Homogenization And Globalization Essay

'McDonaldization', ‘Disneyfication', ‘Walmarting', ‘Coca-Colonization’, ‘Hollywoodization’ (Conversi, 44). These terms all have something in common. They are large North American corporations and ideals that can be recognized globally. Globalization is the immersion of socio and economic relations on a global scale. Globalization designates this complex process of homogenization, which conforms cultural practices to what we think of as the “western model”. This homogenization contains the propagation of lifestyles, clothing, music, and consumer products as well as the uniformization if culture, norms and values (Cesari, 5). Almost everywhere in the world diversity is being lost to homogeneity and by analyzing corporations, the media and popular culture it supports the argument that with the intensification of globalization local cultures are being changed, and assimilated with the dominant outside culture, America.

There is a constant promotion of this American dream by this saturation of commercial and ideological logos, images and symbols as part of the everyday lives of people across the world. Due to this, the moral and political values of our consumer societies have ensured the overlap between the world of life and the world of culture (Zhang, 34), which has placed the importance on the idea of culture and its values. These larger social forces are promoting homogeneity and are playing their endgame on a global scale, with a clearly obvious outcome (Brosius and Hitchner, 144). The emphasis on culture has given social forces and the western world the ability to gain global control by the control of culture and because of the economic power that large American companies hold.

Global corporations such as McDonalds, Coca-Cola a...

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...the American dream and western way of life is being forced upon cultures all around the world. These large communications companies hold the power over information and culture and act as the catalyst in the process of the homogenization of global cultures thus creating a one-world culture. This movement towards cultural homogeneity does not come without the elimination or eradication of heterogeneity (Zhang, 48). The amalgamation of cultures into one western Americanized culture does not allow for the celebration of cultural differences or promote the uniqueness of traditional cultures. Globalization and development is based on the idea that in order for countries to prosper they must become like the western world, more specifically America, and this ideology has destroyed cultures globally and created a McWorld where faster, cheaper, bigger and western is better.