Topic 2: Convergence and Divergence

From the beginning of globalization people wondered what effect it would cause on
society.

Would these changes bring the world

together?

first globalization wave

Answer: globalization would bring homogeneity and convergence across the

world.
Criticism: deplorable for those who valued their languages, cultures, traditions (threat of english
as universal language); at a level of consumption (American threat of adopting their culture,
food, music, cinema)

Second globalization wave

Social scientist—Is this prediction

right?
Is homogenization taking place and convergence? Are people just imitating one model and
adapting it to their country? Homogenization was not taking place as much as predicted.

Third globalization wave

Real consequences of globalization? On how we behave and how policies are develop or how
we consume?

Emergence of new forms of production, consumption, that are rather new, combining old and
new, but no convergence. Globalization is promoting Hybridization ( Global or foreign meets
and mixes with indigenous (GLOCALIZATION) Convergence )

2 major theories:

McDonalization of society: developed by Ritzer (US).

Critical of convergence and homogenization, but thought still that globalization breeds
competition, it forces producers of goods and services to develop optimal and efficient ways to
beat their competition. Models, ways of producing or delivering emerge and are soon to be
imitated by others. Optimal way of doing things. Globalization ⇒ intensified competition ⇒
Convergence toward optimum and most efficient ways. McDonalds as an example, as
McDonalds had pushed this rationalizing, that they became a model everybody was imitating,
not only in the world of hamburgers, but also chicken, coffee, food, etc.

McDonaldization implies a search for maximum efficiency in increasingly numerous and

diverse social settings. Efficiency means choosing the optimum means to a given end

In a McDonaldized society, people rarely search for the best means to an end on their
own. Rather, they rely on the optimum means that have been previously discovered and
institutionalized in a variety of social settings. Thus, the best means may be part of a technology,
written into an organization’s rules and regulations, or taught to employees during the process of
occupational socialization. It would be inefficient if people always had to discover for
themselves the optimum means to ends....

What was happening in rest of industries? Similar forces

applying. Ex:
In tourism: Mass tourism became a phenomenon, packages were created, and defined a
standardized model for companies to offer. Shopping Malls: all shops concentrated in one place,
easier to purchase.
Assumption: there is an efficiency optimum, in order for competition to bring convergence to
optimal and efficiency.

World Society Theory : 2nd Alternative theory that predicted

convergence By Meyer

Predicted homogenization and convergence but by a different mechanism, globalization does not
fuel competition, but more importantly it motivates proliferation of International
Organizations/Institutions. ( IOs, IGOs, NGOs, civil societies associations, etc) which are key for
convergence.

Globalization⇒ Proliferation of international and transnational organizations. Proliferation of Int

Orgs, led to think of what ideas, legislation or acts they promoted. Within this IOs people talk,
debate, present, share new ways of doing things, and CONSENSUS arrives which brings
WORLD SCRIPTS; World Scripts (i.e. beliefs about how the world works; prescriptions about
how to do things) People take the new ideas, and shares them and introduce them in the
organization of our lives, and contribute to homogenization.
Causal effect of World scripts: facilitate by the fact the the world is carved into a homogeneous
set of national states. The World Script operates in a world of similar nations, with similar
mechanisms, and structures (there are differences of course) but most states operate similar in
structure. World organized around a standardized container.

Many features of the contemporary nation-state derive from worldwide models constructed and
propagated through global cultural and associational processes. These models and the purposes
they reflect (e.g., equality, socioeconomic progress, human development) are highly rationalized,
articulated, and often surprisingly consensual.

After this first stage, studies conducted to see if homogenization was really taking place,
contrary to the early predictions the world was not becoming more similar in many ways.

