Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

As the debate about globalization has rapidly expanded and become more, rather than less, contentious, there has emerged what might be called a “negative consensus” concerning the idea of global culture. While there is most definitely no widespread agreement, either “globally” or “locally,” about what we might mean by the term global culture(s), there is – for many, a seemingly reluctant – confirmation of the proposition that the issue of global culture is of paramount significance. In this regard we are witnesses of and participants in the continuation of an older debate as to whether national societies function primarily within the parameters of a societal culture, variously called the dominant ideology, the hegemonic discourse, the central value system, the common culture, or whatever. The key point here is that social scientists and students of culture have at least converged on the thesis that the question of which particular modes of contested cultural expression and discourse are predominant at any given time and/or place is a matter of importance. This much has been conceded by even the most committed of those of a materialistic persuasion. Indeed, there are few serious analysts of the global-human condition who would now claim that ideational perspectives and commitments are mechanical products of autonomous material processes. The conventional treatment of culture in mainstream ... log in or subscribe to read full text