Power Dynamics and Tension Between the Local and the Global

Boundaries are growing ever softer and international organizations growing ever more numerous. This has perhaps led to a natural tension between localities and larger, more global institutions. In trying to make sense of the influence that transnational companies exercise over global populations and vice versa, it is first necessary to break down the local-global binary. In theories of globalization, many distinctions dichotomize the two and fail to capture the complexity of the interactions between them. It is also oft a discussion of hegemony. Do the people who localize an institution empower themselves in resistance to the global? Or do global institutions dictate a meta-narrative that the “local” operates within whether through acquiescence, rejection, or something in between? These questions try to make sense of the cultural influence of international organizations but still limit understanding of the ebb and flow of cultural contact and the distinction between what changes and what remains intact.

Standardization is an increasingly common procedure in large organizations. Ritzer argues that McDonalidization - the spreading of a McDonald's model of systematization of service procedures - has played a huge role in this process. McDonald's proved with fast and tremendous growth the success of its method that prioritizes aspects of efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control for producers and consumers alike (Ritzer 1993: 14). The company's success was followed by many quickly growing food businesses that operated a similar model and inspired other types of franchises to try to become the 'McDonald's' of their own respective sectors (Ritzer 1993). Ritzer seems to believe that it is a function of society. Because people are in a hurry, efficiency is a must. People crave predictability and efficiency inasmuch as they are concerned with managing their time and saving money. Interestingly, this model has flourished in many countries where values and needs presumably differ. Traditionally, transnational corporations adopt non-national or antinational strategies that, along with localization, may even be larger contributors to the success of such companies (Watson 1997:12).

Wilk has demonstrated that beauty pageants too are a type of large institution that utilize standardization and common structures to narrow choices and organize a world of variability. In this case, he is arguing that the global is indeed hegemonic. He describes pageants as a “culture industry” one that leaves individuals free to express themselves, but only within the limited lexicon it imposes (Wilk 1995:134). In a way, the pageants may be efficient. As Wilk explains, they provide a space for a shared conversation by classifying the discussion and expression of difference (Wilk 1995). They narrow an abundant landscape of differences to a few aspects that can be judged in mutually understandable ways. In Belize, regional and ethnic difference is stressed through costume and pageantry until contests move closer to the finals when national unity is stressed. Wilk illustrates this in his discussion of the interview portion of the contests during which women are posed questions that inspire answers that are patriotic and aimed at describing Belize in a positive light to a foreign audience.

However, the interaction of a global structure or institution with various particular cultures does not inherently imply a union dictated by hierarchical power structure. Rather, it is simply a meeting point. Here, the transformation of space and place becomes an important player in the discussion. Pieterse describes globalization as the“increase in the available modes of organization: transnational, international, macroregional, national, microregional, municipal, local” (Pieterse 2004: 65-66). Many functional networks, composed of elements such as transnational institutions and computer users, traverse these levels. From a structural perspective, then, the arrangement and identification of place and the spaces that exist among these formations are important authors of hybrid cultural evolution. Localization is key in hybrid evolution; it is described by Watson as a “two-way street” which implies changes both in local culture and the operation of the company (Watson 1997:37). When a large company localizes, regional consumers are not being mindlessly imposed on; they must accept the goods. The level to which they adapt it to local culture will likely depend upon the role the product plays in society; if it is celebrated as something foreign it may be more likely to go unchanged.

Nevertheless, these interactions oft enter into a discussion of power. According to Pieterse, not only are power structures produced within hybridity since the conditions surrounding mixing will influence them, but they are also “refigured” through hybridization (Pieterse 2004:74). The meeting of two worlds and the way in which it occurs implies the relationship of hegemony. The introduction of Pokémon to the United States is an example of a very controlled and calculated meeting of two worlds, but with unexpected results. Pokémon was predicted to be incredibly unsuccessful among an American audience because of the expectation of youth being interested in entertainment that is cool rather than cute, but its success shattered preconceived notions of what American youth culture demanded in its entertainment (Allison 2006). Indeed, the fact that a specific place may want to adopt a foreign product does not necessarily imply a global dominion over the local, but often a voluntary incorporation of an external idea. The very idea that one culture can sweep in and replace another is based to some degree in essentialism if it does not account for the dynamic, multitudinous, and ever-changing nature of culture.

