by DK
In Arab countries, for example, pitta bread rather than buns is served in burger restaurants, along with spices that appeal to regional tastes. A major Western manufacturer of shaving razors has adapted its blades and fittings for use in an Asian market where water for shaving is scarce. Television series and soap operas devised for one country are rewritten and re-enacted using actors and sets that reflect local life elsewhere in the world. These, in turn, often form the basis for locally produced spin-offs. Crucially for Robertson, glocalization gives rise to new products that feed back into global culture. This happens when a local adaption of a major commodity is exported to other cultures and adapted further still.
World market Glocalization puts a local spin on well-known, branded products.
local problem untangled
One of the world’s largest manufacturers of domestic appliances adjusted the technology of its washing machines to meet a local need. A new agitator designed for the Indian market altered the washing action, enabling women to launder their long saris without them becoming tangled up.
A major US theme park replicated in Hong Kong was restructured to agree with Chinese beliefs on harmony.
See also: Why haven’t DEVELOPING countries developed yet? | Is GLOBALIZATION a good thing? | Wealth and development
Born in the Hague, in the Netherlands, Saskia Sassen is a Dutch-American sociologist and a professor of sociology at Columbia University, New York. A leading figure in urban sociology, she is noted for her work on globalization, migration, and social inequality. Sassen is best known for her book The Global City, published in 1991, which examines the impact of globalization on the people who live and work in modern cities.
A GLOBAL TRAVELLER
During the Second World War, Sassen’s father worked as a member of a Nazi propaganda unit. In 1948, her family fled to Argentina with other high-ranking members of the Nazi party. As a child, Sassen’s family moved frequently. She was brought up in Argentina and Italy and later studied in France and the USA. Her own experiences as a global traveller shaped her work on modern cities and the problems of urban life.
GLOBAL CITIES
Sassen’s book The Global City looks at the way certain cities – notably New York, London, and Tokyo – have become centres of the global economy. Yet, in spite of their vast scale and size, these cities are made up of many distinct, smaller areas each with their own cultural identity. Sassen’s work focuses on the impact global cities have on local communities, where many of the inhabitants suffer from poverty, prejudice, and social injustice.
TAKING to the STREETS
Sassen uses the term “global street” to refer to public spaces where people from poor or disadvantaged communities, such as migrant and low-wage workers, can make their voices heard. She argues that protests in traditional places – such as town centres or public parks – have lost their impact and are no longer effective. Instead, Sassen calls for people to protest in the urban streets where they live and work.
GUESTS and ALIENS
Much of Sassen’s writing focuses on the problems of immigration. In her book Guests and Aliens (1999), Sassen explores the ways various migrant groups have been treated in different countries. Sassen calls for a fairer approach to immigration – one that benefits the host society as well as the migrant communities, many of whom have been forced to leave their homelands because of war or persecution.
A talented linguist, Sassen was brought up speaking Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch, and German – she has also studied Russian and Japanese.
It is easy to believe that environmental problems such as climate change are something for the scientists to sort out. after all, aren’t the big industries to blame? but the truth is that our “buy it and bin it” lifestyles have a major impact on the health of the planet. Directly or indirectly, ordinary people are contributing to global changes.
Warming world
Since the 1960s, environmentalists and other scientists have been warning us that human activities are directly contributing to the warming of Earth’s climate. They claim that rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions, brought about by industrial processes such as burning fossil fuels and the emission of carbon dioxide from car exhaust fumes, are the main cause for the general rise in temperatures all over the world. As modern industries grow and spread, their impact on the global environment massively intensifies year by year.
Throwaway societies
Environmental sociologists analyse how social structures such as the legal system, the economy, and political policy impact on the environment. British expert Anthony Giddens believes that many people hold the idea that climate change is something happening at world level and therefore outside their control. He emphasizes that, on the contrary, environmental problems are inextricably bound up with our everyday lifestyles.
In his book The Politics of Climate Change, written in 2009, Giddens focuses on the effects of consumerism on the environment. In capitalist societies our lives are likely to be organized around the consumption of material goods and services, of which waste is an inherent part. Much of what we buy, such as food, clothes, and household goods, comes in packaging that is thrown away once the items are “consumed”. An average household might dump the equivalent of six trees’ worth of paper a year in the form of newspapers, packaging, and junk mail. The fact that natural resources will not last for ever fundamentally undermines the sustainability of a capitalist society based around consumption of mass-produced goods.
Managing waste Waste disposal doesn’t end when the bins are emptied. It involves transport and, for non-recyclable materials, methods such as incineration or landfilling that contribute to environmental pollution.
