WHAT IS CULTURAL HOMOGENIZATION? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The cultural homogenisation is a process in which a dominant culture invades and captures a local culture, returning to the homogeneous society. Generally, the countries of the same continent have homogeneous cultures.

For example, Spain has a culture similar to Portugal and France; Peru has a culture similar to Bolivia, Ecuador and other Latin American countries. However, geographically distant countries, such as the United States and Japan, have different cultures, although less and less thanks to globalization.

Homogenization is also understood as a process that involves the exchange of elements and the mixing of different cultures to spread into one.

His term goes hand in hand with cultural globalization, which refers to the changes that a society undergoes in its lifestyle to adapt to new customs, traditions, economic and religious models and even artistic expressions.

This phenomenon of globalization has generated discomfort in certain cultures that have been affected by the loss of their identity, taking into account that powerful cultures can impose on them their model or pattern of life before society.

Technology and communication in cultural homogenization

The media and technology play an extremely important role in this process. Thanks to the connection that can be achieved today, this allows different societies to interconnect with each other, being able to create links or unity between them.

Technological advances are so powerful that they connect people from one continent to another, potentially facilitating the sharing of ideologies, trends, news, ideas and more.

The business world has taken the reins of this tool to enhance its public relations and, of course, advertise so overwhelming that they manage (in some cases) to dominate part of the world.

Companies focused on communication, information and technology are no longer projected in a national sphere, but rather include a transnational one, which crosses borders, which investigates different cultures, operating through a multimedia system that allows them to address monopolies with high global influence..

The communication media combined with new technologies are an effective machine not only for economic reproduction, but also to establish or impose a planetary culture that is consolidated in a society where technology is the center of attention.

Powerful companies or governments can directly influence the transformation of a culture, imposing an idea through symbols or events. This concept is called "McDonalization" of the world.

McDonalization

The phenomenon of cultural homogenization that directly encompasses the economic part of nations is also known as capitalist culture or "colonization of coca." The latter refers to the impact of the Coca-Cola brand in the world.

McDonalds, the popular fast food chain, has managed to expand to the most unusual places in the world, its hamburger being the same in any continent.

For this reason, when speaking of Macdonalization, it refers to how the brand has intruded into different cultures, being able to change a representative dish of an ethnic group for hamburgers with potatoes.

But on the other hand, despite the strong appeal that McDonald's represents for adults and children, there are countries in which this establishment has had to incorporate traditional meals and desserts from the area into its menu.

Some indigenous cultures have tried to resist this process, but on the other hand, experts indicate that cultural homogenization is not unidirectional, but rather tries to unify different elements or mix different cultures so that homogenization stops referring to the diffusion of a unitary culture.

Mcdonalization is seen as a model to follow, established as "Mcdonalization of education", which proposes opening new educational institutes in different countries in order to promote the values, integrity and interests of the countries in which they are established..

This is a process of cultural homogenization that is intended to become a unique and universal culture.

The economy in cultural homogenization

The economy is an elemental piece for the growth or development of a society, and evidently, it has the power to generate changes as far as the level of consumption is concerned.

Many companies use communication mechanisms such as digital marketing, television, movies, advertising and any other medium that generates traffic or feedback with the great masses in order to sell or promote their products or services.

Multinational organizations or companies have formed alliances and have created strategic plans to form true private emporiums and with it the expansion of globalization.

The most powerful countries incentivize the undeveloped ones to seek more sustainable economic practices.

Some peoples have found it necessary to change their economic mechanisms and have had to face new challenges for their productions, and thus obtain sources of income in the market, such as tourist exploitation to highlight their territories and their traditional wealth abroad.

This shows the character of the cultural homogenization that is exercised between peoples or communities.

The inclution

Today, citizens are in constant search of elements to live in a better way, live in democracy and under human, civil and political rights that protect them, in addition to cultural rights, recognition and social inclusion, leaving aside the discrimination.

In such a way that, cultural homogenization, takes on a more social and human meaning, which seeks to reduce cultural differences between individuals or citizens from different parts of the world, to achieve a level of social equity or equality.

The goal is to reduce cultural diversity, which could work as a breaking down of barriers or ending the differences that exist in the world.

Cultural homogenization encompasses the lifestyle, trends in clothing, food, entertainment, music or the changes that various expressions of cultures have undergone, such as traditions, dances, crafts, among others.

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References

1. Callum Martin. Cultural Homogenization. (2013). Source: e-ir.info.
2. Daniele Conversi. Nation, state and culture. (2012). Source: ehu.eus.
3. George Ritzer. The social mcdonalization. (2013). Source: mundiario.com.
4. Javier Eloy Martínez. The McDonald's: homogenization and sociability. Source: ugr.es.
5. A. Bojórquez and M. Montalvo. Cultural homogenization. (2014). Source: atravesdelviaje.wordpress.com.
6. Francesc Torralba. Cultural homogenization. (2007). Source: forumlibertas.com.