Key Terms

Culture

• The symbolic construction, articulation and dissemination of meaning.

• Facilitated by the Internet and other new technologies, the dominant symbolic systems of meaning of our age – such
as individualism, consumerism and various religious discourses - circulate more freely and widely than ever before.

Americanization

• Originated in 1860 but in regard to globalisation it encompasses anything from an alleged cultural imperialism by
the US, to stimulating changes in local patterns of behaviour and consumption because of the dominance of
free-market economics. The spread of American popular culture

• There have been attempts to resist these forces eg: ban on satellite in Iran.

• Some welcome the spread of Anglo-American values equating it to the expansion of democracy.

• English the global lingua franca of the 21st century.

- Cultural Homogenisation

Antiglobalisation (anti-imperialism)

• Umbrella term used to refer to a diverse set of stances against the current form of globalisation.

• The Antiglobalisation movement see the global order as being shaped by the interests and for the benefit of an
elite minority of the world to the detriment of those in the third world.

- Global capitalism

Capitalism

Globalisation through capitalism:

• Environmental degradation and lesser worker rights

• Threat to cultural identity

• World economy

• Consumerism – anthropocentric paradigm that places humans at the centre of the universe with nature
considered a ‘resource’.

• Population growth

Commodification

• The process by which products, services, or any form of human activity are transformed into commodities.

• Privatisation of services

– Information and knowledge

– Human body and life

Clash of Civilisations - Civilization paradigm

• Huntington (1993) – a way of interpreting balance of power and potential risks.

• clash of civilisations will dominate global politics because:

– The world is getting smaller

– Alienation from local identities (weakened nation states bringing religion to the fore)

– Economic regionalism

- Cultural imperialism

Consumerism

• Cultural ideology whereby our sense of self, personal fulfilment and happiness are seen as being intimately
interlinked with the products and services that we use and consume.

• Growth of mass media and advertising

• Lifestyles

- Simulacrum
- TNCs

Cultural Fate

• Traditional social roles are no longer adhered to or do not exist so we are compelled to make choices.

• Tomlinson “Freedom is an ambiguous gift, but one we cannot refuse.” (2001)

• Cultural decision, human agency (Castoriadis)

• Cultural hegemony of popular culture – leading to depoliticalisation of social reality (news)and weakening civic
bonds

Corporatism

• The power of multinational corporations. Relationship with the state

Cosmopolitanism

• All humans belong to a single community – interconnectedness

• Change in the nature of individuality

- Global Village
- Human rights
- Cosmopolitan democracy

Diaspora

• People who have left their place of origin and yet maintain identification with this place in some way

• A continuing identification with the place of origin

• Imagined communities, maintenance of language, cultural practices.

• Transnational lives in terms of identity

Social fragmentation

• Transformations in the social fabric associated with technological, economic and societal changes – suggesting it
is breaking up.

• Refiguring of the territory of government away from the ‘social’ as an entity toward the population of the
individual.

- Reterritorialization

Fundamentalism

• Can mean anything from a literal interpretation of sacred texts, to an emphasis on tradition an also a privileged
place for a particular form of knowledge.

• “What we must recognize is the aspiration to create a space within global culture.”(Robins)

Glocal/Glocalisation

• Paradox of the relation between global markets and processes and local needs. The increasing entanglement of
these two spheres.

- Hybridity

- Heterogeneity

- The global mosaic

- Cultural borrowing

Homogenization

• Central term in globalisation studies

• Things becoming the same: politics, language, consumer products, ideologies.

• Made possible by technology.

• Spread of capitalism and neoliberal politics

• IMF, World Bank, WTO

Human Rights

• Universal declaration of Human Rights (1948)

• Universality and enforceability

• Global ethics

Liminal/Liminality

• Turner (1974) Liminal can be used to refer to a person or a space characterised by indeterminacy, openness and
uncertainty.

• The transition state that individuals pass through in certain rituals

• Betwixt and between – concepts and things that do not fall within conceptual, temporal or spatial boundaries.
Identities or people.

- Postmodernism
Localisation

• Both perspectives and practices which prioritise the particular and local rather than the global.

• While the world is to some extent globalised and interconnected, people still live in particular places and have
particular practices because of that.

• Glocalisation and hybridity are ways of talking about the flows between local and global.

Modernity

• Changes brought about by Industrialisation

• In terms of globalisation it has differed usage:

• (Giddens) Reflexive modernity and a break with traditional order

• (Bauman) Liquid modernity

• Postmodernity

• (Jameson) Late capitalism

• (Albrow) Globalism

Neoliberalism

• Liberalism – liberty of individuals as paramount

• Associated with trade, capital and state regulation. Free trade and free movement of capital.

Postmodernity/Postmodernism

• Postmodernity is a historical era and postmodernism is an artistic style

• Lyotard – “incredulity towards metanarrative”

• A meta-narrative is a ‘story’ or theory to explain the essential nature of human experience or the world in
general.

• Micro-narratives which function purely on a contingent, local and utilitarian basis.

• Baudrillard – simulacrum and hyper-reality – a series of empty signs.

Simulacrum

• Loss of distinction between the ‘reality’ and the simulacrum (simulation)

• Simulacrum comes from the Latin word simulare meaning "to make like" and is related to words like simulate (to
imitate) and similarity.

• Reality itself has begun merely to imitate the model, which now precedes and determines the real world.

• http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/postmodernism/modules/baudrillardsimulation.html

Time-Space compression

• David Harvey (1990) in the globalising world time and space are not the barriers that they once were due to
technologies and communications. The speed of life has also increased. Money has ‘de-materialised’ and the
values of instantaneity and disposability are emphasised.

• (Giddens) “time space distanciation” – conditions under which time and space are organised so as to connect
presence and absence. Allows for transnational practices.