The globalization of cullture.

Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 12:22 AM David Crow writes:"The "globalization of culture" thesis is not without detractors. While Western culture may indeed be becoming more homogeneous (though even in this context, there are signs of local dissent), the developmentalist position that "all roads lead to the West" has been the subject of vigorous refutations. The example that comes to mind is Samuel Huntington's book The Clash of Civilizations, which posits that there are seven or eight civilizations whose fundamentally different values will translate into conflict--armed and other.

A variant on this theme posits that instead of English-language--especially U.S.--culture dominating the world, there are regionally hegemonic cultures divided along linguistic lines. Countries with the economic capacity for cultural projection become dominant within regions--e.g., a Hispanic culture in which Madrid and Mexico City vie for its seat, a French culture emanating from Paris outward to Quebec and former French colonies in Africa, an Arab culture promoted by pan-Arabist networks such as Al Jazeera, etc.

Here's a link to an archive of press articles on globalization and culture: http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/

RH: David failed to list the hegemonic culture of the English-speaking world emanating from Stanford University.