globalization, Discursive Shifts, and Social Movements" at http://www2.ucsc.edu/globalinterns/wp/wp2001-6.pdf

The monetary essence of capitalist culture is discussed by Jeremy Rivkin, author of New Culture of Hypercapitalism: Where All of Life Is a Paid-for Experience.
http://mai.flora.org/forum/18507

The web-site Global Policy has a section devoted to the cultural impact of globalisation. http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/index.htm

The July 2001 issue of Monthly Seminar http://www.india-seminar.com, on the challenges of closer global integration, explores the phenomenon from a 'subaltern' perspective with essays from such critics as Arjun Appadurai and Saskia Sassen.

Papers from the conference Globalization and Popular Culture: Production, Consumption, Identity look at such topics as 'Levi's envy' and the spread of rap music. Download at http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/english/media/workshop/

The Integrated Social Development Centre, an NGO in Ghana, has a Globalisation Response Program, illustrating the different impact of process in Africa. The address is
http://www.isodec.org.gh/isodec/Research-Advocacy/Globalisation/Globalisation.html

A Canadian globalisation guide supported by the Stanley Foundation is located at
http://globalization.about.com/mbiopage.htm. It provides a range of views on the question Americanization vs. Globalization and asks are these words synonymous?