This summary covers all the essential material from every lecture, along with the required readings and articles, and explanations of all theories and concepts you have to learn for the exam. Good luck!
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Lecture 1.................................................................................................................................................1
Literatuur 1.........................................................................................................................................4
Mintz on Sugar................................................................................................................................4
Ritzer 1............................................................................................................................................4
Lecture 2 – Cultures, globalization and convergence..............................................................................6
Literature 2.........................................................................................................................................9
Ritzer 2............................................................................................................................................9
Lechner & Boli..............................................................................................................................10
Enzerink........................................................................................................................................11
Lecture 3 - What happens when different cultures mix across the globe?...........................................11
Literature 3.......................................................................................................................................15
Maddox.........................................................................................................................................15
Ritzer 3..........................................................................................................................................16
Watson.........................................................................................................................................18
Lecture 4 - Understanding Globalization through colonial, anti-colonial, and Indigenous discourses. .19
Literature 4.......................................................................................................................................22
Razzack.........................................................................................................................................22
Goldberg.......................................................................................................................................23
Cesaire..........................................................................................................................................23
Questions in class.........................................................................................................................24
Lecture 5 - Globalizing Progressive Values and Manufacturing Global Enemies...................................25
Lecture 6 – contemporary movements: globalizing resistance to oppression, discrimination, and
violence................................................................................................................................................28
Lecture 1
This week’s learning goals
,1. Familiarity with & understanding of different definitions of globalization (lecture)
2. Ability to think critically about the start and historical development of globalization (lecture &
Mintz)
3. Ability to see globalization as a relational process (Mintz)
4. Ability to understand this process in terms of strongly patterned and highly unequal cross-border
flows of many different kinds (e.g. people, goods, ideas) which come into being when they are
transformed from ‘solid’ into ‘liquid’ (Ritzer)
Why a course on culture & globalization?
- Intricate part of everyday life
- Legacies of colonialism
- Related to rise of populism
- Debates about the role of the nation state
- ...
What is globalization?
1. “processes involving increasing liquidity and growing multidirectional flows as well as the
structures they encounter and create” (Ritzer). Flows can be of e.g. goods, services, people,
money, information, blueprints, technologies, social movements...
Globalization has everything to do with moving from fixed/solid things melting/moving into other
places. The essence is becoming liquid
Structures can ‘expedite’ flows… (globalization is a highly structured process) (capitalism is a structure
that makes financial flows possible > now you can send money over boundaries easily, but also the
capitalist logic of trying to reduce cost)
Structures can ‘expedite’ flows but can also block them. Such structures include:
- Nation states (border/border control/regulations/geopolitics/colonial histories)
- Regulations
- Capitalism
- Networks
- ...
Apart from structures, global flows are also patterned by e.g. distance, language, technology,
geopolitics, colonial conquests of the past
Some scholars are skeptical to what extent globalization really exists > the five most important
traders of the Netherlands, are the countries that are closest by > so it is actually highly local. We
seem to overextend globalization
What is globalization?
There is no one, single best definition. Instead, each definition allows you to see different aspects of
globalization processes.
1. Increasing cross-border flows of goods, services, people, money, information, culture (Ritzer
2009)
2. A long-term historical process of growing worldwide interconnectedness (Nederveen Pieterse,
1995) > we know things that happen almost instantly (e.g. due to internet)
3. The intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole (Robertson 1992)
4. World systems theory: the process, completed in the twentieth century, by which the capitalist
world-system spreads across the globe (Wallerstein 1974) > critical definition; it emphasizes
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, capitalism as a brutal violent force, leading to empires, leading to slave trade, as an important
source of globalization > they become interconnected by brutal force and domination that is
driven by capitalism (pursuing money and profit)
5. Neo-institutional theory: formation of world society, composed of nations, international
organizations, and populated by citizens with a distinct world culture (Lechner & Boli, 2005) > but
it is hard to imagine a world without nation states and without people who think of themselves
as people with right, desires, etc. The formation of all kinds of institutions with their own models,
conventions and norms, that make a world society.
6. Deterritorialization: cultural distancing from locality, e.g. because of migration, mediatization and
commodification (Appadurai 1990). > The process in which place starts to matter less, and people
are no longer tied to a specific place > related to migration; migrators are still able to cultivate
without being in the place where those cultures originated > culture is no longer fixed to a place
(sushi is eaten all over the world)
Depending on which definition you use, the starting point of globalization will vary
1. Increasing cross-border flows
2. Long-term historical process of growing worldwide interconnectedness: start of history
(homosapiens travelled across the globe)
3. Intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole, compression of space and time: 19th
century (the invention of the telegraph, newspapers, telephone, etc.)
