Globalisation and the Homogenised Society

This paper discusses the topic of globalisation and its effects on culture. Specifically, the question asked is: Does globalisation necessarily lead to a homogenised culture? In order to attempt an answer to that question, it is important to understand what exactly is being spoken of when one uses the word ôglobalisation.ö For the purposes of this paper, the word is taken to mean the effective Americanisation of culture throughout the world. Thus, globalisation is not only the rationalisation of the spread of goods and services in a multinational universe but also the attempt at creating a hegemony when it comes to the spread of a particular cultural message.

At the present time, this paper argues that the effects of the Americanisation of global culture have been extremely powerful. However, the resistance to a homogenised culture has also been great. This is especially true at the present time when American foreign policy and its increased isolation from the rest of the world no longer make it the idealised dreamland paradise that it has long made itself out to be.

On the other hand, there is another side to this process of globalisation, a side that Ritzer so eloquently argued for in his classic book The McDonaldization of Society. Ritzer argued that, no matter what happens to any particular firm, the idea of McDonaldisation is here to stay. In fact, this societal process ôwill continue, almost certainly

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sacrifice is too great and that we are in danger of turning humans into interchangeable automatons: universal employees at a McDonalds franchise. They argue that putting reason over passion and the mind over the heart leads to existential disenchantment and a loss of what's truly important in life. As well, one of the end results could very well be what Ritzer calls ôthe irrationality of rationalityö (2000, p. 16). In other words, a completely rational system (even if one could be created) may produce effects that are not rational, not part of the system. As Hartley (1995) puts it: [D]espite all of these rationalising practices, irrationalities will emerge, for two reasons: first, the ordered structures of bureaucratic rationality may clash with the emerging disorder of post-modernist culture; and second, these means may subvert some of the very ends which they purport to achieve (p. 410). The battle between McWorld and Jihad is one that seems to be taking place not only among various parts of the world (most classically in the war between the U.S. and its coalition of the willing, and Islamic fundamentalism), but also within nations themselves. As economies converge, political opposition has grown as well. Those who feel
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Approximate Word count = 1907
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)