Culture in the Context of Globalization: A Sociological Interpretation

The world today is said to be a “global village”. However, this village is, rather than a culturally homogeneous community, a world of diverse cultures. In this globalized world, how different cultures interact with each other and with globalizing forces in general is crucial to their survival and to their reinvention. This essay is intended to provide a critical examination of various existing cultural phenomena, such as ethnocentrism (in forms of religious fundamentalism and cultural imperialism) and cultural relativism (multiculturalism, postcolonialism), from a sociological perspective. It will further attempt to theorize a possible mechanism of coexistence and symbiosis of different cultures in the context of globalization by relating the local to the global, the traditional to the post-traditional, the particular to the universal, and the cultural sphere to the social world.