Keywords

1 Introduction

Globalization and local identity are two indivisible words. Globalization is an apparent phenomenon in today’s life that impacts on our total socioeconomic, cultural, psychological, and ecological trajectories. On the other hand, local identity is such feeling of belong that a human being perceives or possess in his/her own culture. There is a crucial debate whether globalization thrives or deteriorates local identity. The people who see globalization as a positive process think globalization gives plenty of opportunities, where people become much more concerned about the uniqueness and particularity of their own identity. This identity provides the global significance where a person can rather extend his/her indigenous knowledge and sense of self-identity. On the other hand, those who see globalization as a negative process think it saturates cultural boundaries that intensify the Western ideologies and values across the world. Kaul (2012) found that globalization creates crises through its encouragement of conflicts rather than conciliation, through opportunities of expression and cross-border alliances.

There is a wide range of literature about the positive and negative aspects of globalization. Sharma and Sharma (2010) mention a mixed opinion about the impacts of globalization. They said that globalization opens new vistas and broadens horizons for an increasing number of people from diverse origins. They added that globalization promotes the intercommunication of cultures that helps people to have a greater understanding and universal norms with larger diversity on their local experiences and traditions. On the other hand, globalization increases individualism and consumerism, expands and exploits material desires, and finally creates identity dislocations and a collective relative deprivation in a large section of people. In this regard, Bhavsar and Bhugra (2008) argued that the negative impacts have direct transformation and its spread and degree of influence are not restricted to economic sphere but also have intense on the sociocultural and psychological spheres that response of individuals, communities, cultures, and governments to such consequences.

Globalization creates huge diversity that may have some positive impacts, but its negative consequence is large particularly in the developing economies. It is seen that the flow of diversity slowly diminished local culture and identity. Naz et al. (2012) and Lowe and Lloyd (1998) argued that globalization wrecked cultural identities, established localities, and displaced people like a flood tide does. Another dimension of this globalization debate is in the cultural realm, and its ever-expanding form generates cultural imperialism (Dorman 2000). In this regard, Inglehart (2000) and Nash (2001) found globalization as post-modernization where the Western values turn into a dominant issue even if these must manoeuvre within a global cultural context. Bottomore and Goode (1984) viewed that the expansion of global popular culture industries fastens in homogenized subjectivities that definitely conflicts with traditional cultures and local identities.

2 Conceptual Framework: Globalization and Local Identity in the Developing Economies

This paper covers three main concepts, e.g. globalization, local identity, and developing economies. The concept ‘globalization’ is a complex issue. It permeates cultural boundaries and in the process results in the spread of Western ideologies and values across the world (Kaul 2012). It offers many possible meanings, which depend on ideology, context, perspective, and location. It is a hotly disputed and contested issue (Carnoy et al. 1999). Harcourt (undated) notes that some global advocates, such as Ohmae (1990, 1995), write enthusiastically about the ‘borderless world’ and ‘the end of the nation state’ (in Islam 2016). In economics, globalization means ‘free trade’. In this aspect, Eslake (2000) argues that many specialized commercial venture has been created from globalization from the dawn of human civilization. The literature published by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) highlights globalization as a process of money transformation. For example, Harcourt (undated) argues that there are mainly four dimensions in which globalization appears to human society: trade, investment, organizational change, and ‘new economy’ technology. The dependency and Marxist approaches have emphasized the inequalities as inherent in the global expansion of capitalism. In sociology and cultural studies, globalization refers to human networks of influential interaction which are measured and explained by many factors, including migration, trade, empire, technology, and the spread of languages and disparate cultural elements. From the political point of view, Ramsaran and Price (2003) state that the processes of globalization can be seen within state and global institutions. Mittelman (2000) argues that globalization means a historical transformation in the economy, of livelihoods and modes of existence; in politics, a loss in the degree of control exercised locally; and in culture, a devaluation of a collectivity’s achievements. Globalization is emerging as a political response to the expansion of market power. [It] is a domain of knowledge. However, globalization is not easily understood for its multidimensional nature, asymmetric impact, and complexity. Islam (2009, 2016) found four main dimensions of globalization such as economic globalization, formation of world opinion, democratization (transition to a more democratic political regime), and political globalization. Change in one of these dimensions (such as economic globalization) elicits changes among other dimensions.

