Globalization / global culture
As already mentioned in previous sections, different aspects of globalization and the possible cultural consequences of the expansion of the Internet play a large role in the debate. Though not directly stated in most cases, an issue behind the debate was the old question: how great is the danger of cultural homogenization under US-American dominance?
Americanization of the global culture?
Armin Medosch noted in his statement, that a large number of the myths as well as the ideology of the Internet were developed in the USA. Though elements like »organized dissidence (underground rock and pop culture), individualism - supported by nerd and hacker fantasies - and a kind of transnationalism which mainly addresses metropolitan youth and which is saturated in elements of American popular culture (apropos MTV), ... determine the Internet's hip image, the big multinational technology and telecommunication groups have the green light with their expansion plans. As a result, the Internet could become a pipeline for the kind of globalization that can bring harm to previously protected local economies and cultures. Being 'connected' not only means having access to the entire global network but also the opposite - that it also has access to you.«
Cynthia Beth Rubin made an important point in relation to »Americanization of global culture«: »But American culture is diverse and fluid. What gets exported is what sells abroad, not necessarily what reflects the actual culture of the USA...«
Cultural stereotype
Yu Yeon Kim refered to Armin Medosch with the following observation: »Indeed, it must be very difficult from the Western perspective, with its history of colonialism, to go further than the mere fetishization and stereotyping of Asian, African and so-called Third World cultures. These cultures do not need protection from being infected or contaminated by ... 'the kind of globalization that can bring harm to previously protected local economies and cultures'.« As a result of the evolution of global culture that set in long before the Internet came about, »both the carrier and the recipient are 'contaminated' by their meeting«.
In her Statement, Kim had already written: »If we are to consider the Internet as a contact zone of international cultures then we must also examine the intricate operation of post-colonialist and neo-imperialist values as projected through Western consumerism and therefore through the inherent mechanisms of the Internet. Actually, there is no simple separation with the Other, that conglomerate of fabricated so-called 'Third World' identities has already reinfused itself, problematically, into this milieu - the transference of meaning is well underway in many directions. However, the real zone of exclusion starts at the furthest reaches of the technologically empowered - where the technologically poor discover that they at a new level of disenfranchisement while being fetishized as the 'Other' by the technologically rich.«
»Global« culture is pluralistic
The majority of contributions on this theme represented the view that Internet either not at all or hardly endangers cultural diversity. Since very clear assertions came from Yu Yeon Kim on this topic as well, she should once again be quoted. Kim wrote that the »Global culture« in the Internet that arises from the multitude of individuals, organizations, companies, governments, etc. »essentially implies plurality, but also a confluence of cultures that are in a continuous process of contact, exchange and evolution that is determined to an extent, by the problematic entwining of their histories.«
She further underpinned this, and added the following remark about her understanding of exchange: »Modern 'global' culture is a pluralistic discourse of cultures in which the transport (I hesitate to say 'exchange', as what is transferred is transformed in the process) of cultural ideas has been accelerated perhaps beyond our ability to reasonably assimilate them. However, this data is always translated on arrival according to its relevance to the locality.«
Pedro Meyer is certain that »... as the internet becomes larger, each cultural representation will have their own presence on the web, with each group having their own language and cultural values very much present.«
»Global« culture as a reference system
Joana Breidenbach also emphasized: »Certain goods, services, institutions and ideas are globalized ... [but] this doesn't necessarily mean that we are all being homogenised and that cultural differences are being wiped out. People all over the world incorporate global influences in the most diverse ways.«
Her following presumption is both interesting and inspires further consideration: »I believe that we are witnessing the emergence of a global culture, understood as a new worldwide reference-system.« ... »We are not all becoming the same, but we are increasingly articulating our differences in a way which is understood by people from other cultures.«
»The globalization of the concept 'culture' has sparked a whole new identity-boom and power-instrument for minorities.« ... »I see more and more evidence that non-western societies ... challenge the old hegemonic structures and contribute to the globally valid terms of reference.«
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[end of the evaluation] |
Project direction: Gerhard Haupt - haupt@uinic.de
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