What is the "global consumer culture"? This term relates to the trends of the ‘developed’ countries and the growing consumption patterns that have been formed by transnational corporations (TNCs). A TNC can be defined by as a corporation that operates in different countries or areas of the globe to be able to maximise business processes. These corporations now operate as if the world had no borders, choosing areas of the globe that are most suited to their practices. This then relates to globalisation and the growing interdependence between different peoples, regions and countries - that has come about through the growth of these corporations. Their growth has been central in the production of an international division of labour that sees most low skilled manufacturing work produced in developing nations and this has been aided by the growth of telecommunication technologies. TNCs are able to use areas of the globe and the ‘stages of development’ of these regions for comparative advantage, utilising areas of cheap or highly skilled labour to suit corporate needs. Globalisation is apparent when seen in the light of the information networks that have allowed for the emergence of TNCs and the beginnings of a global culture of universally recognisable symbols. There are obvious signs of this globalising trend: McDonalds and Coca-Cola being the most visible forms of an Americanisation of branded consumption. The term ‘Americanisation’ can refer to the control or power that the United States holds within the ‘global network’. There are many American transnational corporations, however all centres of financial power produce such companies. This essay will seek to look at the effects of this globalising process for ...
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In this paper, drawing intensively from Clifford’s Traveling Cultures, Linton’s One Hundred Per Cent American, Derek Walcott’s Pantomime, and Miner’s Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, I will argue that, in the technologically advanced twenty-first century, while the international is indeed already on our plate and in our pocket, for it to be in our brains in the real sense – that is, for it to break free from the stranglehold of clichés and fixed ideas – we have to actively engage with it and continually update our understanding of it. We have to understand, like Clifford, that culture is a “work in progress”, which mutates, evolves, grows and recedes as geographical boundaries are blurred, as cultures travel and react with each other and new practices and thoughts emerge. But without a conscious appreciation and acknowledgement of it, we might as well be trapped in our small world-views. So, the ‘One Hundred Per Cent’ American described in such a tongue-in-cheek way by Ralph Linton – who is constantly using products from around the world but is oblivious of the fact – is in no way the better for it because in his mind he is insularly, untouchably, American. Internationalism, is in danger of being reduced to a word that benignly and indistinguishably replicates itself in every large city of the world (same malls, same food-chains; same designer brands). Its sole purpose is to make the unfamiliar, familiar; to classify with easy and a somewhat facile understanding, the motivations and beliefs of all ethnicities and cultures around us. To understand and appreciate multiculturalism we have to alter our way of viewing and generalizing about the world. And to question the very basis on which we weigh and judge alien cultures.
The term "globalization" is commonly used to describe the increased mobility of goods, services, labor, and technology throughout the world. Globalization is a social change; it is really an increase in connections among societies and their elements. Globalization has become identified with a number of trends, most of which developed in the period after World War II. The developments of technology, organizations, legal systems, and infrastructures helped enable this movement to occur, thus leading cultures toward the idea of modernity. The ongoing "globalization debate" confronts the world of social sciences with a series of theoretical and empirical challenges.
While the globalization process is significant to coffee, so are the roles of MNCs. “Some people see the multinational…[corporation] as the main actor in the globalization process which in itself reflects the core meaning of the information society” thus a multi-national corporation“ ‘make...
There are a few number of people that believes counter culture does not exists anymore. They claim that it is now merely a commodity that can be bought and sold like any other product. Some others disagree. Personally, I agree with the former group. This piece of writing will analyse this statement of whether counter culture is only a commodity or not. First I’m going to explain how counter culture starts and what is consumerism. Then I’m going to analyse how it is commodified and the connection between consumerism. Then I will discuss how the consumerism affect counter cultural group’s lifestyle in the past. Then I’m going to give a few examples of different counter cultural people and groups from different countries and I will state my counter-argument. Finally I will conclude my argument and state my opinion on this.
The idea of experience regarding globalization is important, according to various scholars, as globalization only truly matters if people can feel that it has something to do with their lives. People have to sense that they are actually experiencing globalization in order to care about it and find it important enough – which is why I would like to argue that certain of the pieces in the "experiencing globalization" section of the course literature represent the most fundamental and significant ideas in terms of understanding globalization processes. I will first address Lechner’s ‘waves of globalization’ and Levitt’s idea of ‘transnational villagers,’ and afterwards I shall discuss Appadurai’s ‘experience
James Watson’s McDonald’s in Hong Kong is a textbook example of globalization. According to Webster’s dictionary, globalization is defined as “worldwide integration and development”. In McDonald’s in Hong Kong, Watson discusses a well-known and successful American fast food chain migrating over seas and embedding itself in the Hong Kong culture. Although Hong Kong was already recognized as an extremely transnational civilization, there were worries that the country would lose cultural identity. The fears were that Hong Kong would become more Americanized and lessen their ties to the Cantonese ways.