The concept ‘identity’ has been originated from many complex and interrelated interactions of human qualities that give a distinct/unique position of human being (Erickson and Roberts 1997). Rummens (1993) stated that local identity is a unique character belonging to any given individual or shared by all members of a particular social category or group. Vukić (2012) observed that local identity is a social and intellectual construct associated both with local cultural values and global influences. This local identity mostly related with cultural identity. Horowitz (2000) stated that cultural identity is a part of a group that provides one’s belonging to a group in a particular geographical surface where people stake common individualities like many social components such as language, religion, culture, and other behaviours. Cultural identity is an individual’s sense of self derived from formal or informal membership in groups that transmit and inculcate knowledge, beliefs, values, attitudes, traditions, and ways of life (Kaul 2012). The process of identity formation is extremely complex and varies depending on time and space. Identities can be overlapping and individuals may have several identities. For example, Jönsson (2010) observed that the Southeast Asia encompasses people from the urban middle class in Singapore as well as rural ethnic minorities in Laos, and state identity does not necessarily equal individual identity. Another example is that the ASEAN attempts to shape a ‘common regional identity’ which is not exclusively clear, and it was not possible to achieve so far. Within this gamut, we can see that solidarity and cooperation have been materialized as two keywords in these open societies (Jones and Kierzkowski 2004). Jones and Kierzkowski consider identity as a social system that is compared as organic system. This system eventually produces the basis of living environment of human beings such as values, rules, beliefs, and practices. Livesey (2004) found an upfront association between cultural identity and social identity where people live with those individual and social relationships. This chapter considers local identity as unique and distinct characters of individual, group, race, community, or nation which gives them structural and cultural values, beliefs, and sense of self cultural uniqueness.

The central objective of this paper is closely related with the social identity theory (SIT) that has huge implications on cultural globalization and local identity. The SIT is a social psychological model that was first proposed in the latter part of the twentieth century. With an example of workplace environment, this model argues that people want to identify themselves as a social being first, and then they feel proud to identify themselves with this distinct identity in diverse kinds of group through a psychosocial interaction with people at working environment (Haslam 2001; Carr 2006). This interaction is peoples’ self-importance through social and intergroup comparison, namely, by achieving collective differentiation from other groups (out-groups). However, it is clearly evident that the outcome of such interaction has both differentiations in one hand and cultural integration on the other. The SIT argues that this twin relationship applies equally at both minority and majority groups that generate its own sense of identity in an ever-changing and interconnecting social world.

3 Study Argument and Rationale

The main objective of this study was to explore some interrelated and interconnected concerns of cultural globalization that dismayed local identity in the developing economies. In the line of this objective, the central argument of this study is that though there are many other issues which dismayed local identity, cultural globalization is likely more influential than others which shields strong components of human lives such as local knowledge, beliefs, values, attitudes, traditions, and social system. We have seen from the introduction section that local identity is such an entity of human being which is considered as a sensitive object to every human being. This entity entails/shapes people in such a way where they found themselves mentally safe, secure, distinct, and socially cohesive. Cultural globalization that is product of Westernization overturns these mental and social roots particularly in the developing economies, where people are economically vulnerable in terms of low income and socially susceptible in terms of illiteracy, low education, and lower level of modernization. This study provides a number of examples from the developing economies and critically analyses how cultural globalization is a threat to local identity.

4 Methodology

4.1 Research Approach and Method

This study presented findings through a qualitative exploration. A qualitative interpretive meta-synthesis (QIMS) (Aguirre and Bolton 2013; Islam 2016; Islam et al. 2018; Ruiz and Praetorius 2016; Chowdhury et al. 2018; Reza et al. 2018) was conducted to analyse the current literature on cultural globalization and its consequences on local identity.

4.2 Research Design

QIMS is a phenomenological and qualitative traditional approach that engrossed the impacts of cultural globalization on local identity following the studies of Islam and Hossain (2014); Islam and Mungai (2016); Ruiz and Praetorius (2016); Islam (2016); Chowdhury et al. (2018); and Reza et al. (2018).

4.3 Criteria

Studies were qualified for insertion if these studies (1) employed ‘cultural globalization, (2) contained a qualitative research design, (3) were published in English, and (4) were published in journals listed in either Thomson Reuters or Scopus. All other studies were disqualified for this study.

