'National cultures are still very important.' Evaluate this view of the globalization of culture.

Essay by greekqueenUniversity, Bachelor'sB+, February 2007

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Culture links us to places and peoples in a variety of ways. These symbolic links can include religion, computer games, costume, food, or the media. The media, as well as symbolising specific national cultures, is also a vehicle for advertising different cultures around the world. It could be argued that, because of increasing interpenetration, which is 'distant cultures...com[ing] face to face with each other at a local level...'(Cochrane, A., Pain, K., 2004, p.16), national cultures are becoming diluted and homogenised into one huge global culture, so I will be answering the question of whether national cultures are still important. The globalisation of culture is just one way globalisation manifests itself. It can be summarised as a force that encompasses all areas of our lives, economically, politically and culturally. 'It is the organisation and exercise of power on a global scale' (Cochrane, A., Pain, K., 2004, p.15). I will examine the globalisation of culture from three perspectives, that of the globalists, the transformationalists and the inter-nationalists.

Globalists believe that globalisation is irreversible and will bring huge benefits to mankind, but the pessimistic globalists believe it is bringing greater inequality. Cultural imperialism is a key concept in their argument, and is the domination by the powerful western world over the weaker countries of the developing world. Inter-nationalists disagree with the views of the positive globalists, but take some of the pessimistic arguments on board. They argue that today's flows of trade and culture are just a continuum of historical flows, and are more regional than global. The transformationalists see both sides, arguing that the globalists are exaggerating their case, that nation states retain much of their power but that some of it has been reshaped to fit in with the continually growing global infrastructure. I will be arguing the case for the...