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Globalization or Westernization?

Globalization and Westernization are often viewed as parallel processes but there are key differences in how they are defined. Westernization refers to the imposition and assimilation of Western culture, ideas, and values in other countries through areas like industry, technology, politics, and economics. Globalization instead refers to increased integration and relationships between people across national borders. While globalization can involve the spread of Western ideas, it is a two-way process that does not aim to homogenize cultures but rather embraces cultural differences. Some argue globalization has allowed non-Western countries to modernize while preserving their own values and institutions. However, the relationship between these concepts is still complex and debated.

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586 views

Globalization or Westernization?

Globalization and Westernization are often viewed as parallel processes but there are key differences in how they are defined. Westernization refers to the imposition and assimilation of Western culture, ideas, and values in other countries through areas like industry, technology, politics, and economics. Globalization instead refers to increased integration and relationships between people across national borders. While globalization can involve the spread of Western ideas, it is a two-way process that does not aim to homogenize cultures but rather embraces cultural differences. Some argue globalization has allowed non-Western countries to modernize while preserving their own values and institutions. However, the relationship between these concepts is still complex and debated.

Uploaded by

Allyssa DC
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Is the world is undergoing a globalization or just a mere westernization?

Globalization and Westernization are two ideologies that, ever since has been a debate, even in
the early 1960s. Given the pervasiveness of Western ideas globally in different aspects, it is often viewed
parallel to Globalization. According to the Global Policy Forum (2005), the spread of values, norms, and
culture tends to promote Western capitalism. Westernization is a cultural transformation, wherein the
imposition of western culture, ideas and values, in areas such as the industry, technology, politics, and
economics, are assimilated by other countries. While as globalization rather, is more of a movement,
bringing closer relationships and integration of people from across the borders of nation-states. For
Robertson, he refers it as “both to the compression of the world and the intensification of the
consciousness of the world as a whole”

The reason why this confusion arise is with how we define them. Jan Scholte (2003) says that
the term globalization has been commonly used to mean four things—internationalization,
liberalization, universalization, and Westernization, that he de fined westernization to be associated
with the process of homogenization wrought by post-colonial imperialism (Scholte 2003, 84-85). While,
Held and McGrew point out that a primary reason for disagreements between the two camps is the
different meanings and interpretations attached to concepts. The globalists are talking about “one
world, shaped by highly extensive, intensive and rapid flows, movements and networks across regions
and continents” whereas the skeptics are talking about regionalization and internationalization, not
globalization (Held and McGrew 2003, 38). For an instance, McDonald's operates over 30,000
restaurants in 100 countries. Its worldwide expansion is an example of globalization. However, the way
they made its menu to be adapted to various local tastes is internationalization. Furthermore, this
discourse also derived from the fact that the industrial revolution was initiated in western countries
wherein they are usually also the forefront of advancements even in the present day. So, which of this
two seems to be changing our world?

Many believe that globalization is just a euphemism for westernization. That us, the rest of the
world, are being converted and are adhering to the customs and practices of the western civilization,
through media, economics, politics, and technology. From my point of view, Globalization goes two
ways while westernization just goes one way and they are not synonymous to one another. Because
globalization is not homogenizing culture into one, rather brought bodies of organization to fight for
inequalities and made us embrace our cultural differences. It pave way for social consciousness to
transcend and reach both developed and developing nations. It is not only the West initiating
technological inventions, fairly many Asian countries contributes largely on global growth as well. The
whole world is increasingly behaving as though we are a part of a single economy that caters diverse
goods and trends with accessible and easier flow of trades, increasing global competitiveness. According
to Mahbubani on his book entitled The Great Convergence: Asia, the West, and the Logic of One World, he
mentioned that Non-Western countries can make an effort to balance Western power through
modernization and while still preserving their own values and institutions, which that I would like to believe
to be globalization. Our world is on the constant state of change; thus, this discourse is still disputable, apart
from how it could take unforeseen turns in the next years but also considering that these two terms are
simply too complex. For my last remark, I would like to reiterate a powerful statement from Nelson Mandela,
“Where globalization means, as it often does, that the rich and powerful now have new means to further
enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker, we have a responsibility to protest in
the name of universal freedom.”

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