4.4 Process of Searching Documents, Sampling Criteria, and Narrowing the Sample

This study used two search engines such as Web of Science and Scopus by using four keywords, e.g. globalization, cultural globalization, local identity, and identity crisis. The study recorded 17 years’ (2001–2017) published literature such as journal article, books, book chapters, conference papers, etc. based on ‘title’ from both of these sources on the selected keywords. The Web of Science recorded 16,684 literatures on globalization, 79 on cultural globalization, 121 on local identity, and 339 on identity crisis (Table 1). On the other hand, the Scopus recorded 16,644 literatures on globalization, 390 on cultural globalization, 1183 on local identity, and 1123 on identity crisis (Table 2) which are quite higher than the numbers of the Web of Science. From the numbers of publications in the Web of Science last 17 years, there is no significant variation though the number is increased in the Scopus. This trend was upward in all keywords except ‘globalization’, which decreased after 2013. It is found that the number of literature in the Web of Science is low on the three keywords such as cultural globalization, local identity, and identity crisis. None of the publication was found on the keyword ‘cultural globalization on local identity in the developing economies’. To consider the shortages of the publications, we also considered some relevant research reports and Internet sources to conduct this study. Finally, we considered 42 documents for review. A significant number of these are cited in the reference section.

Table 1 Web of Science cited publications between 2001 and 2017
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Table 2 Scopus cited publications between 2001 and 2017
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4.5 Data Analysis: Theme Extraction and Synthesis

We tried to conserve the integrity of the selected publications for data analysis so that the originality of each publication is maintained. We also used the synonyms of the words in order to avoid the plagiarism of those publications, but in many cases we kept the similar words/concepts which carry significant meanings. We identified the common factors as themes, collected across studies, and pooled to form a synergistic understanding from distinct categories. We maintained the accuracy and reliability and validity throughout the process of theme extraction.

5 Review Findings: Globalization Is a Threat to Local Identity in the Developing Economies

There is vast number of literature which revealed mixed opinions about the impacts of cultural globalization on local identity. Some documents mentioned this as significant means for ascertaining universal unity and democracy. Many of them mentioned that this kind of globalization offers global people to live in the ‘global village’. There is another collection of literature that strongly disagrees and affirms that cultural globalization has destroyed national as well as local identity.

Overall, the literature gives number of upsetting notions about the threats of cultural globalization on local identity in the developing economies. Through reviewing the literature, this chapter finds the following threats. Cultural globalization:

  • Is a big threat to traditional values and indigenous identity

  • Becomes synonym of ‘danger’ to developing economies

  • Destroys artistic heritage

  • Loses ‘self’

  • Creates lack of space of local culture

  • Creates gaps into cultural ‘in-betweenness’

  • Is a new risk of ancient cultures

  • Creates identity crisis

  • Has no root or connection with the national identity

  • Imposes to treat all cultures in one manner

  • Attempts to learn diverse cultures in a heterogeneous manner

  • Creates conflicts between ‘globalism’ and ‘localism’ and so on

In the line of many other issues, it is remarkably observed that many of the indigenous cultures and practices from the South are being replaced by the Western cultures (Muzaffar 2002). Kaul (2012) argues that this process creates some form of ultra-values and beliefs that have no root or link to its original national identity. This gives a certain level of confusion/paradox between the Western and local cultures, where local identity crisis is extremely high. Allen and Skelton (2005) argued that the present form of the Western cultural globalization is not an ultimate production of our ongoing human accomplishments and practices, and people are not impartially aided from this so-called cultural diversities; rather people are losing their control and local identity, and they are living with a certain level of cultural dominance. Castells (1996) argues that this kind of cultural globalization rather gives some kinds of sense on their identity, which is radical or unorthodox with respect to their own cultures. Morley (2000) argued that identity cannot be a universal concept, rather it geneses such a way where people can meet and interconnect themselves within their real social and cultural experience, and globalization surely extinguishes such uniqueness of these social relationships.

