Week 13

 

     In the readings for this week, we touch once again on the duality of globalization. Starting with the chapter about India and IT workforce, the author challenges the term global and the way globalization is transforming what this means. Many people think that globalization is just an economic process, but according to the author, it can also means changes, individually and in a whole community. If before a "global person" meant someone that could communicate and work with different nations, today this became a way of life, especially in the workforce. Companies in all the world are going for a "global" thinking, where its employees will be efficient and use their identity, but in a "global mode", adapting to the global world. Then, the NPR listening goes along with this idea, that globalization is a connection, that makes easier to collaborate within countries and find ideas. In a way I thought about good collaborations like APT from Bruno Mars and Rosé that blends American Pop with Korean Pop and became super famous, but it also opens the way for cultural appropriations like Ariana Grande in her "black" era, which the internet joke about her "Blackiana". In this listening we see an optimistic vision of globalization, a process that brings possibilities and jobs, but it makes the point that cultures have to adapt to this global business, just like the chapter 59. This can create more distance than connections, especially among different social levels. This connects back to the idea that people in India are looking more global, similar to the world, and different from people on their own country that are from different backgrounds. Then, the NYT closes the argument showing that although we urge for a global world with sharing and collaborating, globalization now is looking more like clash of cultures and division. Globalization does not benefit all, and it show the cleavage between classes even more. With more cultures we find more differences and we can embrace and accept or negate and distance from them. At the end, globalization can connect, but we have to think about who is connecting and if this connection is creating more of the same.