WI-Global Awards for Spring 2009 Announced!

Global Studies and the Offices of the Dean of Students announce the WI-Global Awards for Spring 2009. WI-Global engages UW-Madison undergraduates in issues related to globalization and its impact on the world's communities, cultures, literatures, and languages, as well as on systems of governance, exchange, education, and technologies. WI-Global has two different components: the WI-Global Forum and the WI-Global Paper Award.

Rebecca Screnock (Junior, International Studies) and John Tao (Junior, International Studies) are the recipients of the WI Global Forum Award for best posts on the topic—cultural purity and its discontents—and the way it shapes our understanding of the wider world. Both Rebecca and John will receive a $125 gift certificate to the DoIT Techstore.

We are suspending WI-Global with the completion of the Spring 2009 semester. We will, however, maintain the blog and invite continued discussion through comments on existing posts (which we will continue to moderate).

Thanks again! The Spring 2009 WI-Global Forum is now closed.....

...but once again, the discussion -- we hope -- will continue!

The Spring 2009 Forum has closed but we will still be moderating and posting comments. So we invite authors and blog visitors to continue to read, think, and send thoughts along. WI-Global awards -- both the Forum and the Undergraduate Paper Awards -- will be announced 5 June 2009.

To learn more about WI-Global and to keep up to date on the Forum check back here, visit our website, or email us.

Our best wishes & thanks,
The WI-Global Team.

Culture and Nationalism

The Nazis put a large emphasis on culture and the best way to utilize it in order to move the German people to support them. They used culture to try and create a sense of unity as a nation, they tried to use it to show the world how great of a nation Germany under the third reich was. Culture can be used to mobilize the people to support the nation, culture can be a driving factor to creating nationalism.

In our rapidly globalizing world, it seems that even the structures of nations which we have been working with recently are beginning to crumble. National power is being erroded away for different forms of power. The international political scene is changing from what we have known in the past couple of decades. We have seen the weakening power of the US on the global scene, we have seen the rise of powerful institutions such as the EU which require a degree of national sacrifice in order to join.

It seems that culture has been reflecting these changes, or perhaps driving these changes. We are starting to live in a society where it is not uncommon for people to watch Bollywood movies-- people you wouldn't think. For example, people from rural Wisconsin areas. (Sorry for the Bollywood references of late, it seems to have come up everywhere I go). Our culture is blending with other cultures more rapidly than in the past, and it is... something that is just adapting to the times. I don't think we can attach a negative or positive value to the changes, it's something that is happening and while we're in the process of its evolution we don't have the right perspective to judge it. Perhaps one day we'll be able to talk about how "good" or "bad" the cultural changes were in the US, and the world. But until then, I think it's best to wait, and watch. Who knows where the movement of globalization will take us?

small U.S. Market for translation

Every form of media in the United States, not just books but radio, television, and magazines have reached their saturation point where there is more available to watch/read than you have time to watch/read it. That leads to high competition in media markets for a finite amount of consumer dollars. The lack of foreign influences in U.S. media reflects the increased cost/benefit risks for publishers to bring materials stateside. For example, take anime. For the longest time, anime was not imported to the U.S. because there was no perceived market other than a few nerds. Once anime picked up and became popular, many American publishers sprang up to import anime. Now you go into Best Buy and find a whole isle that is just anime and it is all over network television. American companies will pull material from any part of the world if it is profitable, but it first needs to be seen as a safe investment. Any product with high sales will see expansion and diversification- point is, if there is a profit in something, American media and publishers will pay to have it translated and edited regardless of its origins or cultural influences/impacts. Americans have never been shy to take good ideas or products from anywhere and anyone. So if you want to see more foreign literature, go out and support if with your hard earned cash. The cost to companies may be higher to bring it to the states, so you just have to show them that the benefits ($$$) can match the increased cost.

McCulture

Aviya Kushner has an interesting piece in the Winter 2009 issue of the Wilson Quarterly titled "McCulture". You might think you know what she's referring to -- the spread of a Disneyfied and Kentucky Fried version of America abroad -- but you'd be wrong.

Kushner is, instead, writing about the way America brings the world into the United States through literature. In particular, she's exploring the role of translation and bilingual writers in the American publishing industry -- and as interpreters of the world for Americans. There are, Kushner points out, very few translations published in the United States each year.

It's not that Americans aren't interested in the world at all. It's just that we seem to want someone else to do the ­heavy ­lifting required to make a cultural connection. As the ­Peruvian-­born writ­er Daniel Alarcón ob­serves, Americans would rather read stories by an American about Peru than a Peruvian writer translated into English. "There's a certain curiosity about the world that's not matched by a willingness to do the work," Alarcón said in a phone interview from his home in Oakland, California. "So what happens is that writers of foreign extraction end up writing about the world for Americans."

Translation is hard work. And expensive work. Work which requires an audience to pick up the tab. An audience that seems to be a little wary of... well... the "real" thing?

It is not that Americans lack curiosity of any ­kind—­but that we seem to lack the right kind. Europe is overrun with young American tourists. Unfortunately, these college students tend to pack a dozen countries into a month or less. They often tote guides such as Let's Go, which highlight the greatest hits and cheapest places and are written by, you guessed it, other American college students. That's how we seem to read international literature as well. Let's go, we might say, but let's go easy. And ­cheap.

So what do you think? Are Americans, on the whole, less than fully curious? Do Americans need their cultural food pre-chewed? Why might this be? And why might Europe -- and the rest of the world, perhaps -- have the "right kind" of curiosity about the world? Or do they?