Köchler (1986) stated that though globalization is considered as an ideological tool, it controls this tool in the hands of industrialized world, and its rheostat power inflicts domination to the rest of the world. This is more dangerous that the whole world is shifting into a single place, single culture, and single identity through globalization. This process is creating such a global cultural surface where one’s own culture is obliterating and reshaping to a global culture, and everybody is bound to conceive such culture with many obstructions and hegemony. This kind of materialization creates religious conflict and decays artefact prettiness of the country. Dalby (2007) found this as impassive as it roots out the folk art forms from their religious ritualistic nature. Naz et al. (2012) argued that globalization has brought cultural pluralism, which creates cultural conflict among the locally defined cultural traits, and these traits are defusing from the Western culture. Marshall (2005) stated that although globalization has been called an integrating force, cultural conflict has become the most rampant form of international violence that globalization has accelerated. He observed 36 violent conflicts raging around the world in 2003; the Iraq invasion was the sole international war. He added that the remaining 35 were internal wars within the territory of 28 countries, and all but four of these were communal conflicts, inspired by ethnic, sectarian, or religious grievances. The influence of geopolitical organizations, those larger than nation-states, is on the rise. According to Scott’s (1997) observation, their development entails a mix of de- and reregulation, as well as attempts to build political bodies, civil societies, and cultural identities at a level higher than that of the nation-state. Therefore, the continued evolution of these organizations carries political, cultural, and social ramifications that go beyond predictions made by globalization theory.

On the other hand, globalization and local identity are the forms of interaction which emerges as a cultural conflict. A number of studies highlighted this issue in such a way that clearly proves that globalization is a threat to local identity. For example, Bird and Fang (2009) mentioned that globalization brings debate in the nature and meaning of ‘local’. Most of the analyses of globalization conceived ‘local’ as a part of the whole ‘global’. This kind of statements gives a certain level of contradictions that local is a part of whole and how it is called global. It is rather mostly observed that such kind of attitude creates contradictions between conventional globalization theory and cultural imperialism or colonialism. This is agreed that globalization means import and export of cultures. However, it is noticeable that people of a country can be changed easily through a geographical contact or through the Internet and the interaction of cultural beliefs across global communities. Bhugra and Mastrogianni (2004) called this processes as ‘acculturation’, ‘assimilation’, ‘deculturation’, or ‘biculturation’. Coldwell-Harris and Aycicegi (2006) mentioned that a noticeable change is that the process of globalization is rapidly fostering individualism in collectivistic societies. Salzman (2001) argued that most of the people cannot cope with the processes that Bhugra and Mastrogianni mentioned. As a result, culture is often considered as a coping resource that offers anxiety-buffering self-esteem. However, most people will see them as ‘losers’ that increased anxiety and social distress.

Alfasi and Fenster (2005) observed the local status about the impacts of global orientations on different cities in the world. They found that the impact of these cites was not exclusively economic rather to religion, culture, heritage, landscape, or other qualities of uniqueness. They argued that crises of national identity have become shared challenge for both the developing and the developed world. On the other hand, globalization also constitutes the reason for the revival of local cultural identities in different parts of the world. In this connection, Zhuojun and Hualing (2014) found that the national identity in the era of globalization takes on the dual character of undermining and reconstructing and weakening and strengthening. We would believe that cultural as well as economic globalization most commonly abates many developing countries’ state’s sovereignty.

Cultural globalization increased the level of control of the developed economies over developing economies. The consequence of this process is increased dependency on global development frameworks in the developing economies. In many cases, the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are facing many challenges in the developing economies to implement these so-called global development interventions, and these have been proved unacceptable and unsuccessful. Many local people in the developing economies are struggling to cope with these global development interventions (Islam 2017a). People also feel lack of development ownership, and they cannot participate with those development interventions due to lack of their understanding about the development meanings (Islam 2014a, b). A number of authors such as Islam and Morgan (2012), Islam (2014a, b, 2017a, b), and Tembo (2004) found that the beneficiaries of the NGOs are facing lack of development freedom, and the beneficiaries are development ownership due to lose their ‘self’ and lack of space. We present two quotations from two studies that showed how the Smith communities were facing such kind of crisis in Bangladesh:

In many cases, we found that NGOs’ participation initiatives were not fully successful. By reviewing NGOs’ development policies and activities, we concluded that many development concepts and frameworks were imported from the Western countries. We observed that in some cases, the imported knowledge tools were successful and in many cases, the smiths failed to grasp these tools. If we look at the NGOs’ two divergent development constructs (indigenous versus imported knowledge approaches), we can apprehend that it is really very difficult to understand this imported knowledge approach that the NGOs are using in community development interventions. In terms of the type, nature, mode, explanation, data creation, communication and learning, and knowledge management, the imported knowledge approaches were found harder to them to grasp when compared to indigenous knowledge. (Islam 2017a)

