Language and identity policies in the 'glocal' age (review by Elisabet Vila-Borrellas) (original) (raw)
Contact between culturally distinct human groups in the contemporary ‘glocal’ -global and local- world is much greater than at any point in history. The challenge we face is the identification of the most convenient ways to organise the coexistence of different human language groups in order that we might promote their solidarity as members of the same culturally developed biological species. Processes of economic and political integration currently in motion are seeing increasing numbers of people seeking to become polyglots. Thus, English is establishing itself as the usual world supra-language, although it coexists with other lingua francas that are widely used in certain parts of the globe. All this communicative reorganization of the human species may very well pose new problems and aggravate existing tensions as regards language and identity. It would seem that these processes comprise at least four major conceptual dimensions which must be taken into account above all else, a...
Glocalization: a critical introduction
European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 2016
As Victor Roudometof immediately points out, glocalisation is an undertheorised concept: strictly speaking, there is no theory or school of theories on glocalisation, as such, in the literature. This is quite amazing, particularly given the popularity of the term and its large diffusion in different social, economic, and political spheres, as well as in academic discourse. Surprisingly, to date there is no book in circulation that specifically discusses this concept. Consequently, Glocalization: A critical introduction is a welcome novelty, which fills this gap. However, while there is no attempt to distinctly theorise glocalisation on its own terms, this does not mean that there are no relevant interpretations, whereby theorists have sought to creatively engage with it. Nevertheless, what is needed (and where the author greatly succeeds) is to add glocalisation to the social-scientific vocabulary, as an analytically autonomous concept, and not as a mere appendage to globalisation, cosmopolitanisation, or theories of global diffusion. One of the main strengths of Glocalization: A critical introduction is that it explores and clarifies the varied literature circulating around the term 'glocalisation', which has many different and contrasting, and (sometimes even) conflicting concepts or meanings. As a matter of fact, the author states that the trilogy of global, local, and glocal are in need of unambiguous sound definitions from theoretical and methodological perspectives. Roudometof's book is structured into two parts. The first is devoted to a history and critical assessment of the theoretical use of the term, glocalisation. It then offers an alternative perspective and a clear, effective, and applicable definition, explaining the limitations of the term globalisation and the value of defining glocalisation. The second part of the book illustrates how the concept of glocalisation can be used to broaden our understanding and analysis of a wide range of issues in world politics, including the twenty-first-century culture of consumption, transnationalism, cosmopolitanism, nationalism, and religious traditions. Roudometof usefully clarifies the different interpretations of the term 'glocalisation' and its development. In particular, he devotes special attention to the three authors who, more than any others, have devoted deep reflection on processes of glocalisation: Roland Robertson, George Ritzer, and Ulrich Beck. Robertson (1992) was the first person who introduced the concept of 'glocalisation' into social and scientific discourse. From that moment, he refined the idea in order to respond to those who criticised him (e.g. Radhakrishnan, 2010; Ritzer, 2003). While accepting some of their criticism, in his monist perspective, Robertson (2013) states that today, only the glocal exists (we are neither global nor local any more). The glocal is the outcome of the historically long struggle between the
Some Remarks Concerning the Concept of Glocalization
The present study is aimed to scan the explanatory relevance of the concept of glocalization in some seminal works of George Ritzer. In the first instance, we will try to relate the manner in which Ritzer understands glocalization to the uses of other authors or other related concepts of the cultural globalization theory (hybridization, creolization, scapes). On this occasion, we will reveal the (partially "hidden") cultural and philosophical assumptions, underlying Ritzer's use of this concept: the understanding of the individual, mainly seen as a rational agent, as well as the positive value attributed to the postmodern type of cultural mixture. We will further argue that, despite its intentions, the manner in which Ritzer defines glocalization is in fact very close to a homogenized conception of globalization. In addition, we will show that Ritzer eludes the explanatory dimension of glocalization (much less the critical one), in favor of a descriptive stance, excessively used. We will give also a critical analysis of the way in which Ritzer attempts to enrich the explanatory quality of glocalization by linking it with a new concept that he elaborated, the grobalization. In the end, we would like to connect Ritzer's concept of glocalization with a social/sociological model exposed by the French sociologist Alain Touraine, hoping to better clarify the mentioned problems.