This essay focuses on the topic of globalization, taking along several other factors with it. Increasingly in the world, it becomes obvious that the globalization is affecting almost all the businesses of the world. Every market in some way or the other is following the principles of globalization. For example, McDonalds is a chain of restaurants working in collaboration to deliver their customers with the best product and to achieve this McDonalds follows the concepts of globalization. This essay will discuss anc ethnographic study at McDonalds examining whether it confirms or denies the claims made about globalization.
The first decade of the 21st century has seen globalization and identity emerge as the most critical challenge to society. Globalization has seduced consumer appetites. This has led for those consumer identities to be exposed to global advertising focused on the designer car, the latest clothing or the newest piece of architecture.
According to Slater (1997), consumer culture can be defined that the relations between needs and social structures as well as it would be a power and identities in commercial system and society. In other words, it can be meant how people want to live and organize the society in various social conditions such as commercial and industrial capitalism. Capitalism means that “an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of goods and wealth are held primarily by individuals and corporations” (Sturken and Cartwright, 2001: p.350). Besides, globalization leads to increase commercial and industrial capitalism which includes economic knowledge to global markets and people can purchase goods manufactured in another country. However, because of the process of commodities, some problems might come up. It is because consumer culture can be involved in diverse fields in terms of ethics, identity. Moreover, despite industrial problems reveal in the market, consumers still have focused on consumption of products. Advertising helps to hide the problems with glamorous images. Therefore, this essay shows how consumer culture can be represented with industrial problems. Consumer culture will be addressed regarding to child labour which is occasionally carried out illegally in the world. In the essay, firstly, it will look at both child labour and consumer culture and then coherence of them with focusing on capitalism. The series documentary of ‘Blood, Sweat and T-shirts and Luxuries’ will be mainly analyzed in the second part with some examples. Lastly, it will discuss what benefits consumers and companies gain from exploitation of child labour.
...emergence of consumer or multinational capitalism. In many ways, its formal features express the deeper logic of this social system. We need only think of the way our sense of history has disappeared, of how our entire contemporary social system has little by little begun to lose its capacity to retain its own past. We live in a perpetual present. We might say that the media help us forget the past (pp. 204-05). I have discussed two features of postmodernism--the transformation of reality into images and the fragmentation of time into a series of perpetual presents. In this way, then, postmodernism replicates or reproduces or reinforces the logic of consumer capitalism (p. 205).
Indeed, despite the fact that many brands mentioned are well-known only at an American level, there are many with not only deep roots in American history but tied relationship abroad, at least in Latin American experience: Coca-cola, Ford, AT&T, Kellogs, Van Camps, Proctor&Gamble, just to mention a few, have also shaped Latin American daily, economical, and political lives. So, I see these brands that contributed to forged a national and cultural identity in the US but also they are linked to cultural and popular Latin American culture. Therefore, I wonder if this double movement (casting national identity as well international one) can give us new insights to what McGovern argues (for example, as the US as an international, cultural, popular force that operates beyond its own boundaries. And doing so, helped to expand the capital and the production of goods and services. That is, if they own geographical boundaries weren't enough to consume the entire national production, the capital goes away in order to found new consumers, new markets, and new ways to shape
Globalisation can take on many different shapes and forms in its free flow of goods and services across national borders. Cultural globalisation is one of those forms. Capcioglu (2008) refers to cultural globalisation as a “Global circulation of information, signs and symbols on a global scale and the reactions shown to the various socio-cultural transformations as a result of these conflicts.” Ritzer and Barber (1996) first coined cultural globalisation as ‘Americanisation’ and ‘McDonaldisation’, referring to the spread of western culture from the United States across the globe. The American image was beamed around the globe in the 1950’s and 1960’s through Disney cartoons, music videos, television programs, Hollywood movies and products such as McDonalds and Coca Cola. The global appeal of these goods and services was centred on the fact that America is seen as the place of modernity around the world. It is a culture that is rich, powerful and exciting and thus captures global appeal.
In this letter I would like to address an issue present in the phenomenon of globalization. This refers to the increasing integration of economies around the world, particularly through trade and financial flows. Globalization also indicates the movement of people (labor) and knowledge (technology) across international borders that bring broader cultural dimensions. However, globalization is often associated with Americanization, which results of bringing a foreign country under the commercial influence of the United States, yet this can be dangerous because Americanization has the potential of infiltrating and marring another country’s culture such as it has in the Middle East.
Globalization has taken place in the past when state and empires expanded their influence far outside their border. However, one of the distinctions of globalization today is the speed with which it is transforming local culture as they took part in a worldwide system of interconnectedness. Through globalization, many cultures in the world have changed dramatically.
Globalization has prompted the improvement of worldwide popular society. For example, Coca-Cola is sold in more countries than the United Nations has as members. Coke’ is claimed to be the second-most universally understood word after OK. McDonald’s has more than 30,000 local restaurants serving 52 million people every day in more than 100 countries. Levi’s jeans are sold in more than 110 countries. Ronald McDonald is second only to Santa Claus in name recognition for most school children.