The research found that development ownership is one of the concerns in the external aid-based funding projects. This concern has been more commonly expressed in the language of the needs and wishes of the recipient country. The use of the language of empowerment, participation, negotiation, partnership, consultation, capacity building and rights has, therefore, only become fashionable. Within the actor oriented development approach, various players are working with the poor, promoting similar institutional frameworks, and using a common language. Should non-governmental (development) organizations be moulded into the fashion or should they support the poor in shaping the system into one, which delivers poverty reduction goals effectively? Similarly, the research found that the major issue was that the poor people were struggling for space to exercise their images of reality, rather than simply being voices at the negotiation. (Islam 2017b)

A number of literatures cover three important aspects where globalization creates identity crisis in the developing economies. First, it is highly acknowledged that globalization accelerates economic growth through market economic system, but there are many destructive impacts of globalization that modestly obfuscate our lives, and eventually the totality of this process hits on our local identity (Zhuojun and Hualing 2014). Secondly, due to globalization, the accumulation of capital flow has been concentrated to a small number of industrialists. Such economic development increases income disparities, rural-urban gaps, and problem of redistribution of the social resources. It is remarkably observed that the whole process generates a new interest group who either takes control or power of the resources or who creates social inequality in the developing economies. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (2000), globalization serves to amplify the level of inequality between nations. In this connection, Robert and Lajtha (2002) investigated the impact of globalization in industrial sector. They mentioned that the multinational companies take advantage, e.g. cheap labour that is obtained from the developing countries. These companies normally provide poor working conditions and do little to upgrade the knowledge of their workers. Consequently, the workers are not in a position to improve their social welfare. Thirdly, globalization intensifies corruption among different groups that has now a big challenge to the developing economies. As a result, many of the development interventions are not functioning properly. Islam and Morgan (2012) examined that the poor people have no access to the local market in order to sale their products as all of the markets are being dominating by the syndicate, where local people feel powerless.

In the era of globalization, there is lack of regionalism and regional integration. A number of authors such as Kinnvall and Jönsson (2002), Howes (1996), Morley (2000), and Ritzer (2008) examined that many of the developing countries in Southeast Asia are facing threats to the local identity, e.g. regional identity, cultural identity, ethnic identity, etc., due to globalization. We can insert two observations from Kaul (2012) and Babran (2008), who showed how globalization is loosening local culture and its impacts on media:

Even though cultural argument against globalization is unacceptable, we should recognize that deep within it lies an unquestionable truth. This century, the world in which we will live will be less picturesque and imbued with less local colour than the one we left behind. The festivals, attire, customs, ceremonies, rites, and beliefs that in the past gave humanity its folkloric and ethnological variety are progressively disappearing or confining themselves to minority sectors, while the bulk of society abandons them and adopts others more suited to the reality of our time. (Kaul 2012)

One of the prominent tasks of the media in the globalization process has been its pursuit in developing a single cultural world. The culture sponsored by the western media is a culture, which dictates to the society what to eat, what to wear, how to live, what to think and what to know. This enormous chain of global communication institutions and its allies in the camp of capitalism have transformed the majority of ordinary people into obedient consumers, without identity or ability to command their destiny. (Babran 2008)

This chapter agrees that the impacts of cultural globalization on local identity are diverse and vivid based on the local socioeconomic and political contexts. Recently, the authors of this chapter (Islam et al. 2018) conducted a detailed study on the impacts of globalization on local identity between Southeast Asia and Latin America. This study looked at some issues such as how local, global, and glocal interventions are shaping and what are the efforts that comprise integration of multi-ethnicity, national identity-building, and regionalization that can integrate through globalization. The study identified the negative and positive impacts of globalization on local identity between these two developing regions. With diverse aspects, this study unfolded that the negative impacts of globalization massively destroy the local culture, traditions, habits, and social norms which are big threats to local identity in both regions. The study acknowledged that though in both regions globalization in terms of their development is not measured in large scale, the overall findings proved that globalization rooted out local identity. We can insert three quotations from this study:

Like other countries, globalization has wide impacts in the ASEAN countries. It is said that many countries of the ASEAN region failed to take advantages from globalization. However, it is a problem of their identity crisis. It is because, due to poverty, low literacy rate, low level of infrastructure, and nondemocratic political administration, many countries such as Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia and even in Indonesia and Malaysia could not take full advantages from globalization that the countries such as Brunei and Singapore achieved. The cultural diffusion, low level of coping strategies, drug addiction, traffic jam, rural urban migration, overcrowd at urban areas, climate change and disasters are common problems in the Southeast Asian countries due to globalization. However, the onset of globalization had not only brought the economic and social benefits, but also heightened the security threat to states and societies. Through the use of the Internet, the pervasive and regressive religious ideology of Islamic radicalism is spread out to the masses. In the late 1990s, unrest and social violence in Indonesia was partially attributed to the Islamic radicalism taking root among the masses, and partly because of a greater awareness of concurrent events happening elsewhere in the world. Terrorism, insurgencies, and militancy have replaced large scale interstate wars to become the foremost security threat in the world today.

