Sushi The Global Catch By Susan Gale

Improved Essays
Author Susan Gale makes a good point when she says, “if your world revolves around money, you might be living on the wrong planet.” However, it is a fact that much of our world directly corresponds with exchanges and the meanings of it in different contexts. Economics, ecology, and globalization have both similar and different cultural practices, worldviews, and discourses surrounding them that can be seen when looking at disparities in resources and opportunities. Through several course readings and videos, the connections between these key concepts are evident. There are multiple different forms of economies that can be seen throughout the world. There are informal, formal, social, and cash economies. However, these economies are not mutually …show more content…
The intensifying flow of capital, goods, people, images, languages, and ideas around the world is something most humans are accustomed to. One key example that displays globalization is the somewhat recent sushi hype. The documentary, Sushi: The Global Catch, has several examples of globalization. For example, in the documentary, it is made clear that the fish from the market in Japan come from foreign markets, such as Bath, Maine. Similarly, the documentary shares how the new sushi market has spread to Poland. Robert Dybalski, owner of Tokyo Sushi Bar in Poland, says “generally Polish people approach sushi as a healthy cuisine, others like the novelty of it” (Sushi: The Global Catch). The sushi chef of Tokyo Sushi Bar, Marcin Korzeniewski, even describes the sushi they created that has sweet toppings. This an example of indigenization, where consumptions of certain globalized products, in this case, sushi, is incorporated into local understandings and worldviews. Additionally, the chefs are using knives from Japan. The person who taught Chef Korzeniewski was not from Asia, however they were taught by a Japanese man who used to work at the restaurant; an example of enculturation. The idea of authenticity comes into play here. When people think of sushi, they are expecting to see an “authentic” Japanese person making

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Doctrine of Perpetual Growth – Robbin’s presents the idea of perpetual growth, an earmark of capitalism, which is defined just as it sounds: an idea or believe that a society or culture can experience an everlasting growth within their economy. Western culture holds on to this idea of perpetual growth, and through agents such as capitalism, modernism, industrialism, they attempt to make it possible. As such, it is pertinent to understand the belief of perpetual growth because the aforementioned agents are also the drivers of modern day globalization. The Myth of Modernity experienced by Zambia ties in well with the doctrine of perpetual growth. Through experiencing a larger scale of industrialization, and modernization, Zambia believed that they would undergo growth as a teleological process.…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Green Belt Movement

    • 1285 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Gidwani observes an inherent incompatibility in capitalism and commons. While capitalism seeks to maximize individual gains, commons share a different goal of bettering the community. So, whenever capitalism and commons are at odds, a capitalist society seek to subdue and eradicate the obstacle impeding its capitalistic; however, Wangari Maathai’s environmentalist campaign against the Kenyan government demonstrates that commons can, in fact, be incorporated into capitalism. The contradiction arises in that Gidwani oversimplifies the issue of wastelands into purely economics and fails to see its sociopolitical and cultural roots. Whenever the cost of opposing something exceeds the benefits, capitalism redraws the lines of what is and what is not waste.…

    • 1285 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Sierra Evans BIS 257: Asian American Studies Book Report November 25, 2015 In From Canton Restaurant to Panda Express: A History of Chinese Food in the United States, Haiming Liu describes the evolution of Chinese food in America and the progressive journey of how it became the globally recognized phenomenon it is today. Liu provides an in depth description of the struggle early immigrants went through being immersed in American culture, as well as the fundamental role Chinese food played in their integration, acceptance, and survival. Chinese restaurants have spread like wildfire, and Liu describes the process in which a foreign and feared upon cuisine became the success it is today. Reading this book gave me new perspectives by drawing…

    • 1432 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Some critical-conflict theorists believe that social problems arise from the major contradictions inherent in the capitalist economies. What part do guns play in a capitalist economy? This question can be answered in a few different ways, one way would be to look at the laws governing the sale and distribution of firearms. While another way, would be looking at the different companies that make the firearms. Though the role guns play in a capitalist economy can’t be defined just by the laws and manufacturers.…