Working for change
Another British sociologist of the environment, Philip Sutton, finds that increasing numbers of people are taking a critical look at their own consumer habits and doing something to change them. One response is to use organic and locally sourced foodstuffs. This eliminates large-scale production, reducing greenhouse gas emissions produced by the transport of goods. Local councils and communities are also taking more responsibility for the environment, putting their collective energies into initiatives that include car sharing, communal gardening areas, community clean-up days, and recycling schemes.
Environmental racism
Factors such as class and ethnic origins mean that some social groups are more likely than others to suffer from environmental changes. People in poorer parts of the world like southeast Asia and India are the worst hit by consequences such as rising sea levels, drought, or flooding. Developing countries can also be affected by the demands of first-world consumerist societies. The felling of rainforests for timber or to clear land for megacrops destroys the lifestyles of local peoples. Significant areas of Brazilian rainforest are cut down to provide grazing for cattle, whose meat is then shipped to Europe. Sociologists call this uneven distribution of the effects of environmental change “environmental racism”.
So what we do on one side of the world may have an impact on the other side. Only global co-operation can effectively slow down environmental change. While the industrial sector has a heavy responsibility, the part played by ordinary people matters, too.
low-impact living
Eco-homes could ease the pressure on the planet. Built from reclaimed, non-polluting materials and using renewable solar energy, they have a low environmental impact. But British-based scholar Jenny Pickerill believes such homes will not become a model for the future until we learn to actively seek lifestyle changes, and not expect amenities such as instant hot water at all times.
Every year, 8 million metric tons of plastic waste ends up in the world’s oceans.
See also: ANTHONY GIDDENS | Wealth and development
Regarded as one of Britain’s leading sociologists, Anthony Giddens has written more than 35 books on a wide range of subjects, including psychology, economics, linguistics, anthropology, and politics. He is best known for his
theory of structuration, which explores the relationship between individuals and social structures – such as religion and social class. He is also noted for his ideas on human identity, globalization, and climate change.
a MAN of MANY WORDS
Giddens was born and raised in north London. He studied sociology and psychology at Hull University, then went on to the London School of Economics and Cambridge University, where he later became a professor of sociology. As well as writing hundreds of books and articles, he also co-founded the academic publishing house Polity Press. During the 1990s he became an advisor to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
SELF-IDENTITY
In his 1990 book The Consequences of Modernity, Giddens examines how people gain a sense of their own identity. In traditional societies, self-identity was largely shaped by a person’s religion or social class. As these types of social systems have become less influential, people have had to make sense of their own identity. Giddens claims that self-identity has become a “reflexive” process, meaning that people have to reflect constantly on who they are and what defines them.
the THIRD WAY
In recent years, Giddens has played a major role in global politics. In his book The Third Way (1998) Giddens outlined his ideas for a new model of politics that aimed to create a fairer society. Instead of relying on the traditional divisions of left-wing and right-wing politics, he argued for a “Third Way” – a political system that encouraged growth and wealth creation, while ensuring greater social justice and equal opportunities.
GLOBAL warming
In The Politics of Climate Change (2009), Giddens warns of the risks of ignoring climate change. He argues that because the effects of global warming are not immediately visible in everyday life, people are reluctant to take action. Yet, if we wait for environmental catastrophes – such as massive floods, rising sea-levels, and higher temperatures – to occur, it will be too late to do anything about them. This dilemma is known as the “Giddens’ Paradox”.
A passionate football supporter, Giddens wrote his thesis at the London School of Economics on “Sport and Society in Contemporary England”.
Sociologists seek to understand how and why inequalities exist in society. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, sociologists made many studies of the inequalities between the social classes. More recently, they have analysed differences in the economic and political power of nations and the impacts of globalization.
GLOBAL GOODS
The world’s first McDonald’s outside of the US opened in British Columbia, Canada in 1967. McDonald’s outlets can now be found in 119 countries across the globe. The global reach of Coca Cola extends further. It can be bought everywhere except North Korea and Cuba, though it has been smuggled into Cuba.
LOW-COST AIR TRAVEL
The rise in the number of people travelling abroad was made possible by the emergence of low-cost airlines during the late 1980s. Air travel became possible for people who in the past would not have been able to afford to fly, though the environmental consequences of increased air traffic have been significant.
COLONIAL LEGACY
Many of the world’s inequalities can be traced back to the colonial legacy of European nations such as Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, and Holland. In the 17th and 18th centuries, traders sailed to Africa, South America, and the Caribbean for exotic goods and slaves to sell. Setting up colonies also allowed Europeans to exploit the resources of these countries.
SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT
First founded in Piedmont, Italy in 1986, the Slow Food Movement is a worldwide organization aimed at ensuring local food cultures do not disappear in the wake of globalization. The aims of the organization are to try to ensure that eating traditions and national cuisines continue to flourish.
CELEBRITY CULTURE
In his book Celebrity (2001), British sociologist Chris Rojek discusses the influence of celebrity culture. Rojek’s work analyses the ambiguous status of modern celebrities. Though they serve as role models for many, at the same time they bring into sharp focus the vast disparities in wealth and social power at the heart of modern culture.
IMPACT OF TOURISM
For countries such as Kenya, tourism provides a vital source of income. A study of Amboseli National Park, Kenya in the 1990s showed that a herd of elephants generated $610,000 (£487,000) in tourist revenue per year. However, the increasing numbers of tourists has a damaging effect on ecosystems, infrastructure, and cultural traditions.
ACID RAIN
In World Risk Society (1999), German sociologist Ulrich Beck’s analysis shows the risks of environmental damage. Pollution from the industrially advanced countries of Western Europe and North America has effects around the globe. For example, rain made acidic by atmospheric pollution in one country damages lakes and marshes thousands of kilometres away.
FAIR TRADE
Established in 1992 in London, the Fairtrade Foundation encourages consumers to buy goods and services at a price that is fair for the overseas growers. Producers of crops such as coffee or cocoa receive a fair price for their product so as to help reduce poverty, encourage sustainability, and treat the farmers ethically.
Modern culture is made up of the ideas, habits, and activities that surround us. Our modern world moves fast, bringing ideas and news from around the globe. Sometimes information arrives so quickly and from so many different sources that it can be hard to take it in. What makes news and who controls it are big questions for sociologists to ponder, as are the effects of the internet and social media.
I SHOP therefore I am?
What is CULTURE?
LEISURE time
We are living in UNCERTAIN times
Does the MASS MEDIA affect YOU?
Who owns the MEDIA?
Who DECIDES what’s news?
Where do you get your NEWS from?
What does the INTERNET DO for us?
Do you live ONLINE?
in modern society, our personal identities – the way we see ourselves and others see us – are to a large extent created by the goods we buy and use. People who lived in earlier centuries, when consumer options were limited, drew their sense of self from the homes, communities, and regions in which they lived.
Building an identity
Trying to understand who we are and how we would like to be seen by others takes up a lot of our time and energy. Our identity matters to us. This might seem like just part of being human, but preoccupation with self-image is a modern phenomenon directly connected to the rise of consumerism from the 20th century onwards. In today’s consumer society, people play an increasingly active role in constructing their self-identity.
In the past, your identity would have been decided by the family you were born into and your place in the community. It was not something within your control. A person’s occupation was usually handed down from generation to generation. The children of farmers, for example, tended to become farmers, and the sons of doctors were likely to enter the medical profession. The region people came from gave them a strong sense of who they were, too. Religion was another powerful influence in shaping people’s self-image and behaviour, providing them with a shared stock of moral values, ideals, and attitudes. In the traditional societies of centuries past, personal identity was largely fixed. By contrast, in modern society identity and selfhood are things we have to create for ourselves, which we do primarily through our choice of the goods and services we buy.
A style statement
We are bombarded with information and advertisements encouraging us to buy and use – consume – certain products, services, and lifestyles. For British sociologist Richard Jenkins, the role of the advertising industry is to create and attach symbolic value to products and services. The implication is that acquiring these things will confer on us socially desirable traits such as “sophistication”, “style”, and “wealth”. For example, the decision to buy one brand of trainers rather than another is not merely one of perso
nal preference but meant to be read as an expression of our inner selves. Trainers can say we are “discerning”, “cool”, or “geeky”, or don’t care what anybody thinks.
Shopping for an identity
In the 21st century, an ever greater part of our lives involves shopping. According to British social anthropologist Daniel Miller, many people enjoy shopping in itself, regardless of what they buy. This is because shopping for, say, clothes or food, is an opportunity for shaping our identity. To some consumers, a recent and important part of this building-up of self image is the range of portable activity trackers used to monitor physical progress, such as the number of steps taken per day. And while we shop, we have an arena such as the high street in which to communicate our identity to others. Anti-consumerist campaigners point to the environmental damage done by high levels of consumption. But, as Miller and others highlight, consumerism enables people to create an identity in ways that were denied to them in the past.