1.

Globalization, Global Media and Homogenization

of Global Culture: Implications for Islam and
Muslims
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264390005_Globalization_Global_Media_and_Homogenization_of_Global_C
ulture_Implications_for_Islam_and_Muslims

Lambe Kayode Mustapha

Saodah Wok

2.

Globalization and Homogenization of Culture: Taking a Closer

Look at Fast-Food Restaurants

https://quote.ucsd.edu/comm100c/2014/12/16/globalization-and-homogenization-of-culture-taking-a-closer-look-at-
fast-food-restaurants/

3.

Globalization and indigenous cultures:

Homogenization or differentiation?
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240415146_Globalization_and_indigenous_cultures_Homogenization_or_dif
ferentiation

 Dharm Bhawuk

4.

Economic Globalization: An Episode in Cultural Homogenization?

Hossen M. Anwar

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f8a2/fdbfb9e05884124d1b58e775d3c889efe45d.pdf

5.

Globalisation and Homogenisation of Culture: The Role of Mass Medias in Developing Countries

Nahavandi Firouzeh
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9abf/939f144af16106fa27f23880b2d9cc96fd81.pdf

6.

Globalization and Culture: The Three H Scenarios

Abderrahman Hassi and Giovanna Storti

http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/38348/InTechGlobalization_and_culture_the_three_h_scenarios.pdf
Globalization and Homogenization of Culture: Taking a Closer
Look at Fast-Food Restaurants
Does globalization mean the extinction of cultural diversity? Many would argue that we are witnessing the rise of an “increasingly
homogenized popular culture” heavily influenced by the Western world—ideals, values, and culture (Steger, 75). In chapter 6
of Worlds Apart: Modernity through the prism of the local titled “Learning to be local in Belize: global systems of common
difference,” Richard Wilk makes the argument that “replication of diversity can produce homogeneity” (111). For instance, American
sociologist George Ritzer contends that fast-food restaurants are not only dominating “more and more sectors of American society”
but also those all around the world—which is also known as ‘McDonalidization’ (76). As fast-food industries worldwide begin to
adapt the same health standards (or lack thereof) of stores like McDonalds, health becomes a central concern for consumers globally.
In Julien Cayla and Giana Eckhardt’s Asian Brands and the Shaping of a Transnational Imagined Community, they point out that
people become united through common brand experience rather than national belonging (220). Further, this leads to a deeper shared
experience of globalization. The more people consume and interact in the same name brand culture, they begin to feel connected
despite the distance. Although people are far apart, there is a sense of a global community founded on sameness through global brand
cultures rather than cultural diversity. However convincing the argument of the world inevitably being completely homogenized into
one whole global village, this view is too deterministic. There are some definite limitations to this view.
Are fast-food restaurants really identical all across the world? In order to have a clear picture of how fast-food chains are worldwide, it
is important to have a situated view on the ground. Steger says, it is one thing to “acknowledge the existence of powerful
homogenizing tendencies in the world, but it is quite another to assert that the cultural diversity existing on our planet is destined to
vanish” (77). By looking at the different food items on menus around fast-food restaurants, we see that many styles of food have been
appropriated—“the borrowing and changing the meanings of commodities, cultural products…by putting them into new contexts”—
rather than made in the exact same manner (Sturken & Cartwright 2001). The following are some examples of food items that are only
found on fast-food menus in particular countries:

1.) The ‘Black Ninja’ Burger —Burger King in Japan

2.) ‘Shrimp Nuggets’ — KFC in Singapore

3.) Dry Pork and Seaweed Donut— Dunkin’ Donuts in China

…AND last but not least, the “Lamb Burger” at McDonald’s in Australia
Mc Donald’s BBQ Lamb Burger – An Australia Day Burger

All in all, globalization does mean sameness but it also still means difference. Although the world does have strong homogenizing
tendencies, that does not mean the ultimate extinction to the diverse “cultural rainbow” as we know it (Steger, 75). Finally, it is
important to consider that the idea of complete homogenization assumes there is only a one-way flow from the West to the rest of the
world. Also, it fails to recognize that people have agency and control over our actions. We are not all just passive shoppers or designer
in the marketplace. Meanings and values are negotiated, not just absorbed. Overall, there is a complex interaction of homogenizing
global tendencies in tension with cultural diversity. One does not necessarily mean the end of another. As Frank Sinatra sings in Love
& Marriage, “You can’t have one without the other.”

Click here for more photos of “Fast Food Around the World”: http://www.businessinsider.com/fast-food-from-around-the-world-
2014-4

Works Cited:

Cayla, Julien and Giana M. Eckhardt, 2008. “Asian Brands and the Shaping of aTransnational Imagined Community,” Journal of
Consumer Research, 35: 216‐230.
Steger, Manfred B. 2013. “Globalization: A contested concept,” Pp. 1-16 in Globalization: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford.
Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.
Wilk, Richard R. 1995. “Learning to Be Local in Belize: Global Structures of Common Difference,” pp 110-33 in Worlds Apart,
Daniel Miller, ed. London: Rutledge.