| Description |
1 online resource (vii, 179 pages) |
| Contents |
Trade between cultures -- Global culture ascendant: the roles of wealth and technology -- Ethos and the tragedy of cultural loss -- Why Hollywood rules the world, and whether we should care -- Dumbing down and the least common denominator -- Should national culture matter? |
| Summary |
A Frenchman rents a Hollywood movie. A Thai schoolgirl mimics Madonna. Saddam Hussein chooses Frank Sinatra's "My Way" as the theme song for his fifty-fourth birthday. It is a commonplace that globalization is subverting local culture. But is it helping as much as it hurts? In this strikingly original treatment of a fiercely debated issue, Tyler Cowen makes a bold new case for a more sympathetic understanding of cross-cultural trade. Creative destruction brings not stale suppositions but an economist's eye to bear on an age-old question: Are market exchange and aesthetic quality friends or foes? On the whole, argues Cowen in clear and vigorous prose, they are friends. Cultural "destruction" breeds not artistic demise but diversity. Through an array of colorful examples from the areas where globalization's critics have been most vocal, Cowen asks what happens when cultures collide through trade, whether technology destroys native arts, why (and whether) Hollywood movies rule the world, whether "globalized" culture is dumbing down societies everywhere, and if national cultures matter at all. Scrutinizing such manifestations of "indigenous" culture as the steel band ensembles of Trinidad, Indian handweaving, and music from Zaire, Cowen finds that they are more vibrant than ever--thanks largely to cross-cultural trade. For all the pressures that market forces exert on individual cultures, diversity typically increases within society, even when cultures become more like each other. Trade enhances the range of individual choice, yielding forms of expression within cultures that flower as never before. While some see cultural decline as a half-empty glass, Cowen sees it as a glass half-full with the stirrings of cultural brilliance |
| Notes |
"How globalization is changing the world's cultures." |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 153-171) and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Culture
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Globalization.
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Cultural relations.
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International relations and culture.
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Culture
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globalism.
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culture note.
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culture (concept)
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SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
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POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture.
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BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Economics -- Theory.
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Economie de la culture.
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Integration culturelle.
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Relations culturelles.
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Commerce.
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Mondialisation.
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Pluralisme culturel.
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Cultural relations
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Culture
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Globalization
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International relations and culture
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Culture.
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Relations culturelles.
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Culture et relations internationales.
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Mondialisation -- Anthropologie.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9781400825189 |
|
1400825180 |
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