Homogenization: The Survival of the Fittest and The End of History

(Fukuyama)

ex:The decline in diversity is manifest in the extension of the fast-food

model to all sorts of ethnic foods. People are hard-pressed to find an
authentically different meal in an ethnic fast-food chain. The food has been
rationalized and compromised so that it is acceptable to the tastes of
virtually all diners. Paradoxically, while fast-food restaurants have permitted
far more people to experience ethnic food, the food that they eat has lost
many of its distinguishing characteristics. The settings are also all modeled
after McDonald’s in one way or another.
Globalization⇒ Competition⇒ Survival of the fittest (Force/Power more than Efficiency
Optimum)

Example: Competition between two systems—capitalism/Communism. The Fall of the Berlin

wall and the triumph of neoliberalist capitalism.

Critiques of the homogenization Thesis:

1st theory: Critique of the Efficiency Optimum Assumption ( Guillem) ESP there is no
efficient optimum, because what is optimum for each good or service depends on the context, ex:
countries, cultures, strengths, weaknesses. Guillen agrees that globalization increases
competition, but competition motivates actors into borrowing selectively from the global
environment to get a more efficient use of their local environment. A Local optimal to
differentiate themselves from their local competitors, and that actors that simply imitate are
bound to fail. There is an incentive to “ be different”, to pursue locally independent optimum, as
there are structural, cultural and determinant differences.

Ex. Automobile industry; ARG fail, ESP, Korea, Taiwan success, due to their advantages and
strengths adapted to their countries and resources.

2nd Theory : Critique of determinist understanding of the diffusion of World Society

Scripts ( Wimmer, Meyer and Rowan)

Scripts are broad and general, so the international setting tends to bring Consensus, so in order to
get consensus, actors tend to find a common denominator, which makes facts rather general so
that actors agree in the international arena. Different World Scripts can contradict each
other( heterogeneity) ex: neoliberal prescriptions and human rights (child labor)Different
countries emphasize one script or another ⇒ Heterogeneity ex: contradiction between religious
scripts and economically-inspired scripts ⇒ Heterogeneity

Often there is resistance to scripts, legislation, etc. The picture is complicated and one should not
expect convergence. Because they are broad and general, scripts can be implemented differently:
E.g. Different understanding of Democratic Governance in Russia or US; Formal adoption of
scripts but lack of actual implementation (e.g. R&D or Social Responsibility Divisions in Firms).

ex: National self-determination Mexico, Chiapas, 19th century in modernization, initial

resistance to direct rule and reorganization of land, they succeeded by sending officials that
bargained with local people and communities. Locals lost the land, but were able to preserve
local cultures and the land to fest and celebrate only.
edn of 2000s, there are forces that pushes actors to convergence, but also there are other that
push them to divergence.

Hybridization/Glocalization instead of Convergence or Permanent

Difference

The ways in which forms become separated from existing practices and recombine with new
forms in new practices. (Neverdeen Pieterse)

Hybrid Forms: mix elements borrowed from elsewhere and combines them with national ones.
What is distinctive is that global models meet resistance when they try to implement it in a
wrong concept, and that can lead to the emergence of mixed or hybrid forms. It all depends in
how institutions implement and preserve cultures or traditions. Everyday culture is not strongly
institutionalized, but there are no legal codes that mandate everyday orders. Authors predict
more convergence or homogenization where institutions are not as formal. There are many
World Scripts prescriptions that are not accepted worldwide, due to matters of religion, culture,
traditions, society, believes, etc.

Assumptions:

1. Competition as just one motivational force (other motivations: value priorities, ways of seeing
the world; resource constraints, different capabilities)

2. Scepticism over the omnipotence of Global actors and scripts (Broad and Polysemic scripts;
Coercion is rare)
3. Emphasis on the agency of local actors (e.g. resistance to world scripts, selective
borrowing)

Analytical Framework: Global Actors and Global Scripts meet Autonomous local Actors and
Scripts

Expectations: Homogenization greater in the realm of everyday culture and consumption than in
the realms of core norms and beliefs, because the latter are more institutionalized.

Concepts:

Isomorphism: “Similarities between countries that are the product of reaction to a common set of
conditions”

Glocalization: “The simultaneity and the interpretation of the global and the local” → Local
traditions are carefully produced in interaction with global forces. Many aspects of global culture
depend upon cultural heterogeneity.