Cultural Globalization / Blog Assignment II / Cindy Paskalina Kweesar


Summary:
Cultural globalization is divided into 2 words, cultural and globalization. To understand this, first we need to understand what globalization means. Globalization in general is a multidimensional process. This means that this process takes place in various dimensions such as economics, politics, communication and others. Globalization causes the increase of connectivity and dependency in those certain dimensions. This connectivity and dependency has now become a lifestyle for almost everyone. For example, how humans always continue to communicate through highly sophisticated Internet and when Western food consumed in eastern countries is one of the example of increased human connectivity. Globalization is difficult to avoid and continues to take a role in every aspect of human life.

According to E.B. Taylor, culture is a whole complex of trust, decency, art, customs, law, abilities and other habits that are often studied by humans as part of society. Cultural dimensions in globalization are very often discussed. This may be because we can easily understand that goods flowing from one country to another (connectivity) do contain certain society's cultural experience. Concepts such as Americanization or Westernization are one part of cultural globalization. So cultural globalization is globalization that takes the form of culture.

Every day we definitely consume goods from overseas production. Our clothes, food and lifestyle are very much dependent on the economic products of other countries. This reality is only one proof of an increasingly unified world. Another example is politically unified, where sometimes some countries begin to lose their independent rights to take care of their own country due to the many interference from other countries. Some people argue that the merging of the world from these various aspects can be called a global culture.

Some people criticize this by saying that global culture will only make cultural imperialism, where western culture, especially America, will become a culture that dominates the whole world. This is considered worrying because it can eliminate non-western cultures. Responding to this, many people who have conducted demonstrations have expressed their opposition opinions. Indirectly globalization which makes global culture also brings "clash of civilization" (Huntington 1996).
In addition to this view, there is another way to look at global culture. Rather than believe that there will be a certain cultural dominance, global culture can also be seen as a world with all diverse cultures that dominate at the same time. The dominance of certain culture is something uncertain and unwarranted. In the reading, the author said that we humans often do this kind of unwarranted universalizing.

Deterritorialization is an interesting concept in the study of globalization. Deterritorialization refers to the development of a range of connectivity that goes beyond the distance to an area where a community conducts and experiences daily activities. The territoriality of an area will gradually disappear. We can easily experience other cultures in our daily life lives, for example having a variety of different foods from around the worlds. Cultural locality does not immediately disappear, but it’s actially allow a development of someone’s cultural locality. In cultural analysis, Deterritorialization explains how life is transformed, connected and penetrated by cultural locality. We know and feel the locality of our culture, but these thing is not the most important thing in our lives.

The transformation described in the deterritorialization concept can also occur through the telemediation process, the process by which the role of media and communication through both technology and institutions is a trajectory of the rapid spread for cultural locality. For example, the internet or mobile phone that allows communication without directly including physical movement or items via scrolling and clicking on websites. Such mobility is called virtual travel. This builds our human personality that lives on twenty first century. At this time, advanced communication not only has clarity and truth but based on the speed of information reaches us.

What was interesting / what did i learn:
I am interested in the concept of comspolitanism where the whole world will be the same community and governed by the same government based on the same perspective of morality. I also agree with the author who says that this is a big dilemma, because there are so many people who still think that this concept will bring extinction to local cultures. Culture is considered as a very fragile things and requires full protection from its people. Actually this thought exists because these people think that culture is an existential commodity that belongs to certain people. But on the contrary actually globalization is the main factor that builds the concept of cultural identity based on the regional culture they have.

Disscusion point:
Cultural globalization is an interesting concept that continues in the human community. In time when we have the same perspective on global culture, what is the effect on the concept of global citizen which is also still controversial in the community?

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