Cultural Imperialism And Cultural Globalization

Over the past century, the pace of globalization has accelerated considerably. While globalization is certainly not unique to this period of increased growth, the establishment of a “worldwide network of fast cables and telegraph systems, in tandem with developments in railways and steamships, eroded some of the obstacles of geography and made it easier to organize transcontinental business” (Winseck and Pike, p.1). In this context, debate has emerged amongst scholars as to the consequences of this increased global integration, particularly concerning whether globalization has only served to extend and maintain pre-existing power imbalances rooted in colonial history or has been a benevolent force of cultural, political and economic hybridisation. …show more content…
The role of media industries has been central to this debate, with proponents of the cultural imperialism thesis maintaining that globalization will homogenize culture all over the world, leaving little room for local resistance, and the cultural globalization approach, centering on audience reception, resistance to globalization, and the cultural hybridization that increased international interaction entails (Banerjee; Mirrlees). In this paper, I aim to open up a space in between these two perspectives that I will refer to as ‘institutional imperialism’, which involves the unilateral export of institutional, economic, and political practices from more economically, politically, and culturally powerful countries to those that are less so and where inequality is far more significant. It is similar to David Harvey’s () notion of ‘capitalist imperialism’, which is a kind of ‘accumulation by dispossession’ that draws countries into the nexus of global capitalism and offers little in