Many Globalizations : Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World [Hardcover]

Peter L. Berger (Author), Samuel P. Huntington (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195151461 | ISBN-13: 978-0195151466 | Publication Date: June 6, 2002

Much discussed but poorly understood, globalization is praised as the answer to all the world's problems and blamed for everything from pollution to poverty. In Many Globalizations, Peter Berger and Samuel Huntington bring together an array of scholars from around the world, who paint a far subtler and more richly shaded portrait, showing both the power and the unexpected consequences of this great force.
Here the stereotypes of globalization as American imperialism on the one hand or economic cure-all on the other fall apart under the close scrutiny of these leading scholars. Looking at globalization in countries such as Chile, Japan, South Africa, Germany, Turkey, Hungary, Taiwan, India, and the United States, they show that an emerging global culture does indeed exist, one that is heavily American in origin and content, but that is far from a centrally directed force like classic imperialism--nor is it simply a "metastasized Disneyland." They examine the currents that carry this culture, from a worldwide class of young professionals to nongovernmental organizations, and define globalization's many variations (ranging from Buddhist influences to Islamic modernism) as well as subglobalizations that bind regions together. The authors also draw attention to globalizing forces that have escaped media scrutiny, such as the role of evangelical Protestantism (which both adapts to local languages and cultures, and introduce distinctively American values) and Opus Dei, the conservative Catholic movement that originated in Spain.
Analytical, incisive and stimulating, Many Globalizations offers rare insight into perhaps the central issue of modern times, one that is changing the West as much as the developing world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Provocative.... Taken together, the trenchant, well-written essays included in this collection provide indisputable evidence that an identifiable global culture is indeed emerging."--World Policy Journal

"A fascinating series of accounts, country by country, of how, as the world is thought to be getting ever smaller under the force of globalization, individual cultures are both responding to it and at the same time finding the means to sustain themselves. Nor could there be any better guides to this subject than the co-editors of this volume, Peter Berger and Samuel Huntington, whose insights into the play of culture both in the world and local affairs have been nothing short of germinal."--Midge Decter

"Finally a volume that gives the cultural side of globalization the analytic clarity it deserves. This rich collection of studies of local transformations in an era of global change reveal that cultural globalization is far more interesting and diverse than we thought. Highly readable, unfailingly rich in detail and stunning in its insights, Many Globalizations is a landmark in the study of public culture on a global scale."--Mark Juergensmeyer, Director of Global and International Studies at UC Santa Barbara

"'Globalization' has been a buzzword of uncertain content, glibly tossed about, but now with this theoretically insightful and data-rich book, the concept becomes a powerful analytical tool for illuminating profound historical processes. Working together, a team of country specialists identify what is unique and what is universal in the clashes of particular cultures with the modernizing forces of globalization."--Lucian Pye, Department of Political Science, MIT

About the Author

Peter Berger is University Professor of Sociology and Theology at Boston University, and Director of the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture. Samuel P. Huntington is Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor at Harvard University and Chairman of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies in the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He is the author of The Clash of Civilizations and the Making of World Order and co-editor of Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 374 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 6, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195151461
• ISBN-13: 978-0195151466
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,221,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter L. Berger (Boston, MA) is University Professor of Sociology, Emeritus, at Boston University and the founder and Senior Research Fellow of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs. He has written numerous books on sociological theory, the sociology of religion, and Third World development. Among his more recent books are In Praise of Doubt (with Anton Zijderveld); Religious America, Secular Europe? (with Grace Davie and Effie Fokas); Questions of Faith; Many Globalizations (edited with Samuel Huntington); and Redeeming Laughter: The Comic Dimension of Human Experience. Professor Berger has received honorary degrees from Loyola University, University of Notre Dame, University of Geneva, University of Munich, Sofia University, and Renmin University of China.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The joke is on your conception of globalization, May 2, 2002

By 

Wayne C. Lusvardi (Pasadena, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Many Globalizations : Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World (Hardcover)

