In our time today we are constantly exposed to an array of different cultures. Despite geographical constraints, we are somehow able to experience what other countries listen to, eat, read, and watch, without travelling there. This integration is made possible by the new developments of the media and the internet to facilitate this movement of culture, otherwise known as a cultural flow. (A perfect example would be Gangnam Style, a korean pop song that has gone viral on youtube and reached fame across the globe).
As I quickly explained the workings of cultural flows to my sister, I was cut short by her
bursting into a rant of her day. At first it was seemingly irrelevant to the concept, however by the end I was surprised to find that it was highly insightful.
**
In the morning she goes to a café in the city and orders poached eggs
on toast, while her friend orders a croissant. While having breakfast, her
friend (sitting opposite her) introduces an amazing Korean Pop song on her HTC
One. As the day moves on they begin shopping around Melbourne, where they are
exposed or enter stores such as Zara, Superdry, Apple and so on. Ending the day
they grab a coffee from Starbucks and take the train back, where they are
confronted by a number of conversations in a number of languages.
From having a French influenced breakfast, to the sharing of a Korean song, jumping to different international brands and cultural languages, we can see how cultural flows are so effortlessly interweaved into her day. It was then that I realized that with no effort at all,
cultural flows are making such a seamless integration into the daily rituals of our lives. Ultimately we are a part of something bigger than our initial
identity, we are a part of this circulation of culture that ties the nations of
the world together. This unification of the world is
globalisation, and in reference to Thomposn (Rantanen 2005, p.7) is “the growing
interconnectedness of different parts of the world, a process which gives rise
to complex forms of interaction and interdependency”. This was also realized by Appadurai and alternatively termed as
“Deterritorialisation”
(Rockafeller, 2011), which according to Deleuze and Guattari is the
phenomenon in which we immerse ourselves so fully in “flows”, that our sense of
who we are cannot be associated with one place anymore (Rockafeller 2011, p. 563). As we cannot
identify ourselves with just one place, we capture this interdependency
Thompson defines globalization with.
We are now if you will, French,
Korean, Japanese, American and an endless list of other nations in our world.
_________
Psy - Gangnam Style, video, YG Entertainment, 15th July, date retrieved: 28th July 2013, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0>
Rantanen, T 2005, "Theorizing Media Globalization", The Media and Globalization, Sage Publications, p. 7
Rockefeller, S 2011, "Flow", Current Anthropology, vol. 52, no. 4, p. 560-563
