A WORLD OF IDEAS AND GLOBAL

POPULATION AND MOBILITY

(SUMMARY)

Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and
governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and
aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on
political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-
being in societies around the world.
This lively and accessible book argues for the central role of media in understanding
globalization. Indeed, Jack Lule convincingly shows that globalization could not have occurred
without media. From earliest times, humans have used media to explore, settle, and globalize
their world. In our day, media have made the world progressively "smaller" as nations and
cultures come into increasing contact. Decades ago Marshall McLuhan prophesied that media
technology would transform the world into a "global village." Slowly, fitfully, his vision is being
fulfilled. The global village, however, is not the blissful utopia that McLuhan predicted. Nor, in a
more modern formulation, is the world flat, with playing fields levelled and opportunities for all.
Instead, Lule argues, globalization and media are combining to create a divided world of gated
communities and ghettos, borders and boundaries, suffering and surfeit, beauty and decay. By
breaking down the economic, cultural, and political impact of media, and through a rich set of
case studies from around the globe, the author describes a global village of Babel-invoking the
biblical town punished for its vanity by seeing its citizens scattered, its language confounded,
and its destiny shaped by strife. In globalization music, I examine the tense relationship between
belonging and recognition that occurs as two young composers try to situate their musical
identities between the urge to contest the hegemony of Western art music and the desire to be
part of and recognized within this musical tradition. I draw on their participation as finalists in an
international composition competition to examine how issues of identity, postcoloniality, and
belonging, on the one hand, and of musical authorship, subjectivity, and agency, on the other
hand, are woven into the highly ritualized processes of evaluation and recognition in
contemporary Western art music. When it comes to religion and globalization, it highlights the
particular significance of some themes that have shaped the field’s evolution. These include: the
inter-disciplinary nature and institutional frameworks of the study of religion, the challenges of
Orientalism, Euro centrism and parochialism for the evolution of the field, and the failures
secularization theory. The above have contributed to the emergence of globalization as a distinct
problematic in the field of religion. The basic propositions and ideas concerning the relationship
between religion and globalization are reviewed, with special emphasis on globalization’s
geographical dimension and its connections with transnational religion and migration. Emergent
themes for future research on religion and globalization are also presented. These include: the
revitalization of the history and religion relationship, the emergence of the problematic on
culture and religion, and the consolidation of global-local or glocal religion. Lastly, Religion has
always been global, in the sense that religious communities and traditions have always
maintained permeable boundaries. They have moved, shifted, and interacted with one another
around the globe. This book deals with three kinds of religious globalization: Diasporas,
transnational religion, and the religion of plural societies. It explores the variations of
Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other religious traditions, and how these
traditions are shaped by their changing cultural contexts in various parts of the world. Scholars
who are close to the religious communities they study describe how these communities have
changed over time, how they have responded to the plural cultural contexts around them, and
how they are shaped by the current forces of globalization and social change. The result is a
series of essays that not only give an up-to-date insight into the diversity contained within the
world's great religions but also provides a broad view of global religion in a new millennium.