.2

• 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
• Cultural differentialism


  • Emphasizes that cultures are essentially different and are only superficially affected by global flows
  • Interaction of cultures is deemed to contain the potential for "catastrophic collision"
• 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
• Huntington's theory has been criticized especially due to its portrayal of Muslims as being "prone to violence"
• 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
• 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
• Cultural imperialism is being criticized especially by John Tomlinson by providing the idea of "deterritorialization" of culture
• Deterritorialization

  It is much more difficult to tie culture to a specific geographic point of origin
• Globalization has played a very important role in providing a context for the current revival and the resurgence of religion
• Presence of religions are not only limited to the countries where they began as it spread and scattered on a global scale
• Accelerated globalization of recent times has enabled co-religionists across the planet to have greater direct contact with one another
• Ways on which religionists rely on the dissemination of their religious ideas

  • Information technologies
  • Transportation means
  • The media
• Information technologies allow people to contact each other worldwide and therefore hold forums and debates that allows religious ideas to spread
• Media plays an important role in the dissemination of religious ideas through television channels, radio stations and print media
• Modern transportation has contributed to the emergence, revivalism and fortification of religion, such as Islamic revivalism in Asia
• Religion has always been promoted by its practitioners so that it could reach the level of globality and be embraced by as many people as possible
• Globalization has brought different religions to a circle of competition and conflicts by allowing these religions to come in contact with each other and providing a context for them to flourish
• Globalization is also associated with Westernization and Americanization, and the dominance exerted by these two processes makes religion-related cultures and identities take defensive measures to protect themselves
• The challenges of globalization to religion link automatically to the challenges of religion to globalization, as religion does not simply accept hybridizing effects
• Region

  A group of countries in the same geographically specified area
• Regionalization

  The societal integration and the often undirected process of social and economic interaction
• Regionalism

  The formal process of intergovernmental collaboration between two or more states
• Many policymakers and scholars think that globalization must be regulated and managed to make it more palatable to citizens
• States prefer regional organizations in order to reduce the perceived negative effects of globalization, which weakens the potential benefits coming out from liberalized global economy
• Regionalization in one part of the world encourages regionalization elsewhere, whether by imitation or by defensive reaction
• The increasing development in interregional cooperation shows that the regional process is global in nature
• Security

  One of the reasons behind regionalism is the concern for ensuring peace and stability through economic cooperation within a region
• Culture and identity were seen by Huntington (1996) as the guide for regionalization, as organizations like EU or Mercosur share a common culture and identity and are far more successful than NAFTA
• Economic motivations

  The main motivation behind contemporary regionalization, as regional organizations allow states to regain some control over flows of capital and enhance their bargaining power against transnational economic actors
• Non-state actors such as TNCs act as a driving force to regionalism, as they may find themselves disadvantaged if their host countries are not part of a specific regional agreement