Scribd
Upload
15 views

Cultural Globalization A Users Guide by

Uploaded by

Valentina Alegría Flores
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
15 views

Cultural Globalization A Users Guide by

Uploaded by

Valentina Alegría Flores
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Book Reviews

would be useful. Cities of Whiteness develops important theoretical and


methodological views of ethnicity, by emphasising the processes by which
groups organise power, and the spaces and areas that become the target of
preferential focus.

Suzanne Hall
PhD Candidate at the City Programme
London School of Economics and Political Science

J. Macgregor Wise
Cultural Globalization: A User’s Guide
Carlton: Blackwell Publishing, 2008, 192 pp., £15.99 (pbk)

In his book Cultural Globalization: A User’s Guide, J. Macgregor


Wise gives a colourful account of global flows of culture and their
effect on local identity formation processes. Wise, who is associate
professor of Communication Studies at Arizona State University, addresses
culture in various settings and expressions, drawing on examples of youth
culture from Asia, where he has lived, as well as from Europe and North
America.

The book is structured into five chapters and a short conclusion. ‘Culture at
Home’ (Chapter 1) presents concepts that serve as perspectives on
globalisation and as landmarks within this vast and vague phenomenon:
culture, territory, identity, home, ideology and hegemony. They reappear
throughout the book when addressing the manifold examples. ‘Culture and
the Global’ (Chapter 2) speaks of cultural flows and power relations,
deconstructing a Marxist view of cultural imperialism. Wise hereby does
recognise power imbalances in cultural flows, such as the global
consumption of US American cultural products while other cultures rarely
flow back to the States. But he points to the differences in local receptions,
to the multiple flows in other directions (e.g. within Asia) and to the fact
that there can also be a pull of culture instead of a push, e.g. in pirate
copies. With Arjun Appadurai he concludes that cultural flows are
multidimensional and often contradictory.

The in-depth studies of ‘Global Youth’ (Chapter 3) and ‘Global Music’


(Chapter 4) are well chosen. By the former Wise chooses to focus on
important actors who move globally, use global resources under local
conditions or are the target of cultural flows. The latter, of which Wise has a
great knowledge, is an example of a particular cultural flow, media and

166
Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism: Vol. 9, No. 1, 2009

form of expression that highlights some of the main characteristics of


global culture. Music is used as a territorialising force, i.e. while the music
business is Western dominated, responses incorporate local cultural,
economic and political conditions – in punk and hip-hop for instance –
creating a territory of one’s own. The last chapter, ‘Territories of Cultural
Globalization’, focuses on further strategies for the appropriation of space
such as citizenship or ‘audiotopias’, music scenes like those of Afro-
Caribbeans and South Asians in the UK. In the conclusion, Wise arrives at
two ethical aspects of why dealing with globalisation matters: The first is
the reflection about one’s role in a globalised world, the recognition of and
concern with the Other; the second aspect qualifies this statement by
calling for getting used to one another so that one eventually ceases
Othering the Others, who are simply just others.

Cultural Globalisation does not require much knowledge of globalisation


theories. Myriad examples and a colloquial style engage the reader’s
attention and make the book a diverting read. A close observer, Wise
portraits youth culture clubs in Korea, punk scenes from Mexico
City to Bali and multiple hybridities such as Punjabi/Afro-Caribbean/
British singer Apache Indian. He does not romanticise the examples, nor
does he speak only of successes but also emphasises, for instance, the
exploitation of non-Western musicians on the world stage or exclusion of
lower-class youth from glamorous global resources. By way of discussing
studies and observations, Wise reveals the obstacles when considering
globalisation. Contradictory and unpredictable flows, shapes and expres-
sions make it difficult to grasp cultural globalisation. But it also becomes
clear that one cannot abstain from dealing with it, be it as world citizens or
academics.

However, in a ‘user’s guide’ one would expect to find some more explicit
and abstract conclusions drawn from the great number of examples. The
concepts introduced in the first chapter seem like associations rather than
systematic or analytical categories and reappear somewhat randomly
throughout the book. For example, the notion of ‘territory’ becomes an
independent chapter while ideology and hegemony appear only indirectly
in some case studies. Moreover, ‘identity’ is dismantled into essentialism
(biology as destiny), antiessentialism (identity is open and changeable),
strategic essentialism (establishing a common identity for political reasons)
and George Lipsitz’s strategic antiessentialism (adopting other identities as
masks). These notions could well support a systematic analysis, but are
seldom pointed to later on. In this respect, the author’s appreciation of post-
modern philosopher Gilles Deleuze becomes apparent.

167
Book Reviews

As stated in the beginning of the book, it is an essay rather than a textbook,


wanting to raise questions, highlight problems and illustrate globalisation.
Yet by building on theories of Appadurai, Lipsitz and many others the book
could be more than ‘an assemblage of ideas, examples, questions, and
strategies’ (p. vii), but it remains in between a subjective account and a
systematic analysis – too Deleuzian a style. Finally, what the book achieves
indeed is to sharpen the reader’s awareness and appreciation of the
processes described, and it encourages locating oneself within the
phenomenon of cultural globalisation.

Maruta Herding
PhD Candidate in Sociology
University of Cambridge

Claire Mitchell
Religion, Identity and Politics in Northern Ireland: Boundaries of
Belonging and Belief
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006, 178 pp., £15.99 (pbk)

Religion, Identity and Politics in Northern Ireland is a comprehensive and


strikingly clear empirical presentation of the many ways in which Protestant
and Catholic cultures are interwoven into Northern Irish identity, community
and conflict. Calling these cultures ‘religions’, Mitchell situates her research
against the current consensus view that religion acts as a mere ‘boundary
marker’ for what are fundamentally ethno-nationalist divisions. She in fact
includes within her remit all practices, ideologies, communities and
institutions associated with Protestantism and Catholicism – and this
inclusivity gives rise to the research’s notable analytical achievement as well
as to its limitation as a theoretical comment on religion.

Most significantly, Mitchell’s book presents an assured analysis of the


myriad relationships between religious and political culture in Northern
Ireland. It is structured around five constituent parts that Mitchell suggests
for her ‘multilayered characterisation of religion’ (p. 134): (i) the activity of
its social representatives, the Church and clergy; (ii) its communal
symbolism (that is, its boundary marking role); (iii) the individual and
communal practices it engenders; (iv) the political and political philoso-
phical ideologies it communicates; (v) and, finally, its theology. Non-
religion is also considered, although not developed as far as it might have
been – the very small numbers of non-religious Northern Irish given as the
reason. Nevertheless, Mitchell does not dispute that secularisation is

168

You might also like