Culture, Power, and Globalization
“Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing… you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn’t affect two-thirds of the people of the world.”
-Jimmy Carter
After reading Kwame Appiah’s writing from “Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers” and Franklin Foer’s “From How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization,” I now believe that an individual’s view toward globalization really depends on personal life experience. Now that I have found an article from Foreign Policy Magazine called “Globalization’s Last Hurrah?”, this helped me understand globalization even better and gives a better look on whom and how globalization affects the world. So, how does power and culture affect globalization?
It was difficult to judge the affects of globalization until an index was created in 2001 (“Foreign Policy”, 3).
A.T. Kearney/Foreign Policy Magazine created their Globalization Index to measure different countries ranking and level in which globalization is used. The Index calculates its figures by countries on how involved they are with technology, political engagement, personal contact, and economic integration. Even though they have come up with this very in-depth and calculated procedure, you have to ask, why isn’t culture involved with the calculation of this index?
The Essay on Impact Of Globalization On Non Western Culture
Globalization is far reaching in this day and age. Globalization is the worldwide flow of goods, services, money, people, information, and culture. It leads to a greater interdependence and mutual awareness among the people of the world (Tischler, 2011, 2007, p. 430). One non-Western culture that has been impacted by globalization is China. An example of the impact of globalization on China is ...
To better understand the culture of globalization and power you have to look deeper. After reading Appiah’s writing, it gives us a better understanding of the effects and understanding of culture and globalization. Kwame Appiah as we know grew up in Ghana (Ghana is currently ranked 110th on the Index of Globalization) and has had a different life experience then many of us who have read his work. Many of the concepts presented throughout his life, shows us how he was raised different from many of us. Appiah uses his father to describe the thick concept (13).
His father could not eat bush meat because it was taboo. Since Appiah’s father belonged to that particular clan, he couldn’t eat bush meat. When people asked him why he didn’t eat that, he would explain to them that it was taboo and would not just say that he didn’t like it or was allergic (13).
Appiah’s father wanted those people to know that was his taboo and why. Unlike Appiah’s father many people would forget about their culture and accept the meat or other things that are deemed popular around the world. That example of the culture in Ghana helps me understand why they 110th on the index. Even though there isn’t exactly a culture section involved, their culture could be affecting the way their politics and personal contact is perceived.
Franklin Foer showed great examples of why I would also perceive soccer as falling under the personal contact portion of the index. In many countries soccer is a culture. Great soccer teams and clubs can bring in fans from all over the world, thus creating more tourism and involving other countries to share in their culture. Foer describes an interesting point on how many middle class children actually plays soccer (14).
I was lower middle class and now that I think back about who played with me, they were 99% middle class to upper class. All the kids had expensive gear and most parents had nice cars. I loved playing sports but I actually didn’t ask my mom to play this sport, unlike the others that I played growing up. She signed me up because it was what everyone in her social circle was doing at the time. The sport was getting increasingly popular in the 80’s and I can see exactly why Foer mentions that baseball purists were worried (15).
The Term Paper on Deaf Culture And Sports part 1
Deaf Culture and Sports Deaf culture has made difference and a great contributions to the world of sports, having made it the way we see today. But there are very few people who realizes it. The real start up of deaf culture in Sports began with the appearance of Deaf World Games. Deaf World Games (DWG) or Deaflympics, the way it is called at the present time, have a long history, beginning with ...
Soccer was getting stronger. Many people were afraid it would take our American sports over. Soccer hasn’t taken the country over as one of the main sports Americans watch. Foer blames the media for that. People don’t want it to take over baseball and American football because it is ours and we don’t want a European sport to take over. The reluctance for some Americans to embrace soccer and share other sports like baseball, football, and basketball; hurts our personal contact rating within the index. The United States is currently ranked 38th in the Globalization Index.
I believe that Foer and Appiah showed us the “us versus them” with the points I mentioned from their writings. Appiah’s father was against globalization when it came to the food he eats because of his culture and Taboo’s. He’s against others that would try to change the traditions of his family or a change to his culture. Foer makes his point about Americans not wanting to accept Soccer because it was a foreign sport. To embrace globalization, countries need to take all 4 areas for the index into account.
Currently Ireland is number 2 on the Globalization Index, but was number 1 when the article was written. They achieved this by being the leaders in IT, technology, government planning, and tourism. They have very pro business policies, helping business’s grow (“Foreign Policy”, 14).
Their growing tourist industry is really helped the Irish pull to the top of the list (“Foreign Policy”, 17).
They did this buy using their “luck of the Irish” culture and friendliness. Globalization can affect many people when it comes to technology, knowledge, politics and economy. Most of these things that are spread globally improve the way we live and make things easier on us. With two thirds of the world not able to keep up with technology, it’s hard to share the knowledge or political and economic policies. Globalization is both good and bad and it depends greatly on the culture we grew up with. When you are taught one thing all your life and then all of the sudden someone from another country brings this new state-of-the-art technology, we are going to be skeptical because of the change. The Irish have made that easier for companies and embrace the technology. Many people feel that globalization is going to change their culture and the way they live and usually when they are imaging the possibilities, the images tend to be negative. It comes down to one word with culture before accepting globalization of something, fear. Fear of change and fear of how it will change their culture and they way they live their lives. The Irish weren’t afraid of this change and that is why they are always toward the top of the annual Globalization Index.
The Term Paper on Globalization and Culture Change
From a sociocultural anthropological perspective, by investigating how globalization affects different parts of the world we can build a better understanding of how global structures affect social and cultural practices. Globalization is the worldwide interdependence of economic and cultural activities through the interchange of worldviews, goods, beliefs, and other aspects of culture (Lalonde ...
Works Cited
Appiah, Kwame. “Morale Disagreement.” Cosmopolitism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006.
Foer, Franklin. “How Soccer Explains the World: An unlikely Theory of Globalization.” New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2004.
globalization.kof.ethz. KOF Index of Globalization. 2009. Web. 24 November 2009.
“Globalization’s Last Hurrah?.” Foreign Policy No. 128. Feb. 2002. Jstor.org. Web. 24 November 09.
thinkexist.com. Quotations and Globalization. 2009. Web. 18 November 2009.
