Reading 2: Cultural Globalization - Tomlinson

 1) Summary

The article discusses how a big part of globalization, aside from the economic, political, and sociological, is media and communication technologies. With how technology has advanced over the years it has helped the world population know and understand more about other parts of the world. This new, wide spread of information gives people knowledge regarding foods, fashion, everyday life and other things that they were previously unaware of. In many cases this new knowledge makes people more curious about experiencing these ‘different’ ways of life and the ever growing spread of international companies and easier access to items from these other parts of the world make it simple to do so. This slight unification of knowledge from different parts of the world and accessibility to more culturally diverse items is also described as deterritorialization.

This easy access to different cultural items will eventually also have an impact on our own culture according to the article. Culture is, for the most part, a social construct. It is build through shared experiences, stories and meanings, and by all the resources available in those locations. However, this also means culture can evolve and change. Now that the world is more connected and most things are so easily accessible, they might, in a sense, become part of a local culture. Once people get used to specific things that they didn’t have before they would have to readjust to life if you would take them away again. To me this means they subconsciously considered these things as part of their daily life, and in turn, as part of their culture. Therefore, culture is also a dimension of globalization.

However, Tomlinson also mentions that despite these influences, it is highly unlikely there will ever be one fully global culture. Although culture can change over time, it is highly unlikely that each culture will have the same kinds of experiences, wants, needs, and tastes. The global connectedness might help with integrating general parts of culture from other places in the world, but it will never completely erase the traditional parts of a culture that has been built over centuries. Besides this, many third world countries do not even have access to this global network and are ignored or even excluded from participating in the global culture.
Throughout the article Tomlinson also discussed how, in the past, some philosophers and other important people would make the mistake of viewing the world as a whole with their own culture as the main one. How they would only consider their own values and beliefs when creating, writing, or inventing things. He gives the example of the cartographer Gervase of Tilbury from England making a world map which contained many images and metaphors pertaining to Christianity, which was the main religion in his culture. Likewise, he discusses Karl Marx and how, although his theory on communism was solid, he didn’t take into account any cultural differences which would highly influence the way it would be implemented and understood in other cultures.
He concludes this by saying that we should try working on a unified culture without prioritizing or pushing one particular culture to the front.

2) What I learned

That the internet is indeed a very important factor in globalization and the world would be much different if we didn't have it.

3) Topic for discussion

What can we do to help these third world countries step into the current global connectiveness and culture?