Due to globalization, the Latin American countries’ language diversity has increased over time. This is not the time that the Brazilians speak in Portuguese and the rest speak in Spanish. The cultural diversity is very vibrant. In terms of culture, Latin America is categorized by a wide range of vibrant topics that together demonstrate the character, personality and the creativity of the civilization(s). This culture is the combination of high culture (literature, high art) and unpopular culture (music, folk art and dance) as well as religion and other customary practices. The dances such as samba or salsa and the talents of promising actors and actresses such as Gael García Bernal and Salma Hayek, have added new dimension to its identity. The typical foods, beverages, and cooking styles common to many of the countries and cultures in Latin have come from a great variety of sources.

The negative impacts of globalization in the case of Brazil were mentioned as threat on local traditions and culture, local food, carnival, cosmopolitan values, gay and lesbian culture, and indigenous occupations such as blacksmiths, wood makers, local small farming, and so on. On the other hand, the country Chile is facing a number of other social problems such as mass poverty, gap between rich and poor, wage gap, cultural attack, privatization of education, political imperialism (monopoly), high tax, elite privileges, brain drain, mixed culture, poor people’s lack of access to public services, deterioration of human values and ethics.

6 Discussion

Based on a qualitative interpretive meta-synthesis (QIMS), this study reviews literature on cultural globalization and local identity in the developing economies. The main objective of this study was to justify whether globalization is a threat to local identity. There are number of limitations to conduct this study. The methodological limitations were also acknowledged here as this study is based on content analysis (Islam and Mungai 2016; Islam 2016; Chowdhury et al. 2018; Reza et al. 2018). Firstly, there is lack of scientific publications on cultural globalization and identity crisis. Secondly, the literature was not well-structured. Thirdly, due to the diversity and differences of the developing economies, it was a challenge to bring the whole picture on this aspect. A further comparative study is proposed that can give clearer understanding about the impacts of cultural globalization on local identity in developing economies in different regions or continents.

At the introduction and review results, this chapter acknowledged a number of important merits of globalization that include universal unity, democracy, productive global culture, inhabitants of global village, uniqueness of culture, expansion of the sense of self-identity, new vistas and broadened horizon, promoted intercommunication of culture, increased individualization and freedom, etc. On the other hand, this chapter elaborately sketched the negative aspects of the cultural globalization that destroy local identity in the developing economies. At the beginning of the review findings, the chapter pointed out a number of these negative aspects that includes cultural globalization abolishes traditional values and indigenous identity, destroys artistic heritage, loses ‘self’, is a new risk of ancient cultures, imposes to treat all cultures in one manner, and creates conflicts between ‘globalism’ and ‘localism’ and so on.

The results section of this chapter mainly analysed six aspects within the negative aspects of cultural globalization on local identity. Firstly, it clearly showed a number of aspects about the process of cultural globalization that negatively impact on local identity. With a number of references such as Muzaffar (2002), Kaul (2012), Allen and Skelton (2005), Castells (1996), and Morley (2000), this paper showed how the indigenous culture is being replaced by the Western culture where a diverse cultural identity is formed. In this point, this paper revealed two arguments such as cultural identity cannot be a universal concept and it is one type of cultural domination. Secondly, this chapter unfolds that cultural globalization has created a certain level of ideological debates within our family and social system. With referencing a number of influential comments by Köchler (1986), Dalby (2007), Naz et al. (2012), Marshall (2005), and Scott (1997), this chapter argued that the whole world is shifting into a single place, single culture, and single identity through globalization. This does not give any ideological panacea rather people are losing their original sense of belongings in terms of their heritage, cultural habits, religious practices, and decays artefact prettiness. With an example of 36 violent conflicts from 28 countries, this chapter clearly showed the communal conflicts, inspired by ethnic, sectarian, or religious grievances. Thirdly, this chapter showed how the cultural globalization forms the cultural conflict and dual culture where people lose their own cultural image. With a number of examples from Bird and Fang (2009), Bhugra and Mastrogianni (2004), Coldwell-Harris and Aycicegi (2006), Salzman (2001), Alfasi and Fenster (2005), and Zhuojun and Hualing (2014), this chapter argued that such kind of cultural formation creates contradictions between conventional globalization theory and cultural imperialism or colonialism. This kind of conflict weakens many developing countries’ state’s sovereignty.

