Globalization And Homogenization In The Movie 'Babel'

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The Tower of Babel is an ancient story where God mixed up the languages of the people in order to disconnect any communication between them and limit the interaction between the people. By doing this, it created confusion and forced certain people to gather into similar groups in order to understand one another, thus creating different cultures. The film Babel, directed by Inarritu, portrays a story of four separate families from all around the world, each affected by something another family had done. It seems then, that the name Babel is an ironic term to the film as the movie rather displays a disappearance of the confusion between cultures and instead creates one world that these people all have a connection to. It represents globalization …show more content…

Glocalization refers to the combining of cultures, yet with each new culture, it must conform to the customs already in place, therefore creating something new with effects of each culture (Nederveen-Pieterse 50). Homogeneity is closely related to the “Global Society” approach, which emphasizes the the rise of a single world society (Robinson, Lecture 1-6-15). I would argue, homogenization is not completely represented in this film, although families are indirectly related through a common event, glocalization is a more accurate term to describe the effect of the rifle on each family. To the hunter, the rifle meant a means of entertainment with little danger, yet to the Moroccan family, the rifle, although the same object, became an item that ruined their family. This single item represented in two different ways through culture, represents similar items in the global world that conform and mean different things to different …show more content…

As the woman who was shot was transported to the nearest village to receive care, the husband immediately phoned the American embassy to receive help quickly. After he learns the ambulance was called off, he goes into a panic, and soon finds out a helicopter is being sent instead, yet is taking a longer amount of time. Upon its arrival, the embassy apologizes for the delay as it took awhile to get clearance to bring in an American aircraft into the Moroccan desert because of their differing restrictions. Manfred Steger discusses the idea of a “borderless world” in his book Globalization: A Very Short Introduction, which introduces the thought of the nation state disappearing, and introducing a global governance (63). In this instance, a global governance may have provided the tourist family experiencing delayed time faster emergency care. Although political systems do affect each other depending on the type of decisions they make and a global governance may help some of the disabilities associated with globalization, it does not seem plausible that a global governance will be created any time

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