Consuming Globalization, Local Identities, and Common Experiences

Despite the effects of extreme nationalism that continue to plague global politics, globalization is the omnipresent condition or set of forces which undergird contemporary social relations. One notable effect of globalization is the compression of what is understood as distance and time as a result of market forces, cyberspace, and air travel. Quite simply more and more of us are easily and quickly connected to cultures and peoples around the globe through high-speed travel and cyber-technology. Consequently, those cultures that already have a dominant presence internationally are having an increasingly greater and more immediate global impact, including homogenisation of curriculum, especially with respect to science and technology, and the ubiquity of English as the global language of education. Global circulation of Western1 values and beliefs through communication technology and economic and market forces has become a focal point for social and political theory as well as government and citizen agitation (Bauman, 1999; Brown, Renner & Halweil, 2000; Falk, 2000). Concern exists about the loss of complex “indigenous” models