Step by Step
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Theory 1: cultural imperialism / homogenization
This view argues that globalization mostly means Western — especially American — culture spreading outward and erasing local diversity. George Ritzer's term "McDonaldization" captures this: the idea that global brands and standardized systems flatten cultural difference. "Coca-colonization" is a related nickname for the same idea.
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Theory 2: hybridity / creolization
This competing view argues local cultures don't just passively absorb global influences — they actively adapt, remix, and transform them into something genuinely new. The result isn't simple replacement of local culture by global culture, but a hybrid blend.
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Appadurai's "scapes"
Arjun Appadurai proposed that global flows move through five different channels, unevenly: ethnoscapes (movement of people), mediascapes (media and images), technoscapes (technology), financescapes (capital and money), and ideoscapes (ideas and ideologies). These flows don't move at the same speed or in the same direction everywhere.
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Diaspora
Communities that maintain cultural ties and identity while living far from their original homeland — an important example of how global movement of people doesn't necessarily erase cultural identity, but can also preserve and transform it at a distance.
Applied Walkthrough
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A fast-food chain opens in a new country: the homogenization view says this is one more step toward a single, standardized global culture erasing local food traditions.
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The hybridity view points out that the same chain often adapts its menu heavily to local tastes, and that local restaurants might also borrow elements of the chain's marketing or service style, creating something new that's neither purely local nor purely global.
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Meanwhile, a diaspora community living in that same country might maintain its own food traditions from home for generations, showing that global movement doesn't automatically flatten difference.
Exam Application
Exams test whether you can explain homogenization and hybridity as competing (not complementary) theories, list all five of Appadurai's scapes, and what a diaspora is and why it matters to this debate.
⚠ Common Trap
Don't present homogenization and hybridity as if one is simply "correct" and the other "wrong." Most exam questions want you to recognize these as two competing theoretical lenses anthropologists debate, not a settled fact with one right answer.
✓ Quick Self-Check
1. What does George Ritzer's term "McDonaldization" refer to?
The idea that global brands and standardized systems flatten local cultural difference.
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2. What is hybridity/creolization, and how does it differ from the homogenization thesis?
Hybridity argues local cultures actively adapt and transform global influences into something new, rather than simply being replaced by them.
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3. Name Appadurai's five "scapes."
Ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, financescapes, and ideoscapes.
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4. What is a diaspora?
A community that maintains cultural identity and ties to a homeland while living elsewhere.
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5. What is "coca-colonization" a nickname for?
The cultural imperialism/homogenization thesis — the spread of Western consumer culture displacing local traditions.
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