Spaces&Exchanges: in which mesures does globalization means uniformisation?

English Oral: Notion Espaces et échanges.

        One of our Geography theme this year is Globalisation. Indeed half of our work in Geography this year was based on this subject. As a 12th grade student, I think it may mean that it is an important one. We defined globalisation as a process of international integration, arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture. This process created many links between countries, that did not exist before. In our lesson, we also talked about globalisation’s limits. One of the critic addressed to globalisation, is that it uniformise our lifestyles, our customs, our culture.

        And this debate led me to my key-question: in which mesure does globalisation means uniformisation? Indeed, and that is what I will firstly talk about, there are many exemples of habits we have, that can make us agree to the fact that with globalisation, a great part of the world’s population uniformises its way of living. But at the very same time, is not globalisation compensating this flaw ? That will be my second part.

        Let’s just think about daily life. People do not have phones: they have iphones. People do not have computer, they have a mac. People do not eat burgers: they eat Big Macs. When I think about how globalisation could mean uniformisation, those are the first images I have in mind. And how could we argue that it is not true? I do not find anything, because for me it is a fact. Some would argue that these type of brands are making « culturally adapted products », depending on the continent/country where they’re sold, and that therefore they’re not uniformising the world. I do not agree with them. Another thing that now takes a great place in the life of many people all around the world, linked with globalisation, is English. Indeed, English is the language of business is it not? More and more people are living in cities, eating and drinking the same things, learning or talking the same language, buying the same products: how could it not impact our personal values and our own culture? Now I am wondering if this is new, or if before, by before, I mean before the Twentieth Century, the same trend of uniformisation was already being seen? I know for a fact that French was the language used in diplomacy, a kind of ‘today’s english’ but not as much shared as english now. But I do not think that we ate the same food, neither bought the same objects in every continent. I’m not saying that before was better, but it was for sure different.

        But at the very same time, can’t we say that before globalisation really made a big step forward (after WW2 and during the cold war I think), most of the people had not any opportunity of discovering other culture, the only way they could live was like their parents and grand-parents did, with very small differences? And therefore globalisation could mean to offer opportunities, to more and more people, to discover another way of living than the one coming from where they are coming from. The opportunity to discover. To learn. Who in Europe could imagine learning Japanese a century ago? Even learning a foreign language was something almost no one thought about, excepting a country’s elites. What about today, we have the opportunity to learn one, two, three, four five different languages, even more in a life-time. In that way we can see globalisation as a process which allowed and helped many people to know other and new things, to expand their experience and to become open-minded, which allows people from very different original backgrounds to live together and learn from one and another.

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