The Publication Data, Structure, and Audience of the Article
The article contains the following sections: Abstract; Introduction; Globalisation and Westernisation; Globalisation as the “Decline of the West”; Conclusion; References.
It appears that the intended audience for this article is the scholarly community that studies the processes of globalization. On the other hand, the article is written in rather an easy language, and all the arguments, claims, and conclusions are described in a simple manner, which should make the article accessible to virtually any non-specialist who is interested in the topic.
The Claim
The author touches upon a number of issues in his article. First, he states that it is generally assumed that globalization is a process by which the cultural hegemony of the West, along with its economic dominance, is being spread around the world. Then, the author doubts this claim and, after analyzing the arguments for and against it, concludes that the process of globalization is more complex, that it does not necessarily entail the spreading of the Western cultural hegemony, and that it is not worth assuming that the current cultural domination of the West is going to last for a long period of time.
The author states that the process of globalization is rather complex and multidimensional and that it unfolds in a number of realms of existence at the same time. It is also stressed that globalization might “unite” peoples by simply creating global factors that affect everyone, but this “structural unity” does not necessarily imply that some type of a global culture shared by all the peoples comes into existence. Therefore, the author argues, it is not necessarily correct to claim that globalization will, in any case, lead to westernization, and a more detailed critique of this phenomenon may be required.
The Evidence
To support his claim, the author provides evidence that is based on the current situation in the world. He, for instance, points out that the risks and benefits of globalization are distributed differently not only geographically but, importantly, among various social groups (gender, age, etc.) and classes (upper, middle, lower). Therefore, no single culture emerges as a result.
Also, the Western culture does not come as a “package”; different aspects of it are adopted in different countries and classes and then adapted to the local culture; some values are resisted or plainly found weird.
It is also suggested that “globalization” is not a “single,” continuous process; for instance, there is a difference between the bloody European colonial expansion and the soft “coca-colonization,” which also should be taken into account.
The Article’s Effectiveness
The article has a number of strengths. For instance, it explores the phenomenon of globalization by analyzing both the notion of globalization, the terms related to it, and the phenomenon that exists in the real world. This allows for a more nuanced understanding of both the terms and the phenomenon. The article also analyzes the various arguments both for and against the position that globalization is westernization and shows that this statement requires additional exploration.
The article, as it was already noted, is not difficult to read and understand. This is due to the fact that the author does not employ much specific language that is usually used only by specialists in a narrow field. In addition, the author provides an overview of the main positions regarding globalization, clearly explains the main arguments for and against them, and points out numerous problems related to them in order to show that a more nuanced exploration is required.