CONTEMP

• Globalization


  A very important change, if not, the "most important"
• Global age


  The reality and omnipresence of globalization makes us see ourselves as part of
• Globalization


  Cannot be contained within a specific time frame, encompasses a multitude of processes that involve the economy, political systems and culture
• Globalization


  The process of world shrinkage, of distances getting shorter, things moving closer. It pertains to the increasing ease with which somebody on one side of the world can interact, to mutual benefit with somebody on the other side of the world
• Some see globalization as occurring through and with regression, colonialism, and destabilization
• Global flows of culture today

  • They tend to move more easily around the globe than before, especially through non-material digital forms
  • There are three perspectives on these global cultural flows: differentialism, hybridization and convergence
• Broad and inclusive definition of globalization

  Globalization means the onset of the borderless world
• Cultural differentialism


  • Emphasizes that cultures are essentially different and are only superficially affected by global flows
  • Interaction of cultures has the potential for "catastrophic collision"
• Narrow and exclusive definition of globalization

  The characteristics of the globalization trend include the internationalizing of production, the international division of labor, new migratory movements from South to North, the new competitive environment that accelerate these processes, and the internationalizing of state... making states into agencies of the globalizing world
• Samuel Huntington's theory of the Clash of Civilization (1996) explained that after the Cold War, political economic differences were overshadowed by new fault lines which were primarily cultural in nature
• Globalization is complex and multifaceted as the definitions deal with either economic, political or social dimensions
• Huntington's theory has been criticized, especially due to its portrayal of Muslims as being "prone to violence"
• Globalization


  A transplanetary process or a set of processes involving increasing liquidity and the growing multidirectional flows of people, objects, places and information as well as structures they encounter and create that are barriers to , or expedite those flows
• Cultural hybridization


  • Emphasizes the integration of local and global cultures
  • Globalization has been seen as a creative process which paves the way of hybrid entities that are not reducible to either global or local
• Glocalization


  The interpenetration of the global and local cultures resulting in unique outcomes in different geographical areas
• The perspective of the person who defines globalization shapes its definition
• Globalization is the debate and the debate is globalization
• Scapes


  Global flows involve people, technology, finance, political images, and media and the disjuncture between them leading to the creation of cultural hybrids
• Cultural convergence


  • Stresses homogeneity since cultures are deemed to be radically altered by strong flows
  • Cultural imperialism happens when one culture imposes itself on and tends to destroy at least parts of another culture
• Globalization is a reality, it has happened before and still happening today and will continue to happen in the future
• Solid


  Barriers that prevent or make difficult the movement of things, can be natural or man-made
• Cultural imperialism is being criticized, especially by John Tomlinson, by providing the idea of "deterritorialization" of culture
• Liquid


  Takes the shape of its container, not fixed, increasing ease of movement of people, things, information and places in the contemporary world
• Deterritorialization


  It is much more difficult to tie culture to a specific geographic point of origin
• Liquidity is the once increasing and proliferating today, the metaphor that could best describe globalization is liquidity
• Globalization has played a very important role in providing a context for the current revival and the resurgence of religion
• Flows


  The movement of people, things, places and information brought by the growing porosity of global limitations
• Presence of religions are not only limited to the countries where they began as it spread and scattered on a global scale
• Homogeneity


  The increasing sameness in the world as cultural inputs, economic factors and political orientations of societies expand to create common practices, same economies and similar forms of government
• Accelerated globalization of recent times has enabled co-religionists across the planet to have greater direct contact with one another
• Global communications, global organizations, global finance and the like have allowed ideas of the Muslims and the universal Christian church to be given concrete shape as never before
• Cultural imperialism


  A given culture influences other cultures
• Ways on which religionists rely on the dissemination of their religious ideas


  • Information technologies
  • Transportation means
  • The media
• Neoliberalism, capitalism and the market economy

  Examples of homogeneity in the economy
• There are countless websites created that provides information about religions
• Media imperialism


  The global flow of media, TV, music, books and movies are perceived as imposed on developing countries by the West
• Internet also allows people to contact each other worldwide and therefore hold forums and debates that allows religious ideas to spread
• McDonaldization


  The process by which Western societies are dominated by the principles of fast food restaurants, involving efficiency, calculability, predictability and control
• Television channels, radio stations and print media are founded solely for advocating religions
• Modern transportation has also contributed to the emergence, revivalism and fortification of religion, such as the case of Islamic revivalism in Asia