Hybridization Essay

Globalization in its various dimensions and principles and their impacts on nations and the sociological communities around the world have been a popular theme of research and discussion throughout the last two decades. In this essay I will be discussing a number of concepts and perspectives to understand how globalization has such an impact on the world we live in.

Although the understanding and theory behind globalisation has changed over time to time with an array of literature and studies published in recent times, the fundamental meaning remains constant – those process by which the people of the world are incorporated into a single world society (Pieterse 1990).

This defining term encompasses the concept of globalisation however globalisation is usually interpreted into three main focal points to give understanding to the theory, homogeneity, heterogenity and hybridization.

At the extremes, the globalization of culture can lead either to a trend toward common codes and practices (homogeneity) or to a situation in which many cultures interact to create a kind of imitation or a blend leading to a variety of hybrids (heterogeneity).

Firstly looking at heterogeneity, hybridization is a fundamental theory that correlates directly with heterogeneity and the concept that heterogeneity is the mixing of dissimilar ethics, ideas, languages, sexes, ages, or anything, which can be shaped into context to produce one diverse figure. Hybridization comprises this into its principles of globalisation.

Hybridization is defined as ‘the ways in which forms become separated from existing practices and recombine with new forms in new practices’ (Rowe and Schelling 1991), in a more simple context, it involves the blending, mixing and ada...

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...stions as the increased interconnection between countries and cultures contributes to forming a more homogenous world adopting the Western Euro-American model of social organization and life style (Liebes, 2003). This perspective is reflected in several concepts and models such as the Global Culture, Americanization and more importantly the McDonaldization theory.

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To conclude, this essay has explored the different ways in which globalisation can be understood through the reference of key sociological concepts and correlating perspectives. The analysis of cultural hybridization, heterogeneity and modernity give us the understanding that globalisation is indeed the process of adapting and remodelling society in a sense, through the collaboration of a multi dimensional matrix of sociological behaviours and cultures to create the diversity of a combined society.