Transcript ONE WORLD OR MANY? THE CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE FUTURE

ONE WORLD OR MANY?
THE CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
OF THE FUTURE
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I. Introduction
• The Paradox:
– Globalization: growth of something to a global or worldwide scale
• Mass media, internet, etc.
• Expanding supranational organizations: European
Union, NAFTA, etc.
– Devolution: the breakdown of larger
cultural/political/economic units into smaller ones
• Peaceful resurgent nationalism: Czech Rep., Slovakia,
former Soviet Union republics, etc.
• Violent resurgent nationalism: Bosnia, Kosovo,
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Basques, etc.
18th & 19th Century Globalism
Colonialism – Imperialism!
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I. Introduction
• Multinational corporations
– Many have greater economic power than most
countries
– Operate beyond the power of any one country:
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To regulate
To moderate
To influence
To balance interests
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Detroit - G.M.
Headquarters
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Toyota Headquarters in Toyota City,
Aichi, Japan
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Economic power of Global Corporations
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Actually Six Defining Features of
Globalization
1. Involves global scale interactions among cultural,
economic, political and environmental
phenomena.
2. Relentless movement – money, people, info. Etc.
3. The effects are felt unevenly
4. Transnational corps. are the main driving force
5. Local and national efforts to restrain it
6. While rooted in internationalism, it is
qualitatively different from it.
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II. Globalization: the end of
geography?
• The case for one world
– Quotes from those that believe we will
become one world
• 1951: George Kimble, In the future there would be,
“no independent, discrete units . . . No worlds within
world.”
• 50 years later: Joel Swerdlow, used these terms –
“Global culture,” “vanishing cultures,” “a world
together,” and “ we are all in each other’s backyard.”
• Pico Iyer notes that, “everywhere is so made up of
everywhere else.”
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II. Globalization: the end of
geography?
• The case for one world
– Acculturation and assimilation
- Acculturation: a culture adapts to a new cultural
trait – technology, food, sport, architecture,
religion
- Assimilation: a smaller group adapts to/becomes
part of a larger group: people move to U.S. and
eat McDonalds and speak English
– Urbanization – more and more people are moving
to cities.
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Blending of Cultures
• Australian
Aboriginal
children play
with a laptop
computer. Will
this reduce the
world’s cultural
heterogeneity?
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Local resistance to globalization
• Zapotista
commandos
negotiating
with the
Mexican
government
over cultural &
economic
rights.
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International Ladies Garment
Workers Union
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II. Globalization: the end of
geography?
• Many worlds
– Most geographers believe many worlds
will continue to exist
– Interaction with outside influences
produces new cultural expressions
– Globalization produces different results in
different lands
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Interaction with outside influences
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Interaction with outside influences
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Diffusion
• A process by which something spreads from
one place to another over time.
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Diffusion of Religion
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