Effects Of Globalisation The Algerian Case Media Essay

Globalisation is a phenomenon which describes the integration of regional and international communities through societies, economies and culture as an ongoing process through global networks of trade and communication. It is driven by various combined factors which include biological, technological, political and socio-cultural factors. Globalisation promotes circulation of languages, acculturation and ideas in the different countries. Culture has its own qualities but can be dynamic. Humans are all different and have different characters in their different societies. Culture is learned and through absorption from the social environment. It is never static and is always transforming. Culture is an incessant process that is gradual to change and influence. It does not change abruptly or suddenly, but a process which gives a community a sense of continuity, identity, security, dignity and keeps the society together. The effect of globalisation on culture has been diverse and immense. People’s cultural behaviours have been affected in various ways. Globalisation demands countries to pursue common economic policies regardless of their development or economic nature. It in addition demands that countries open up of their boundaries to trans-national corporations in an indiscriminate manner. This has been the major gateway for globalisation affecting many nations in broad ways especially developing countries. Classic examples include India in Asia and the African continent. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of globalisation in developing countries focusing on Algeria, perception and the measures or programs employed by these countries to protect their national culture from the effects of globalisation. Culture is the identity of countries and communities and it is being continuously threatened by globalisation. Furthermore, this research is expected to be expanding on the issue of globalisation from exclusively economic definitions to more of humanistic & cultural approaches to globalisation.

INTRODUCTION:

George Bernard SHAW is known for saying “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

Globalisation spread will definitely carry changes to the parts of world it attains. Does it mean that traditional norms and values will be abolished? Definitely not, but change is an indispensable ingredient of life. Today’s communication and new technologies such as new global media (Internet amongst others), have demonstrated an influential means of projecting long-established culture.

The fact that US cultural merchandises are unbeaten reflects that American cultural exports are influential and strong. It also reflects that the US economy is successful all over the world. Generally speaking globalisation, which has greatly affected local culture, does mean some integration of culture. The positive aspects are that there is a widen information, cultural exchange and all this can lead to a worldwide cultural growth. However, there is also another aspect of global culture: a lot of people see globalisation of culture as a new way of a cultural Americanisation.

A report emanated from the UNESCO in 2005 showed that the world’s cultural trade has been estimated at 1.3 trillion dollars and is rapidly expanding. According to the report, international trade in cultural products increased from 38 billion Dollars in 1994 to attain 60 billions Dollars in 2002. The report examines cross-border trade on selected media products. In the only year of 2002 United States, China and the United Kingdom, produced 40 % of the world’s cultural trade products in 2002, while Africa and Latin America together produced for less than 4 %. (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2010) Anglo-Saxons’ products were overriding at the core of the entertainment industry (music, film and television). Because rules of the WTO (World Trade Organization) do not allow countries which ban cultural imports, one of the globalisation effects will be the end of cultural diversity. “We are driving towards a world in which the verb to have is becoming by far more important that the verb to be.” (Akulenko, 2008)

According to Scholte this point of view stresses that: “Globalisation introduces a single world culture centred on consumerism, mass media, Americana and the English language.” (Scholte, 2000, p 53)

In addition of being helpful for businesses and technologies globalisation has greatly impacted the world by helping cultures spread all over the globe. While this can be thought as a reality, there still remains difference of opinion about whether cultural globalisation will be advantageous for everyone. According to Bhargava, (2003), some people consider that globalisation will boost the opportunity for the great nations to take advantage of the economic weaknesses of the developing countries as well as to reduce the cultural diversity and make it a global-culture, while some others argue that it does have the possibility to create opportunities for growth all over the world. However, there are people who say that globalisation is anything else but the westernisation of the world. Some are afraid to lose their values or that their language disappears and they feel threatened by the influence exerted by other cultures in their country. Even though some people consider that this phenomenon may be dangerous for their culture, some others perceived globalisation as an amazing opportunity rather than a threat.

Although we are not attentive to it, globalisation which is a very fascinating event, had affected everyone’s existence. From the Chinese sewing needle to the Brazilian coffee, we are encircled by merchandise from all over the world. Thus, it is definitely an issue which concerned everyone. For that, it must have an effect on the way people think, on their norms and values, and accordingly on their Cultural Identity which I am going to look at.

Taking into account such a fascinating event, I would be interested to find out if this phenomenon had an impact on national culture and whether this fundamental value must be protected from globalisation effects.

I will propose to investigate the effects of globalisation on developing countries and whether this influence is harmless or damaging national culture. In addition to that, my project will focus on why some Multinational Corporations find it difficult to invest in Arabic countries’ markets especially Islamic ones.

Multinational Corporations which want to invest in foreign countries must learn a lot from Schein (1992) who emphasises the importance to carry out a cultural analysis in order to implement a successful and effective management which can transcend the national and ethnic borders. He also argues that this analysis represents a key factor of success for the leaders.

RESEARCH QUESTION:

The main research question is “Does the national culture have to be protected from the effects of globalisation?” A focus on Algeria, to ensure that the research question is fully-covered the sub questions below will be used:

Are Algerians (or Muslims) obliged to abandon their traditions and dump their cultural values, norms & beliefs to take part in the cultural globalisation?

Is the relation between cultural globalisation and westernization strong enough and permanently established so that everyone have to accept western cultural invasion if they want to flourish?

Is it possible for Arabs & Muslims to protect their cultural identity in the rise of too much American culture influence?

Is cultural globalisation a means of hegemony of the western over the developing countries and their cultural values?

Can globalisation be seen as positive or negative for the Developing countries’ Culture & traditions?

RESEARCH ISSUE:

In the Western World, Globalisation is often seen as having only positive effects on the national culture of developing countries. However, after analysis these benefits brought to countries of the third world have been frequently reconsidered. Therefore our intention is to focus on how Algerian cultural identity has been affected by colonisation first and then globalisation. We will look at both how globalisation has impacted Algerian cultural life? & why the young generation have dumped their traditions, left their norms and beliefs and given up their social values?

RESEARCH PURPOSE:

The purpose of our research is to accomplish a study through which we will show that globalisation has had both positive & negative effects on culture but only negative impacts on Arabic/Islamic culture. This paper’s objective is to highlight the nature of the clash between Algerian Islamic identity and cultural globalisation, a Western concept in its nature, and heavily sponsored by Western ideologists and politicians as being the New World Order.

LIMITATION:

While culture and globalisation are two different fields of study in their own, this paper attempts to show the connections between them, the effects of globalisation on culture and whether globalisation affects national culture positively, negatively or not at all. However, this is a less-travelled path, and to be sure, the quantity of books published on the only link between them is quite modest.

METHODOLOGY:

The focal point of this chapter will be on elucidating the general approaches of the research, data collection and data analysis. This will be followed by explaining the methods chosen as well as critical evaluation of resources & the research method limitation.

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH (Research Approach):

The success of any study is determined by the nature of approaches that are adopted in the research. The research approach used in all studies is mainly guided by the nature of the issue and set hypotheses. Globalisation is an ongoing process for which secondary data will be the main sources used in the study. The rationale in the consideration of this design is therefore availability of data.

DATA COLLECTION:

Data collection will play a significant role to guarantee the exactness of the gathered information related to the subject. With the aid of the broad search interface offered by electronic databases, researcher will look for articles in the area of the research using the title of the thesis as being the key words. Another central consideration is that the sources used to collect data should all be recent and must have complete referencing details.

RESEARCH DESIGN:

Once the research objectives and questions have been determined the next issue I will face involves deciding which source of information will answer these questions. Data, or source, is referred to as either secondary or primary.

According to Kolb’s “Marketing Research for Non-Profit, Community and Creative Organizations” (2008), Bryman & Bell (2007), Swanson & Holton (1997) in “Human Resource Development Research Handbook: Linking Research & Practice” and Anderson’s “Research Methods in HRM” (2004), data can be collected from two different ways, primary and secondary data. While primary data is all about information that is collected directly from research contributors, the other source of data, which is the result of research conducted previously, is secondary data. Information of secondary data has already been gathered through either qualitative or quantitative studies by other individuals, companies/organizations or government departments. Qualitative secondary data is also obtainable through different sources such as textbooks, articles, journals and online sources such as websites and blogs.

There are some disadvantages using qualitative secondary data. Firstly, the data were not initially designed and collected to answer my specific research questions, thus its answers may not exactly fit my research questions. Secondly, I may have less control over how the data were collected. And finally there may be biases in the data that I don’t know about. However, since the data are already collected, and frequently cleaned, using such a data is very beneficial because it includes lowering the costs of the research, finding information which helps in the design of the research methodology and savings of time.

The secondary data can be reached rapidly and usually of extremely high quality. Another major advantage of using secondary data is the breadth of availability of data. Therefore, my methodology for this dissertation is going to be using qualitative secondary data through Annotated Literature Review. Within this annotated literature review I won’t be merely summarizing the source but assessing and reflecting by asking how the source would fit into my research as well.

During the last 2 months, I have been reading a large number of articles, journals, selecting documents obtainable online and textbooks each of which related to my subject. Academic websites like Emerald, InderScience Publishers, Sage, CIPD, Genamics Journal Seek, Athens, Mintel, JSTOR, Oxford Journals, Academic One File and Science Direct, which give further information, will be used to collect secondary data.

To analyse the impact of globalisation on Algerian culture inductive approach is chosen because it is based on today’s study and results from present analysis. Through my approach I will try to find common definitions of both globalisation and culture and the link between them in order to enable me to design hypotheses, which I can then look at and develop some general conclusions by interpreting them. My research will be essentially qualitative since I will try to progress in the reflection on whether the national culture must be protected against the globalisation.

DATA ANALYSIS:

Analysing the collected data is very essential for arriving at any conclusion. For the qualitative data analysis I will be using constant comparison/grounded theory technique. “Coding in qualitative data analysis will be in constant state of potential revision and fluidity” (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p: 586). These will give best result and proof for my research. To achieve the final aim of my project, focus will be on the secondary sources of information and collection of data will be from some of the abundance online sources as well as printed documents.

These sources of information will be in diverse forms such as journals, publications, press & reports, books and annual reports of Algerian companies. Internet is a valuable source, it will help the researcher to have up to date information on globalisation and its effect on developing countries. In order to give a better perception to my research and to improve the exactness of my judgment, my methodology of collecting data will be using secondary data collection.

Due to differences between national cultures as well as different perceptions of globalisation and its effect on culture among schools of thought, the sample for this study will be difficult to find. Since my research is essentially more qualitative, the specific hypothesis about effects of globalisation on national culture that I have in mind can change as the research progress because qualitative research brings in depth analysis to an argument based on individual case studies.

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF RESOURCES:

As it is mentioned above my research will be exclusively secondary data-based which can be considered as a limitation in its nature. Regarding electronic sources such as internet, because of their great abundance and their different purposes & dedications it is easier said than done to judge their validity.

LIMITATION:

According to Bryman & Bell (2007), there are some disadvantages using qualitative secondary data. Firstly, the data were not initially designed and collected to answer my specific research questions and researcher is less flexible for designing data collection in a way that is extremely related to the subject. Secondly, I may have less control over how the data were collected. And finally there may be biases in the data that I don’t know about.