The modern world is currently facing a significant change under globalization trends that shape economies, politics, the workplace, education, and even everyday behavior. Most importantly, due to the active exchange of information between people worldwide, culture is changing. Researchers try to understand whether the culture will be further homogenized in globalization or diversified. This paper will argue that culture will become more diverse under the influence of globalization due to the introduction of multiple cultural elements into societies.
The latest processes in cultural change demonstrate that both sides of the argument, namely those supporting diversification and the ones claiming homogeneity, have reasonable grounds. On the one hand, Cowen (2010) states that in a globalized society where a dominant culture prevails, diversity will be substituted with the culture that is imposed on others through such means as cinema. Indeed, Hollywood promotes American codes around the world because the US cinema market is the largest in the world. Thus, globalization allows Hollywood to reach all parts of the world, integrating the same culture codes everywhere.
However, the other side of the argument is more compelling because it considers the strengths of local cultures. In particular, an example of sushi’s popularity in American society and cultures of other nations demonstrates that people adopt new cultural phenomena with acknowledgment of their origin. According to Bestor (2010), “Japan remains the world’s primary market for fresh tuna for sushi and sashimi” (p. 110). Thus, having integrated its product into the cultures of other countries, Japan has expanded its market share.
In such a manner, with the ease of transportation and communication enabled by globalization, there is a merge of cultures around the world. However, since market forces commonly rule these processes, the host cultures are aware of the origins of the borrowed cultural clusters. Therefore, to summarize the discussion, one might state that culture will not be homogenized in globalization but rather diversified with credit given to each cultural component.