Does Globalization Render People More Ethnocentric? Globalization and People's Views on Cultures

Abstract

Introduction In recent years, world has gone through a number of drastic changes. As our lives go through significant transformation, term has become extremely popular as a concept describing various phenomena in world. However, despite a large number of studies on globalization, no agreement exists regarding real impacts of globalization (Guillen 2001). While some scholars emphasize positive impacts of globalization (Bhagwati 2004; Wolf 2004), others warn of its potential danger (Kim et al. 2000; Rodrik 1997). Clearly, one of most controversial issues regarding globalization is its impacts on cultures (see Holton 2000; Wimmer 2001). Some scholars claim that globalization tends to destroy diversity of local cultures, emphasizing strong forces of American and Western influences (Schiller 1976; Van Elteren 2003). Since globalization creates a similar culture around world, this perspective is called homogenization thesis (see Holton 2000). However, other scholars present different views on cultural globalization. They argue that cultural globalization can lead to hybridization (Hannerz 1992, 1996; Tomlinson 1999) or polarization (Barber 1995; Huntington 1993, 1996) among different cultures (see Holton 2000). These different perspectives predict divergent outlooks of cultures in era of globalization. As these debates represent, we have not fully understood relationship between globalization and cultures around world. One of most serious shortcomings of these previous studies is that they have not paid enough attention to individuals' attitudes toward cultures. Because most of these studies focus on a small number of cases, they fail to draw a widely applicable conclusion (see King, Keohane, and Verba 1994). Therefore, purpose of this study is to systematically analyze relationship between globalization and cultures. More specifically, this study explores how globalization affects at a cultural dimension, since notion of ethnocentrism is highly useful in examining people's cultural attitudes (see Sumner 1906). I address this research question by adopting Pew Global Attitudes Project of 2002 and 2007. Also, one of innovative approaches in this study is that I employ KOF index of globalization (Dreher 2006; Dreher, Gaston, and Martens 2008). The multilevel analyses relying on these datasets find that social and economic dimensions of globalization reduce individuals' tendency toward ethnocentrism. Consequently, this study advances our understanding of relationship between globalization and people's cultural attitudes. In this study, I address research question by taking several steps. First, I review key studies exploring relationship between globalization and cultures. Second, after explaining notion of ethnocentrism, I present testable hypotheses regarding how globalization can influence ethnocentrism. Third, I describe data and measurement strategy of variables that are used in statistical analyses. Fourth, I conduct multilevel analyses by relying on hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). I also report findings from statistical analyses. Finally, I conclude this study by discussing implications from statistical analyses. Dissecting mechanisms through which globalization affects ethnocentrism, this study makes an important contribution to literature of globalization. Globalization and Cultures As term becomes more and more popular, numerous studies have been conducted on impacts of globalization. The popularity of term reflects its critical importance in a rapidly changing world. Mittelman (1996: 2) suggests that globalization is deeply related with various issues including the spatial reorganization of production, interpenetration of industries across borders, spread of financial markets, diffusion of identical consumer goods to distant countries, massive transfers of population within South as well as from South and East to West, resultant conflicts between immigrant and established communities in formerly tight-knit neighborhoods, and an emerging world-wide preference for democracy. …