Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy

Author: Arjun Appadurai

Key Concepts

Global Cultural Economy

• Described as complex, overlapping, disjunctive order.
• Not straightforward or linear; marked by differences and disjunctures.

Five Dimensions of Global Cultural Flow

• Ethnoscapes: Landscapes of people who constitute the shifting world.
  • Refers to tourists, immigrants, refugees, exiles, guest workers, etc.
• Technoscapes: Global configuration of technology.
  • Technology moves at high speeds across boundaries.
• Financescapes: Global flows of capital.
  • Complex fiscal and investment patterns.
• Mediascapes: Distribution of electronic capabilities to produce and disseminate information.
  • Large and complex repertoire of images and narratives.
• Ideoscapes: Ideologies of states and counter-ideologies.
  • Composed of elements of the Enlightenment worldview.

Disjunctures in Global Flows

• Different landscapes are not always congruent.
• Tensions and interactions between different scapes.
• Flow across these dimensions is not synchronized.

Implications for Culture

• Culture cannot be seen in isolation from global influences.
• Deterritorialization impacts cultural dynamics.
• Cultural homogenization vs. heterogenization.
  • Debate on whether global culture is becoming the same or more diverse.

Conclusion

• Global cultural landscape is marked by disjuncture and difference.
• Requires new frameworks to understand the interaction of these global flows.
• Calls for attention to the complexity and contradictions inherent in global cultural exchanges.