🌍

Disjuncture in Global Cultural Economy

Nov 30, 2024

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.