Theorizing glocalization: Three interpretations 1
European Journal of Social Theory, 2016
This article presents three interpretations of glocalization in social-scientific literature as a means of reframing the terms of scholarly engagement with the concept. Although glocalization is relatively under-theorized, two key interpretations of the concept have been developed by Roland Robertson and George Ritzer. Through a critical and comparative overview, the article offers an assessment of the advances and weaknesses of each perspective. Both demonstrate awareness regarding the differences between globalization and glocalization, but this awareness is far from explicit. Both interpretations fail to draw a consistent analytical distinction between the two concepts and ultimately succumb to reductionism: either glocalization is subsumed under globalization or globalization is transformed into glocalization. Next, a third interpretation of glocalization as an analytically autonomous concept is presented. Working definitions of glocalization and of glocality as analytically autonomous from globalization and globality are developed and examples are offered. By addressing the key themes of power and temporality, this third interpretation transcends the limits of the other two interpretations.
Language in Glocal Cultural Context
International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development, 2019
The Paper tries to unveil the vital actions and counteractions of language and culture upon each other. A language neither can originate nor live without the culture. Language and culture, thus, are inseparable. Language rolls on the concrete passage of time encountering many alike and opposite processes like a culture, de-cultures and re-culture and gathers moss. Particularly, in postcolonial context [Odia] language encounters some radical changes and reaps new products with respect to words, morphology, prefixes, suffixes and many more things. In post colonial context, we encounter a special kind of language called 'hybrid language' or 'glocal language'. The paper emphasizes the dimensions of language change with a global perspective as well as with local perspectives.
The Glocal Between the Local and the Global
Springer eBooks, 2022
The Glocal Between the Local and the Global Glocalism is a process of norm diffusion from the local to the global and from the global to the local. It is the generic idea illustrating how, for example, ICT and the global economy have been shaping our modern way of life since the 1990s. For Viktor Roudometof, the glocal and glocalism cannot yet theoretically explain or justify why we are better off in a glocalized world rather than in a national territorial state (2016). Whereas we understand through the global economy and thus globalization, the transfer and exchange of goods and knowledge around the globe, the dynamic of the local-global economy changes the picture. The new glocal economy is not only a green economy but also recycling processes of hardware as well as the sharing economy, i.e., sharing cars, industrial goods, etc. Many of the new local economy ideas are exchanged via the Internet and makes them accessible for consumers globally. Start-ups and small enterprises share ideas and tips between Bolivia and Kyrgyzstan which have otherwise little in common. There are no language or otherwise physical borders on the Internet, thanks to automated translation programs, which makes this new local economy a glocal one. Guilherme et al. (2019) have investigated how and to what extent our language and communication have been glocalized over the past centuries, turning every local language in some mix of glocal language with English terms. The phenomenon of adapting words from other languages into one's own is not new, but the speed by which it happened over the past decades is breathtaking. With a harmonized glocal language, communication becomes faster and easier, and many other aspects are connected to it. World economy becomes more glocal, too, and even the concept of capitalism is at stake, because in the local-global shared economy, the benefit for individuals and economic growth of societies are measured differently. Enterprises often no longer pay any taxes to national authorities, if their company is spread in locations around the globe. The trend toward a glocal economy is inevitable, also due to the growth of the world population and its density. Apart from share economy, today goods can be developed in one country, and manufactured in another or 3D-printed locally-or recycled for that matter, yet in another country. State authorities have little control over where trade and goods go during the production and consumer cycle.
The Linguodiversity Crisis in the 'Glocal' Age: Factors, Processes, and Policies
THE LINGUODIVERSITY CRISIS IN THE ‘GLOCAL’ AGE: FACTORS, PROCESSES AND POLICIES Throughout human history, language varieties have disappeared in an ongoing process that is likely to have accelerated in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, a period in which major economic, technological, political and demographic changes have had a negative impact at the linguistic level. Knowing how to take appropriate action to halt current processes of language shift requires developing an accurate understanding of the causes and intergenerational dynamics at work. Sociolinguistic experience in the Catalan-speaking territories, focused on understanding the processes of language shift and the political actions taken to reverse them, can provide us with theoretical models inspired by the perspectives of eco-socio-cognitive complexity, potentially of great use in addressing other similar processes. From this point of view, a comprehensive grasp of the phenomena of language permanence and abandon...
Globalization and Glocalization
Globalization became the buzz-word of our era. Interestingly, it is stated only seldom that globalization involves numerous local impacts. Indeed, particular manifestations of global processes can be contemplated in concrete localities and polarity between the global and the local is not accurate. The main objective of this article is to discuss the socioeconomic nexuses between global processes and localities. Taking into account contemporary socioeconomic developments, we are increasingly entitled to talk about the process of glocalization that involves both global and local aspects. Global and local represent two sides of the same coin and the nature of contemporary spatio-temporal processes may be better understood by recognizing and analyzing socioeconomic aspects of glocalization.