Place Identity and Globalization
Reviewing research on how national identities are constructed in this age of permeable state borders, Hardwick and Mansfield (2009) note that one view suggests that globalization will lead to the end of the nation-state, while another proffers that states will remain as the primary agents of people's identity, owing to their influence over everyday experiences. There are signs of a kind of fear of what might be called "placelessness," signifying a loss of roots in this globalizing world. International labour migration is at its historic peak (Rowntree et al. 2008); demographic compositions of many countries are changing rapidly. This is encouraging heightened feelings of local identification and assertions of national identity by those sensing cultural dilution as a threat to national unity.
In discussions of economic globalization, one often hears about two scales – the local and the global. We are exhorted, for example, to "act locally and think globally." Indeed, an entire service industry exists to assist corporations to fully realize their global profit through "localizing" their product (i.e., tailoring it to local markets).
Pause and Reflect: Google "globalization localization" and analyze how global and local scales are represented in the "glocalization" phenomenon.
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Date last modified: October 8, 2009.
NSF Project (AAG,Texas State, Northern Colorado)