Watson argues that “in the realm of popular culture, it is no longer possible to distinguish between what is 'local' and what is 'foreign'” (Watson 1997:10). In a theory of deterritorialization of popular culture, cultures cross and orient themselves beyond regional and national boundaries (Watson 1997). In the case of the adoption of Pokémon in the U.S., this process was deliberate. Marketers and producers attempted to make Pokémon placeless by removing poignant aspects of Japanese culture from it that would distract child players from being able to continuously root themselves in the game (Allison 2006). Watson also implies that people can be raised with McDonald's and, especially when the generation to which it was introduced has grown up, be unaware that it is a foreign product (Watson 1997). As Ritzer has described it, the McDonald's model has been adapted to many regional interests allowing for cultural specificity and perhaps erasing its foreignness. For example, Watson describes McDonald's in some places that are treated as leisure centres and others where women treat them as escapes from male dominated spaces (Watson 1997). In the U.S., Pokémon was adapted to the culture successfully; since it was made by Japanese producers with Japanese children in mind, production in the U.S. altered the game for American children. They did so in various ways, such as stressing human characters and manufacturing plots of good vs. evil (Allison 2006).

For Pieterse, this is part of the “global melange” in which there are counter currents of cultural influence - for example, non-western countries influencing the West - as well as significant aspects of local reception of western culture and cultural institutions that are multitudinous mixes of cultures (Pieterse 2004: 69). This description is apt in accounting for the multifaceted intermingling of multiple cultures and specific cultural traits but still speaks in terms of directionality, spread, and trade. Goldstein's example of Japanese wedding ceremonies expands upon this outlook by turning the discussion to one of distinctions and indistinctions. She says that since 'Japanese' and 'Western' are shifting cultural constructs that are part of a process, the interactions between them are rather more acquiescent to change than is implied by theories that stress power relations dependent on sameness and difference (Goldstein 2001). Japanese wedding ceremonies are increasingly involving chapel weddings and aspects of western wedding ceremony. Goldstein looks at the wedding production process and stresses the involvement of the producers in determining the cultural content of the ceremonies. For example, 'Japanese' aspects of dress and preparation are starkly separate in their treatment from 'Western' aspects and are intentionally handled differently.

Thus, what may be viewed externally as a chaotic mixture is simply an integration of cultural evolution. According to Goldstein, the commercial Japanese wedding ceremony which combines Western and traditional Japanese components is no less systemic and systematic than an exclusively Western wedding (Goldstein 2001). In the case of the American adoption of Pokémon, as well, one can see a deliberate division between what is kept and what is removed for new audiences. The adapted version is then able to evolve within a new region with continued influence from Japanese companies; it creates a new, shared cultural space. Wilk may argue that in Goldstein's and Allison's examples, Japan and the United States, respectively, have more power than does Belize within the international arena and that is why they are able to be selectively inclusive of external cultural influences. However, it seems that powerful organizations such as McDonald's also can't afford to ignore the cultures that they are trying to meld into as evidenced by the prevalence of localization practices. Ultimately there is a certain coevolution that occurs when cultural institutions mix and they are often carefully guided by both the localities and the global organizations.

References

Allison, A. 2006. “Gotta Catch 'Em All': The Pokemonization of America (and the world)”. In Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination, Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
Goldstein-Gidoni, O. 2001. Hybridity and Distinctions in Japanese Contemporary Commercial Weddings. Social Science Japan Journal 4: 21-38.
Pieterse, J. 2004. 'Globalisation as Hybridisation.' Globalisation and Culture., Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Ritzer, G. 1993. The McDonaldisation of Society. (introduction). London: Pine Forge Press.
Watson,J. 1997. Introduction: Transnationalism, Localization, and Fast Foods in East Asia. In J. Watson(ed.).Golden Arches East. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Wilk. R.,1995. The local and the global in the political economy of beauty. Review of International Political Economy 2(1):117-34.