Cultural, political & environmental change.
The crisis in the US mortgage markets sent shock waves hurtling around the world and culminated in the Northern Rock debacle. How can an economic meltdown triggered by defaulting mortgages thousands of miles away affect an established building society in the UK? This is globalisation laid bare: spiralling house prices in the US making an impact across the global economy. We are living in what Dr James Martin, author of The Meaning of the 21st Century calls, “an interconnected world.”
It is not just the economic health of a nation that is feeling the impact of the far-reaching tentacles of globalisation. The world is increasingly interdependent, weaving a web of mutually interchanging resources. Cultural imperialism has made its mark in corporate interaction and multinational corporations are irrevocably divorced from the notion of ‘local’. The more successful the business, the bigger and more identifiable it is across the entire expanse of the world from London to Hong Kong. It has to be a global brand, a superbrand. It has to be a brand people aspire to be associated with.
From McDonalds to Coca Cola to the Beckhams, the brand is a testament to modernity, a modernity that has long been defined by the West. Efficiency, progress and the correct way of doing things became synonymous with British banks and Japanese car manufacturers soon after globalisation was born. Now multinational corporations utilise a common language and universal set of systems, a ‘blueprint’ in their approach to the day-to-day running of a company. Nurturing and protecting the brand is key.
The strength of the brand cuts across cultures. When a UK bank outsourced their call centres to India, they created an Indian work-force so meticulously trained in the language of Britishness the employees would have passed any citizenship test with flying colours. Young, educated and ambitious middle-class Indians populating the competitive metropolis of Mumbai or New Delhi strive to win a sought-after position at a call-centre and endure the rigorous training regime consisting of name-changing, endless re-runs of Eastenders, premiership football trivia and lessons in the art of exchanging banalities about the weather.
This re-defining of identity takes the notion of work superceding life to the extreme and has alarmed some who feel Indian call centre workers are programmed to lead a double life. It is rarely possible to prevent work life seeping into personal life and some reports claim social and family relationships have been adversely affected as workers become ‘westernised’. The call centre was labelled a den of iniquity by the Indian Catholic church. Bangalore’s Archbishop Bernard Moras, claimed the combination of mostly single young operatives enjoying higher than average wages and working long hours, often late into the night, in an American-style environment that encourages socialising and bonding, leads to promiscuity and drinking.
More worryingly, Indian call-centre workers are feeling the effects of the abuse they regularly receive from British or American callers impatient with their accents. Counselling has been received by many workers, and large numbers have quit, unprepared for the hostility to which they are subjected.Western cultural imperialism is a by-product of globalisation, but perhaps not for much longer. New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman heralds a new era with his theory of the flattening world, explored in his latest book, The World is Flat: ‘Globalisation is going to be more and more driven not only by individuals but also by a non-Western group of individuals. Individuals from every corner of the flat world are being empowered.
Globalisation makes it possible for so many more people to plug in and play.’ Dr James Martin also queries Western ascension, “Ten years from now China, India and huge parts of South East Asia will be as economically strong as the rich countries of the West. Hollywood is an example of Western imperialism but with the changing cost of film-making and marketing technology it will be challenged.”
With the explosion of information accessed by people via the Internet, perhaps we are beginning to see a levelling out of the playing field. The faceless brands of multi-national Western corporations are on shaky ground. Big business could lose the monopoly on influence as a new generation of individualists and non-Western businesses make their mark on the cultural and corporate practices of the future. Diversity is the future, as Dr Martin explains. “A global culture characterised by intellectual, social and ethnic diversity is the healthiest outlook we can hope for. Nature thrives on diversity, indeed is dependant upon that and in the same way, we need to encourage cultural diversity to safeguard the future of our planet.”
Words Samia Raham