    • 1459 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Film Review: The Global Assembly Line The World economy has experienced distinct phases over time, yet one of the most important and revolutionary systems has been capitalism. Capitalism can be defined as a socio-economic system motivated by profit and labor power, focused on the exploitation of the labor force. Beginning in the 19th century, competitive capitalism introduced the idea of reducing wage rates and different forms of production. Then came the era of organized capitalism, also known as Fordism, the era of mass production and introduction of assembly lines.…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Poverty vs Wealthy In this world poverty prevails around the world, and it’s the biggest issue that people are facing today. In the other hand there’s the wealthy that we could call the minority. The natural resources that our planet is giving us to survive are running out and everyday are less. Garrett Hardin illustrates in his article “Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping the Poor” that wealthy people or nations are the only ones that have access to those natural resources.…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Persuasive Essay The movie ‘The Guide: The Biologist of Gorongosa’ exhibits how the citizens of developing countries are affected by their environment. An important question that is posed through the movie is should these citizens of developing countries care about their environment or focus more on surviving and creating a better economy. I believe that the environment is more important than becoming more affluent. In order to build a better economy, we should focus on educating the denizens of the area.…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Dark Ages

    • 1561 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The process of globalization is the spread of business, ideas, beliefs, and cultures throughout the world which result in an increasingly connected world, but may also lead to the loss of culture. As an illustration, the McDonald's restaurants. These are restaurants which have spread throughout the world, although, they have had to accommodate to the diets of the countries in which they had established themselves in, they have taken the idea of the fast food industry throughout the world. The spread of ideas is a useful tool since it has the capacity to open other societies. Ideas formed from the corporation of different cultures and societies are able to encompass different perspectives.…

    • 1561 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Neil Smith’s The Production of Nature from Uneven Development: Nature, Capital and the Production of Space (1987) draws on the work of Karl Marx to explore how the structure of capitalism has affected society’s relationship with the natural world as factor of production. Smith argues that our conceptions about nature as being separate from society are what enable us to exploit it. In order to explain this concept Smith divides nature into first nature and second nature. First nature, being the pristine ideal that many identify as the natural world, and second nature, that which is the product of human labor and often identified as an object of society, even though its origins are from the earth. Our inability to protect natural areas that are…

    • 1218 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Today, many will agree that the world revolves around commerce, as the economy has been the main focal point of many thriving nations. Globally, the most common economic system is a mixed economy, which is a combination of a command and market economy. A command economy is focused on the central government. In a command economy, the government has control over the marketplace, and decides what is produced and sold. A market economy focuses on private business, and it allows for free trade and competition.…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay. – Oliver Goldsmith. This quote illustrates the shift in focus toward wealth, rather than well-being of the people and its direct relationship with the demise of natural world. In his article titled “Radical American Environmentalism”, Ramachandra Guha debates the ideology behind the spread of “deep ecology” in third world countries by the first world. “Deep ecology is a movement or a body of concepts that considers humans no more important than other species and that advocates a corresponding radical readjustment of the relationships between humans and nature.”…

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The market systems of present day are, for the most part, based upon some degree of capitalism. However, this was not always so. In previous societies, markets were heavily based upon societal factors; in fact, economies were an addition to the society, not a focus of society itself. This is where embedded and disembedded economies come into play. Disembedded economies, or capitalistic economies, are relatively new.…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    1.1 Objectives: After going through the chapter, you will be capable to: i. Understand the concept of Business Environment ii. Appreciate the significance of of Business Environment. iii. Define the nature of Business Environment iv. Delineate the various internal and external environmental factors affecting business.…

    • 1383 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Every major city is inhabited by all kinds of people. Nearly in every corner of this planet, there is demand for goods from all over the world. If your favorite kind of food is from a culture other than your own, then you too are unconsciously a part of globalization. The influence of other cultures is so engrained and present in all of our lives that we are almost numb to it. Your car can be Korean, your phone American, and even if you shop at a local supermarket, most of your groceries are from all over the country or world.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the 1960s and 1970s two schools of thought took prominence in sociocultural anthropology: development and underdevelopment theory, as well as, the world-systems theory; which, in combination with the key tenets of Marxism laid the foundation of a new critical perspective called anthropological political economy. A precursor to the modern form of “political economy”, referred to now as “classical” political economics, has been dated to the eighteenth century, this later divided into the academics disciplines: political science and economics. Originally designed by the enlightenment-era social theorists to explore the “origin and nature of, and relationships between, nation-states and their colonial holding around the world” (132), it…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays