Globalization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 4

Globalization - Essay Example Misunderstandings are common, and these can have serious consequences ranging from the failure of business operations to the needless suffering of individuals caught in a culture far removed from that of their birth, and even to war and destruction when nations fail to come to a workable understanding of each other’s aspirations. This paper examines two ways in which communication theory and cultural studies can be helpful in preventing cross-cultural miscommunication. The first is the discipline’s potential to clarify and explain the role of ritual in human interactions, and this is explored using the example of health services which have to operate in one particular culture, but deal with clients from multiple different cultures. The second is the process that can be called â€Å"clarification of values† which underpins intercultural understanding, and this is explored using example of business relations between China and the Western world which includes Europe and America. The paper aims therefore to demonstrate on a small and then on a larger scale, the value of two aspects of communication theory and cultural studies in the modern world. ... Such extreme distinctions underpinned ideologies like colonialism and slavery which privileged white, western ideas above other types of culture. In the twentieth century, studies such as those of Adorno and Horkheimer observed the cataclysmic world wars, the horrors of Fascism, and the rise of capitalist consumerism and rightly concluded that Western culture was capable of untold atrocities. This brought into question all the former assumptions about the superiority of Western elitist cultural assumptions. They concluded that the alliance of financial interests with cultural expression had resulted in a commodification of culture into what amounts to an industry. The effects of this were seen as negative, dragging culture down into a lowest common denominator and marketing it to make money: â€Å"The result is the circle of manipulation and retroactive need in which the unity of the system grows ever stronger.† (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1999, p. 33) In a way this line of thinki ng can be seen as reaction against the elitist view of culture that had prevailed in the previous century. More recent cultural theorists have formulated a more positive view of culture, seeing it as a multi-faceted quality of human behaviour that is far from unified, and holds the promise of continued development and renewal due to the interaction of many different cultures. The work of bel hooks, for example, redefines the complacent elitism of dominant beliefs in America at the time of the civil rights movement as â€Å"white supremacist capitalist patriarchy† (hooks, 1999, p. 235) and promotes the ideal of â€Å"cultural diversity† (hooks, 1999, p. 239) which instead of supporting dominant