4. World systems theory: 15th century (colonialism)
5. World polity theory: 19th century (institutionalism > formation of nation states, organisations,
antislavery movement as one of the first international social movements that were related to
eachother in different countries
6. Deterritorialization (can be located in different moments in history > diasporas)
There is no consensus on when globalization started, it depends on the definition of globalization you
take.
Ritzer’s types of flows (you need to be able to distinguish these definitions)
- Interconnected = If you have a flow of one thing (people), you will have a connected flow of
something else (goods or money). E.g. people who migrate send back money to the country they
are coming from.
- Multi-directional = the idea that globalization is often associated with Americanisation or
westernization is unidirectional, multidirectional is the opposite e.g. sushi
- Conflicting = while some structures are trying to move flows in one direction while others in the
opposite direction. When you think of terrorism and financing fighting that, you will have to send
money that way ??
- Reverse = the idea that sometimes a flow can work like a boomerang, it comes back to you. E.g.
Elon Musk was the first to get China to produce his cars, without any Chinese companies > but
now he is being passed by Chinese companies, making cars that look like the Tesla cars with
almost the same parts, but much cheaper. China was learning how to make the cars.
This week’s learning goals
- Familiarity with & understanding of different definitions of globalization (lecture)
- Ability to think critically about the start and historical development of globalization (lecture &
Mintz)
- Ability to see globalization as a relational process (Mintz)
3
, - Ability to understand this process in terms of strongly patterned and highly unequal cross-border
flows of many different kinds (e.g. people, goods, ideas) which come into being when they are
transformed from ‘solid’ into ‘liquid’ (Ritzer)
Literatuur 1
Mintz on Sugar
The article examines the rise of sugar as an everyday consumption product and its influence on
society, economy, and culture, particularly in Europe. Mintz begins by noting that food consumption
has always been of interest to anthropologists, especially when food processing techniques and
substances were outside the experience and eating habits of observers. He emphasizes the growing
interest of anthropologists in food and eating, especially in relation to its social significance.
The article focuses particularly on the emergence of sugar as a significant ingredient and
consumption product in Europe, especially after the so-called 'Age of Discovery' and European
expansion to other parts of the world. Mintz discusses the role of sugar as a new substance flooding
Europe, along with other crops like tea and coffee, and he explores how sugar slowly transitioned
from a luxury product to an everyday food. Mintz points out that sugar was not just a sweetener but
also served as a preservative, medicine, and even flavor enhancer. He traces the history of sugar
consumption in Europe, from its early days as primarily a luxury for the wealthy, to the point where it
became a commonplace product consumed by all classes. The article also examines the economic
and political forces behind the rise of the sugar trade, particularly the role of plantations and slavery
in its production. Mintz emphasizes the complex relationship between production and consumption,
and how the demand for sugar was fueled by economic factors such as growing urban populations
and the rise of the industrial revolution.
Mintz highlights changes in eating habits and the rise of industrially produced foods, particularly in
relation to sugar. He suggests that the emergence of factory production and the introduction of vast
quantities of new edible products coincided during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in
Britain. The relationship between these phenomena was complex and influenced by economic and
political forces. These changes in dietary patterns reflected the evolving availability of food and
changing social structures. Mintz examines how the production and consumption of sugar and other
foods were embedded in broader social changes, such as industrialization and changes in labor
structure. He notes that consumption habits were influenced by food availability, economic forces,
and imitation behavior among social classes. He also emphasizes the role of advertising and the rise
of a mass market for sweet foods.
He concludes by arguing that the significance of food cannot be understood solely by examining their
production and consumption, but also by looking at the broader political and economic context
within which these processes occur. He advocates for an approach to food studies that takes into
consideration the complex relationships between production, consumption, meaning, and societal
changes.
Ritzer 1
Globalization: transplanetary process(es) involving increasing liquidity and growing
multidirectional flows of people, objects, places, and information as well as the structures they
encounter and create that are barriers to, or expedite, those flows.
Transnationalism: processes that interconnect individuals and social group across specific geo-
political borders > more limited than globalization, because transnationalism is limited to
interconnections that cross geo-political borders, especially those associated with two, or more,
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