To what extent has globalisation impacted upon local identities Essay

To what extent has globalisation impacted upon local identities Illustrate your argument with an original example - Essay Example It is the picture perfect integrated transfer of goods and people across the globe. It is the opening up of a country’s economy to the rest of the world and become a part of the global economy. It is the opening up of a country to foreign investment. It is the easy access of a country’s citizens to the rest of the world to travel for business and retreat. Globalization is based on the speculation that countries are not perfect in the manufacture of all goods, every country has some faults therefore it would be best if countries traded globally with each other and export their best products to a country which does not have a good quality of that product. For example, if a country is good at manufacturing something, it would be best for the company to export that good to a country which is not as efficient in the production of that good. Similarly, the latter country could export a particular good at whose manufacture they excel at and export it to the former country if i t lacks the manufacturing excellence of that product. It is a win-win situation for all the countries involved. Globalization also pertains to the subscription and application of the rules and procedures set by the World Trade Organization or WTO. WTO looks over the transactions between two trading countries. Globalization is a phenomenon that has gained speed and there won’t be an end to it, and it would benefit the countries greatly who are a part of it (Ritzer G., 2010). As globalization is a global phenomenon, it has affected every aspect of life and every element that is a part of the economy. It has greatly changed the style of living of people throughout the world. Those changes are both negative and positive. Since globalization is access to goods from around the globe, local manufacturers are in the constant fear that they would be out of business because people have easy access to imported goods and that the local manufacturers become less viable. For example, a far mer who lived off by selling his local products made at his small piece of land or the some area allotted to him by the landlord would be put out of place if the same product from a foreign manufacturer is available at a cheaper or a relatively cheaper price. Globalization not only replaces local products with foreign ones and allows easy access to foreign products; it also exposes international cultures to the rest of the world through music, art, literature, movies and poetry etc. This exposure to foreign cultures is a cause of constantly bringing about changes in the local culture, values and traditions. Although there is no general agreement on the affects of globalization on local identities, the general opinion is that exposure to foreign culture upon local identities will minimize the effect of the local identities and they might fade out (Anon 2013). The effect globalization had on the local identities is mostly taken into consideration as negative. Globalization has commonl y been represented as the obliteration of the local identities and culture. It can be correlated with the overpowering strength of some foreign cultures which can easily overshadow other cultures with their own. At the outburst of globalization, western consumer culture started to spread at an alarming speed. Critics are of the opinion that even if globalization has led to an increase and improvement in the material aspects of life, it certainly has diminished the cultural and spiritual aspects and they fear if this