Customer Reviews

Many Globalizations : Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World

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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.

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

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

Good overview of the theories and impact of globalization. I also recommend Haley's "Multinational corporations in political environments: Ethics, values and strategies" to understand the limits of the economic powers shaping our society.