Cultural Cultural IntegrationIntegration

Global migrationGlobal migration

• http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/Default.aspx

• http://www.gracenote.com/map/ Music being adopted worldwide NOW!

Cultural integration?Cultural integration?

• Is it true that major western cities and societies are looking more and more like the sort of cities that middle-class, white, plastic Americans want to live in?

• There is a pervading sense that major western cities are becoming very much the same.

Invisible Cities.Invisible Cities.

• Italo Calvino described a fictional city called Trude in his novel Invisible Cities. Calvino's character Marco Polo referred to how there increasingly seemed to be many Trude-like cities in the world.

• This was the first time I had come to Trude, but I already knew the hotel where I happened to be lodged; I had already heard and spoken my dialogues with buyers and sellers of hardware; I had ended other days identically, looking through the same goblets at the same swaying navels. Why come to Trude? I asked myself. And I already wanted to leave. "You can resume your flight whenever you like," they said to me, "but you will arrive at another Trude, absolutely the same, detail by detail ..." (Calvino, Invisible Cities, 1972:128).

• Do we have a world composed of Trudes? Is the culture of western cities homogeneous, uniform? Or increasingly homogeneous?

Are culture and economy becoming increasingly Are culture and economy becoming increasingly uniform across the globe?uniform across the globe?

• Cities increasingly seem to share compatible systems of commerce, identical leisure pursuits and cuisine, similar social relations, and uniform built environments. There is plenty of evidence of Trude-like convergence across the planet.

• Uniform ways of life: language; architectural styles; leisure; fashions; sports; etc

• Take for example the spread across the globe of US cultural products, such as Hollywood films, McDonald's cuisine and Coca-cola. The spread of such products helps explain why the beverages and entertainment in Trude-like cities had become so monotonously familiar to the traveller.

The process of cultural integration has come about and The process of cultural integration has come about and

accelerated in recent years due to a number of factors:accelerated in recent years due to a number of factors:

• Technological change (ease of long distance travel and recent developments in communications)

• The influence of TNCs• Global media networks• The expansion in world trade• International migration• Cultural imperialism (colonisation)

There are a variety of ways in which culture can be spread There are a variety of ways in which culture can be spread and be adopted or adapted around the globe.and be adopted or adapted around the globe.

• The media• Brand images • Food • Music• Religion• Sport• Fashion

Kabul, Afghanistan

DiffusionDiffusion• Diffusion is the spreading of mass

consumer culture

AdoptionAdoption• Adoption is the taking up of mass

consumer culture

AdaptationAdaptation• Adaptation is the adjusting of mass consumer

culture to suit new circumstances

Factors affecting cultural integrationFactors affecting cultural integration

• So what lies behind the spread of such products?

• Three key influences include:• technological developments

(communications)• commercial forces (TNCs)• international regulatory

environments (free trade)

• The rapid development of communications technologies, the aims and strategies of transnational corporations in the entertainment industries, and the international regulatory environment, have all contributed to cultural integration.

yourtv.com.au

• In recent years, due to sponsorships by large companies, especially globalised companies, and the role of media in particular new cable and satellite channels, the process has accelerated.

3. Brand images

http://www.nationalmotivationnetwork.com/day-in-the-life.php Life in the day of logos

• http://www.interbrand.com/best_global_brands.aspx?langid=1000

Romania

Abu Dhabi

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/03/middleeast.art the world in miniature

Brand Image Challenge

Racing the clock, come up with one international brand name for each letter of the alphabet

4. Sport

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7396348.stm Man United in Sierra Leone 2008

• http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2006/0609kofifootball.htm

• At the UN, How We Envy the World Cup - Kofi A. Annan

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVArC_klWEI

New Caledonia

•Bowl alternately

•Stumps together

•No bails

•Mostly women who

wear floral dresses

Samoa

•At least 16 a side

•Sing & dance when wicket taken

Vanauatu

•Bowl alternate ends

Match the team and sponsor Sports and Brand images/TNCs

A Casualty of the Financial Crisis: Sports Sponsorships• http://www.time.com/time/business/

article/0,8599,1841701,00.html?xid=rss-topstories Sept 2008

Commonwealth Countries

Cricket World Cup playing countries

Commonwealth Countries

Rugby Union World Cup playing countries

Commonwealth Countries

Rugby League World Cup playing countries

Commonwealth Countries

Netball World Cup playing countries

Commonwealth Countries

Hockey World Cup playing countries

Commonwealth Countries

(Women's) Rugby world cup

Commonwealth Countries

http://www.mapsofwar.com/ind/history-of-religion.html Spread of religions interactive map