Western Culture Impact on Diverse Cultures - Essay Example

The current spread of Western culture and its impact on diverse cultures around the world BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE Introduction The current spread of Western culture maintains duplicitous impacts on diverse non-Western cultures around the world. Western values are often attributed as serving as the foundation for modern globalisation, the process of inter-connecting world economic markets and corporations which facilitates international trade and exposes diverse cultures to many Western values. Running under the assumption that globalisation can be effectively linked with Western values, it becomes rather simplistic to determine the impact of the spread of Western values on diverse cultures across the globe. The spread of Western influence maintains both negative and positive impacts on cultures, making it rather subjective as to whether this extension of Western values and beliefs poses a threat or an opportunity for foreign cultures. The dangers of Western ideology Not all cultures are founded on Western values. Western values, typically those of the United States, Canada and Great Britain, are founded on individualism, a set of values that place particular emphasis on securing the goals and needs of the individual rather than maintaining concern over group desires (Wagner 1995). Nowhere else are these values reflected than in American-style consumption patterns that often include opulence and excess as the individual attempts to justify their social class or social status using material goods as a tool for identity formation. The United Nations (2001) identifies that there is a growing concern that Western values being spread on the heels of globalisation is degrading cultural capital (unique tastes and values) and creating a type of social deprivation when Western culture is superimposed over other diverse cultures. How, though, could social deprivation be attributed to Western consumption behaviours? There are many collectivist cultures across the world that have been built through years of patriarchal values and respect for familial traditionalism. Collectivist cultures maintain a very strong belief in the integrity of group membership and often build their personal identities and goals on the sentiment and opinion of important social reference groups and family members (Cheung et al. 2008). Collectivist societies seek to provide protectionism for important familial figures where it is commonplace to preserve their security and well-being. In most instances, Western individualism defies the importance of building social trust when interacting with different cultures, wanting to gain instant self-gratification whilst collectivists emphasise the importance of relationship development and trust within their social and family dynamics. The concern is that Western culture is eroding the long-standing traditionalism that is associated with maintaining close family and social networks that have assisted foreign cultures in securing a set of cultural norms that support group cohesion. For instance, Western culture has recently been influencing (significantly) Nigerian culture, an African traditional culture with strong social and family connections. Nigerian youths are being rapidly exposed to American films and music which are often littered with vulgarity and overt sexual expression (Salami and Awolowo 2006). Members of society that treasure its historical foundations of collectivism have been concerned that Western film and music offensiveness is a type of social taboo that is breaking down the cohesive barriers of family and traditional familial respect. Nigerian youths are strongly influenced by these Western cultural artefacts, believing it to be hip and trendy to attempt to emulate the language and behaviours of favourite Western performers and actors. This imitation in the social condition has led to increased rebellious behaviours against authority figures and ongoing questioning of established social norms and regulatory boundaries that once drove a cohesive collectivist culture (Salami and Awolowo 2006). It should, then, be recognised that Western culture and its outward display of offensive or otherwise bad-mannered expression common in film and music produced in Western countries is radically changing the compliance propensity of certain foreign cultures. The unique cultural identity that has driven the heart of Nigerian social norms is being deconstructed in a negative fashion by Western culture when it is introduced into a country with little experience functioning within an individualistic society. As such, Nigerian citizens are concerned that Western values are degrading the unique cultural capital of this nation, essentially obscuring their international relevancy as a unique and long-standing society. The sociological implications are rather obvious in this case. Furthermore, Nigerian culture scores highly in power distance (Hofstede 2013), which is the extent to which a culture is willing to embrace and accept disparity and inequality between more powerful and less-powerful members of society and business (Kelley 2009). With youths attempting insurgency against authority figures, it further breaks down the stability of established authoritarian hierarchies that drive business success and social harmony. In some lesser-developed nations, power distance between business leaders (as one example) and subordinates is necessary to maintain economic solidity and strength. Western values, in the case of Nigeria, maintain opportunities to significantly collapse industry integrity. The benefits of Western culture Thus far, it would appear that Western culture is a drastically negative influence on diverse foreign cultures. However, there are attributes of Western ideology that is actually supportive of positive social and professional change. In China, for example, culture is largely hedonistic, which is defined as maintaining greedy or self-centred attitudes for fulfilment of primitive pleasures (Lemos 2004; Veenhoven 2003; Overskeid 2002). Western values, especially American cultural values, emphasise equality as a foundational ideology, attempting to assert, with such supporting agencies as the United Nations, a moderate socialist set of values that provide equal distribution of resources. With the advent of Western consumption patterns and cultural influence within the Chinese society, it removes the negative connotations of hedonistic philosophy, promoting more belief in equality in a social context. Western values deconstruct egotistic cultural values and reinforce reciprocal relationship development. The ultimate end of Western cultural influence could be more social cohesion, reduced criminal behaviours founded on hedonistic needs, and establishing an ethical and moral foundation within the social condition. Furthermore, Western business values have provided considerable social capital for developing nations without the tangible resources to improve industry and economic strength. Western business focuses heavily on teamwork, especially when generating ideas for product innovations and product prototyping. Stover (2004) indicates that isolation is ineffective for improving knowledge transfer, thus requiring interaction with others. Developing nations are not familiar working within an organisational culture dynamic that facilitates team ideology. Therefore, when business leaders from Western nations enter developing countries under the premise of foreign direct investment, the social and cultural capital carried by Western businesspersons exposes foreign cultures to more positive human interaction that ultimately improves the economic condition and lifestyle of diverse cultures in developing nations. Conclusion As illustrated, the spread of Western culture is both a hindrance and a benefit to diverse cultures. Though a subjective statement, it would appear that the extension of Western cultural influence provides foreign cultures with social benefits (identifiable in removing hedonistic ideologies and improving business-centric social capital). Despite the negative influence of Western vulgarity as representative in the arts, Western culture’s extension across the world represents only a moderate threat to diverse cultures. If countries such as Nigeria, which has been threatened by Western culture, is able to break down the establish systems that reduce disobedient or defiant behaviour of youths influenced by Western vulgarity, it is likely that Western cultural influence will provide both social and economic benefits in the long-run. Western values and beliefs related to established cultures maintain more opportunities than risks when these cultural principles and standards expand into foreign nations. References Cheung, F., Cheung, S., Zhang, J., Leung, K., Leong, F. and Yeh, K. (2008). Relevance for openness as a personality dimension in Chinese culture, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 39(1), pp.81-108. Hofstede, G. (2013). What about Nigeria?, The Hofstede Centre. [online] Available at: http://geert-hofstede.com/nigeria.html (accessed 31 March 2013). Kelley, J. (2009). Global consumer culture: consumers’ global brand attitudes in Brazil and Germany, p.6. 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