Fourthly, cultural globalization increased the level of control of the developed economies over developing economies. This chapter considered a number of examples from Islam (2014a, b, 2017a, b), Islam and Morgan (2012), and Tembo (2004) in the developing economies. In this connection, this chapter found that in many cases, the global development interventions through NGOs in the developing economies are facing many challenges, and this has been proved unacceptable and unsuccessful as the local people in the developing economies are struggling to cope with this development framework. Most of these studies claimed that the local beneficiaries cannot participate in the development interventions, and they feel lack of development ownership, and they cannot participate with those development interventions due to the lack of their understanding about the development meanings. A number of authors such as Islam and Morgan (2012), Islam (2014a, b, 2017a, b), and Tembo (2004) showed that the beneficiaries of the NGOs are facing lack of development freedom and development ownership due to lose their ‘self’, and lack of spaces in their own culture. Fifthly, this chapter found the lack of regionalization within cultural globalization where local identity has been misjudged. This issue has been validated with a number of evidences from Kinnvall and Jönsson (2002), Howes (1996), Morley (2000), Ritzer (2008), Kaul (2012), and Babran (2008). With an example of the Southeast Asia, a number of authors remarked that cultural globalization wrecked many regional indigenous festivals, attire, customs, ceremonies, rites, and beliefs. Cultural globalization pursuits in developing a single cultural world where majority of ordinary people into obedient consumers, without identity or ability to command their destiny. Sixthly, this chapter concludes to cite three comparative examples between Southeast and Latin America. These examples reconnoitre that cultural globalization twisted many negative metaphors such as cultural diffusion and low level of coping strategies. The possible threats are disappearing local food and carnival, and indigenous occupation such as blacksmiths, wood makers, and increase social inequality, and destroy local small farming, and cosmopolitan values.

7 Conclusions

The main objective of this chapter was to explain whether cultural globalization is a threat to local identity. This chapter analysed different impacts of this globalization from developing countries. The study found that there are number of benefits of this globalization. Most of the studies showed globalization as a fast-tracking concept that can easily interact with different cultures. Finding showed that traded goods are often the reflection of culture. The study explored that cultural mingling is massively stirring for the human spirit. It is also an influential source of innovation. At the same time, it stretches many types of tensions, misinterpretations, and conflicts. This chapter analysed some examples from the developing countries such as Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil, Chile, etc. and found that due to the loss of national identities, these countries give emphasis to protect cultural diversity. The chapter reported that cultural globalization rooted out many indigenous practices, values and norms, traditions, habits, food practices, and even the originality of the languages that has adverse negative impact of cultural diversity and identity. However, there are many benefits of cultural globalization, but the developing economies are facing many problems such as cultural dislocation and displacement, cultural realm, breaking cultural autonomy, diffuse cultural traits, and destruction of local traditions, knowledge, and occupation.

This chapter analysed many political, economic, and sociocultural examples from the developing economies and proves that cultural globalization has dual dichotomies. We observed that cultural globalization and cultural identity are correlated and interconnected phenomena, where cultural globalization is a source of transformation of new and modern ideas and development of human capital and information, but on the other side, it is a threat to sociocultural environment in the context of identity. In this regard, the argument of Castells (1999) is worth: ‘our world and our lives are being shaped by the conflicting trends of globalization and identity’. Furthermore, cultural globalization strews cultural characters from one society to the other, which interrupts the local culture. In this regard, Bauman (1998) stated that this kind of culture has been reshaped through diffusion and commercial or political relations. In the context of cultural contact and cultural experiences, Tomlinson (1999) points out that culture is changing where people make culture and culture makes people in the form of cultural identity. We have seen that this kind of cultural transmission generates the kind of cultural characters that adversely upsets the integration and acculturation. The overall process directly or indirectly sways our social and economic components such as local values, religious practices, and economic structure of the local community or society. In addition, we also observed that currently the influence of globalization on cultural identity is one of the immense and multidimensional worries, because this fetched vital alteration in the origins of our local identity from the values of family, community, nation, and physical geography to those of global media (Scholte 2000).