Imagine a field report from ten countries of the many ways that globalization is occurring, one of which explains globalization in Hungary in the form of the following common joke, as would the average person in the street:

"...I feel sorry for the enthusiasts of globalization too, especially since I have been told the following joke in Budapest, which ridicules the time/space compression, a favorite concept of globalization theorists. It goes like this: How much time would Hungarians need not to stop littering? The answer is, seven centuries and one second. In the first five centuries we get rid of the Turks, the Habsburgs, and the Russians, who - as is well known - mercilessly forced us to litter. Then about one century is absolutely necessary to define the notion of "Hungarian rubbish" and another one to copy and then to approve the current German law prohibiting littering. And what about that additional second? Ah, that we need to learn how to cheat the new law" (from Janos Kovacs, "Rival Temptations and Passive Resistance," chapter 6:173).

Not all the articles in this compilation contain such amusing and illuminating insights as the above excerpt. Nonetheless, this is a treasure trove of papers that avoids the superficiality of the pop studies on globalization one hand ("Belly of the Beast," "McWorld"); and on the other hand mostly avoids the overly academic studies that lose the reader in a number of word abstractions ("time/space compression"). As one author, Janos Kovacs, wryly points out, economists may count the growing number of baseball bats in Hungary and incorrectly conclude that mass consumer sports are pushing out traditional sports and even religion in the Third World. The supply and demand calculus of the economist would miss the cultural fact that baseball bats in Hungary are replacing knives and guns for street fighting and protection.

The book is the product of a three-year study that was initially framed in a "challenge-response" thesis of globalization, which ended up failing to reflect the reality of the phenomenon, much like rejecting a null hypothesis in science. As editor Peter Berger puts it: "the goal of every scholarly enterprise is to blow someone's theory out of the water. In this instance that someone was me."

The field accounts from political scientist Arturo Talavera on Chile, and Janos Kovacs on Hungary are worth the price of the book alone. Ann Bernstein's piece on globalization in South Africa reads a bit like a national chamber of commerce "promo" that glosses over the very tragic underside of globalization that is occurring in that country.

The book punctures the stereotypes of globalization on either side of the political or ideological spectrum. That Latin American women gain most under the influence of evangelical Protestant Christianity runs counter to the notion in America that woman suffer most under the influence of conservative religion. That Coca Cola often serves disaster victims in developing countries faster and better than U.N. aid programs is also likely to be a mind buster. But no matter what world-view (modern or traditional) that one might be seeking to affirm by reading this book, it is more likely than not that it will be disconfirmed (as even the editors preconceptions were not confirmed). As sociologists David Hunter and Joshua Yates aptly state in their concluding paper, the complexity and reality of globalization is likely to "burst the mental bubble," or cognitive map, of members of opposing organizations active in globalizing countries, such as Campus Crusade and Opus Dei on one side, or Planned Parenthood and Greenpeace on the other.
One minor criticism was the failure of the book to include Peter Berger's seminal article "The Four Faces of Global Culture" that formed the skeletal framework of the study. I would have also liked to see more emphasis on how globalization, especially immigration, is changing the West as much as the developing world. Highly recommended.

16 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unbiased and sometimes informative book, September 8, 2002

By 

Brandon "mctavern" (Durham, NH United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Many Globalizations : Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World (Hardcover)

First the good:

This book is an unbiased account of Globalization and it's effect in several different countries. Each section is written by a different Graduate student from that area of the world. Each account gives a first hand look at how the people of that coutnry view globalization through the eyes of one of it's members.

Second, the Bad:

As stated earlier these are grad students writing these passages so it's hit and mis with these articles. For instance the One on China I found to be very informative and well written while the one on India was poorly written and read more like a promotion for the writers religion.

This book is definately worth the time because it doesn't say Globalization is good or evil, it just gives unbiased information. Just take some of the passages as what they are, graduate study level work

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book recieved, August 17, 2010

By 

Dino - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Many Globalizations: Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World (Paperback)

Book arrived in the condition listed, bargain price, and speedy arrival and response. I would highly recommend this company!