Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Globalization is metaphorically explained as the “shrinking of the world.” As a descriptive term, globalization refers to the ongoing development of ever more extensive and profound interdependence among the countries, economies, cultures, physical localities, and peoples of the world (see chapter “ On Religious Ethics ”). Though humankind has seen other times of heightened interdependence (during exploratory, imperial, and colonial eras), the current period of globalization, in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, is unique in three respects: (1) it is primarily propelled not by political and military power, but by economic and technological/communication forces; (2) the extent of its reach is virtually planet-wide, as opposed to regional; and (3) it undermines the power of the nation-state - even the most powerful states must accommodate themselves to the imperatives of international trade or suffer the consequences. One of the problems posed by globalization has to do with concern over the potential “homogenization” of global culture. With the English language, blue jeans, McDonald's, and American movies almost everywhere, globalization seems to be a threat to cultural diversity. Non-dominant cultures seem similar to endangered species, and they have a consciousness of being so. Like an endangered species, the loss of an endangered culture, while worst for itself, would ... log in or subscribe to read full text