These two books No Logo by Naomi Klein & Open World:/ The Truth about Globalisation by Philippe Legrain both speak in detail about the effects, influences and the question of globalisation. Klein is much more apposed to the whole idea whereas Legrain has a different view.
As postmodernism's theories of cultural diversity is one way of looking at contemporary culture globalisation is another. These two books will form a major part of the main chapter.
Globalisation - Selected quotes
Usually, reports about this global web of logos and products are couched in the euphoric marketing rhetoric of the global village, an incredible place where tribespeople in remotest rain forests tap away on laptop computers, Sicilian grandmothers conduct E-business, and “global teens” share, to borrow a phrase from a Levis Web site, “a world-wide style culture”.
Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. HarperCollins UK.
More and more over the past four years, we in the West have been catching glimpses of another kind of global village, where the economic divide is widening and cultural choices narrowing.
Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. HarperCollins UK.
Logos, by the force of ubiquity, have become the closest thing we have to an international language, recognised and understood in many more places than English.
Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. HarperCollins UK.
By the mid-nineties, companies like Nike, Polo and Tommy Hilfiger were ready to take branding to the next level: no longer simply branding their own products, but branding the outside culture as well – by sponsoring cultural events, they could go out into the world and claim bits of it as brand-name outposts. Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. HarperCollins UK. PG 29
It was about thirstily soaking up cultural ideas and iconography that their brands could reflect by projecting these ideas and images back on the culture as “extensions” of their brands. For example, Onute Miller , senior brand manger of Tequila Sauza, explains that her company sponsored a risqué photography exhibit by George Holy because “art was a natural synergy with out product.” Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. HarperCollins UK. PG 29
The effect, if not always the original intent, of advanced branding is to nudge the hosting culture into the background and make the brand the star. It is not to sponsor culture but be the culture. Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. HarperCollins UK. PG 30
Today the buzzword in global marketing isn’t selling America to the world, but bringing a kind of market masala to everyone in the world… Nationality, language, ethnicity, religion and politics are all reduced to their most colourful, exotic accessories… Despite the embrace of polyethnic imagery, market-driven globalisation doesn’t want diversity.; quite the opposite. Its enemies are national habits, local brands and distinctive regional tastes. Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. HarperCollins UK. PG 30
Globalisation. This ugly word is shorthand for how our lives are becoming increasingly intertwined with those of distant people and places around the world - economically, politically and culturally.
Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. PG 4
Globalisation is all-embracing, and yet profoundly misunderstood - two reasons why so many people fear it. Is globalisation eroding our identity, national or otherwise? Are global brands colonising the world economy (any our minds)? Are we losing control of out lines to heartless mega-corporations and faceless markets? Many people think so - and there is an element of truth to all these worries. But for the most part, the answer, as we shall see, is a reassuring no. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 4
Yet globalisation involves more Han technological change. It is also a political choice, It involves consciously opening national borders to foreign influences. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 7
Globalisation is blurring the boarders between nation states. Yet it is neither uniform nor universal. Talk of a ‘borderless world’ or the ‘end of the nation state’, titles of two books by Kenichi Ohmae, a Japanese management guru, is nonsense. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 8
Moreover, most Britons have mainly British friends, live within ten miles of where they are born, and are obsessed by Big Brother, Pop Idol, Eastenders, Posh and Becks, and Premiership football - all reassuringly (or depressingly) parochial. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 8
The spread if American culture precedes 1989. Hollywood, Coca-cola, Levi jeans and Big Macs had long colonised commercial culture. To talk of 1989 as the beginning of globalisation is very misleading. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 10
I believe that globalisation is generally a good thing. Yes, the world is changing fast. Yes it can be scary. Yes, some people will lose out at first. But we should opt to live in a more globalised world because it offers greater opportunity for everyone, rich and poor, to make the most of their potential. Globalisation offers a richer life - in the broadest sense - for people in rich countries and the only realistic route out of poverty for the world’s poor. Make no mistake: we can build a better globalisation. It is vitally important that we make the right choices. Our future depends on it.
Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 24
If the worry is that countries are becoming more alike, this is because people’s tastes have converged, not because American companies are stamping out local competition. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 296
The really profound cultural changes have nothing to do with Coca-cola. Western ides about liberalism and science are taking root in the most unlikely places. Immigration, mainly from developing countries, is creating multicultural societies in Europe and North America. Technology is reshaping culture: just think of the Internet. Individual choice is fragmenting the imposed uniformity of national cultures. New hybrid cultures are emerging and regional ones re-emerging. National identity is not disappearing but the bonds of nationality are loosening. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 297
Language is often at the heart of a national culture: the French would scarcely be French if they spoke English (although the Belgian Walloons are not French even they though they share a language). Losing National language would be especially sad if people had mot freely chosen to abandon them. English may usurp other languages not because it is what people prefer to speak, but because, Like Microsoft soft-ware, there are compelling advantages to using it if everyone else does. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 305
Natural cultures are much stronger than people seem to think. They can embrace some foriehn influences and resist other. Amartya Sen, a brilliant economist, thinker and Nobel Prize winner, is quite right when he remarks: ‘the culturally fearful often take a very fragile view of each culture and tend to underestimate our ability to learn from elsewhere without being overwhelmed by that experience. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 308
Take an even more extreme example. Estonia suffered forty-seven years of Russian occupation. A third of its population of 1.5 million died, fled or were deported to Siberia. The Estonian language was banned and Russians were shipped in to Russify the country. Yet in 1991, Estonia became independent again, its language intact, its Western orientation preserved, its culture might indeed have been snuffed out. Even when a foriegn influence is largely welcomed, not imposed, it can be overwhelming. Traditional cultures in the Third World that have until now evolved (or failed to evolve) in isolation may be particularly vulnerable.
Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 310
Individual Freedom
The upshot of all this change is that national cultures are fragmenting into a kaleidoscope of different ones. New hybrid cultures are emerging In ‘Amexica’ people speak Spanglish: ‘Como se llama your dog?’ Regional cultures are reviving. Repressed under Franco, Catalans, Basques, Gallegos and other assert their identity in Spain. The Scots and Welsh break with British monoculture. Estonia is reborn from the Soviet Union. Voices that were silent dare to speak again.’
Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 318
If the worry is that countries are becoming more alike, this is because people’s tastes have converged, not because American companies are stamping out local competition. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 296
The really profound cultural changes have nothing to do with Coca-cola. Western ides about liberalism and science are taking root in the most unlikely places. Immigration, mainly from developing countries, is creating multicultural societies in Europe and North America. Technology is reshaping culture: just think of the Internet. Individual choice is fragmenting the imposed uniformity of national cultures. New hybrid cultures are emerging and regional ones re-emerging. National identity is not disappearing but the bonds of nationality are loosening. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 297
Language is often at the heart of a national culture: the French would scarcely be French if they spoke English (although the Belgian Walloons are not French even they though they share a language). Losing National language would be especially sad if people had mot freely chosen to abandon them. English may usurp other languages not because it is what people prefer to speak, but because, Like Microsoft soft-ware, there are compelling advantages to using it if everyone else does. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 305
Natural cultures are much stronger than people seem to think. They can embrace some foriehn influences and resist other. Amartya Sen, a brilliant economist, thinker and Nobel Prize winner, is quite right when he remarks: ‘the culturally fearful often take a very fragile view of each culture and tend to underestimate our ability to learn from elsewhere without being overwhelmed by that experience. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 308
Take an even more extreme example. Estonia suffered forty-seven years of Russian occupation. A third of its population of 1.5 million died, fled or were deported to Siberia. The Estonian language was banned and Russians were shipped in to Russify the country. Yet in 1991, Estonia became independent again, its language intact, its Western orientation preserved, its culture might indeed have been snuffed out. Even when a foriegn influence is largely welcomed, not imposed, it can be overwhelming. Traditional cultures in the Third World that have until now evolved (or failed to evolve) in isolation may be particularly vulnerable.
Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 310
Individual Freedom
The upshot of all this change is that national cultures are fragmenting into a kaleidoscope of different ones. New hybrid cultures are emerging In ‘Amexica’ people speak Spanglish: ‘Como se llama your dog?’ Regional cultures are reviving. Repressed under Franco, Catalans, Basques, Gallegos and other assert their identity in Spain. The Scots and Welsh break with British monoculture. Estonia is reborn from the Soviet Union. Voices that were silent dare to speak again.’
Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 318
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