American Culture in the face of global this and global that

It isn't that globalization is inevitable, it is just becoming easier and happening faster. However, the notion that American Culture is swiftly disintegrating due to globalization is not a familiar concept to many. Globalization does not seem to be squashing American Culture or its ideals. Globalization, by its very definition, only heightens and accentuates the essence of what American Culture is known to be.

America is a melting pot and she, is having no trouble embracing that. Despite the persistent intimidating buzz of globalization, Americans do not seem to be losing their identity but utilizing globalization to their advantage. By accepting American Culture as the multifaceted face of the nation, globalization is no threat.

Bollywood

As a semi-reply to the previous post about American Culture being less prominent I thought I'd just talk about Bollywood Films for a little bit.

I remember growing up and not knowing what Bollywood was. Whenever I heard of it I assumed that it was some kind of "spoof" on Hollywood. Little did I know at the time that it was a serious film industry located outside of the US. As I grew up I found that I heard more and more about movies from Bollywood and started to learn more about it.

Last year I took a course called International Communications and we spent quite a bit of time focusing on Bollywood which resulted in us watching quite a few Bollywood productions. I found that I readily identified with the movies and that there was a universal appeal due to their very successful formula. We discussed how big of an industry Bollywood is and how much it rivals Hollywood especially in places one wouldn't necessarily expect such as African countries.

I think people are starting to look outside their borders more and more. I have heard so many of my friends and fellow students making comments such as "I wish I wasn't such a dumb American with no knowledge of other coutries," or similar things such as that. It seems that my friends, at least, and the people I know in the classes I take, are interested in exploring the rest of the world and they do it in such ways as watching Bollywood films. Although I have no evidence I feel that if one asked a random person ten years ago if they enjoyed Bollywood films they would have no idea what it was, but now a days people will at least be able to list off one Bollywood film that they have heard of or seen.


So, American culture...I think people in America are starting to realize that they need to look outward to other countries. I think that people are starting to realize that America is no longer the global leader that it use to be. We are moving into a period where cooperation is important and there really cannot be just one leader, with this comes more exchange of information and culture.

Does the World Still Care About American Culture?

In a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Richard Pells, a professor at the University of Texas-Austin, considers whether the world still cares about American culture (here too as an op-ed piece to the Dallas Morning News)-- which is part (but only part!!) of what we're exploring here.

Of American writers and artists, Pells writes, "Today they are for the most part unnoticed, or regarded as ordinary mortals, participants in a global rather than a distinctively American culture."

It is interesting to note, I think, that Pells goes on to talk of how various nations are increasingly turning to their own cultural production while Americans are increasingly looking outwards (his example of the movies is particularly striking in this regard). Though might this also be because of a more general American turn away from "culture"? I mean, how well known are any American writers and artists in the United States today?

What's prompting this?, Pells asks. "The main answer is that globalization has subverted America's influence." It has meant that the United States competes, rather than dominates. Though why American culture now competes instead of dominates is a bit unclear to this reader.

He concludes that "it is doubtful that America will ever again be the world's pre-eminent culture, as it was in the 20th century. That is not a cause for regret. Perhaps we are all better off in a world of cultural pluralism than in a world made in America."

"Perhaps"?!? Yes, perhaps. Or perhaps not? Or maybe? Pells' is a view from the inside, from the United States (though he has traveled, taught, and spoken around the world). What have been your experiences with the spread of American culture? Is it a cultural competition now? Are we increasingly nationalistic in our cultural consumption? Or are we just increasingly uncaring? Or cheap -- are we consuming what is least expensive? Or ready-made? Or...??

Shopping Excursion

My friend was at Victoria Secret yesterday buying a swim suit, and I was there along for the ride.  While I was waiting for her to try some suits on I noticed that in the store were some women in the store who were shopping for...well, I'm not really sure, I wasn't really paying attention.  Anyway, the women were wearing jilbabs and hijabs and I immediately thought of this forum.  Here you are in a very "Western" store with "non-Western" clad women.  The contrast seemed pretty stark to me.  I suppose the jilbabs and hijabs are meant to cover the exterior of a woman to "keep her modest", yet nothing, that I know of at least, talks about what they need to wear underneath them.

There's an example of the blending of cultures.  Now, is that good or bad?  I can't really say, unfortunately because I don't really have an indepth knowledge of the Islamic culture.  Maybe someone who does have knowledge on this topic could speak of how this impacts Muslims?

Survival of the fittest?

 Are we in an age of cultural “survival of the fittest” or is the blending of culture elements actually an improvement? 

I decided to look back on the topic and read through some of the prompts offered.  For some reason I was really interested in this specific question about whether or not we are in an age of cultural "survival of the fittest" or if the blending of culture elements is actually an improvement.  I don't really see this prompt as giving much of a choice, it really just says that cultures are blending together, and either we can view it one way or the other.

At first I tried to think of how we are in an age where cultures are experiencing a "survival of the fittest" mentality.  The first thing that came to mind was the Native American culture in America.  Many Native American cultures have vanished underneath "American" culture.  And yet, the more I thought about it I thought of many different examples of increased awareness of vanishing cultures and the increased response to document them and to revive them.  I have seen work by linguists and sociologists working hard with Native Americans to revive their languages, their culture, and their traditions.  Now that we are more aware of vanishing cultures it seems as if we are working toward ensuring that they do not disappear.  So, yes perhaps there was a "survival of the fittest" situation occuring but that's changing.  Then, there is also the fact that there is a "hollowing" out of Europe and a focus, from the EU, on different traditions and cultures which cross borders.  So maybe the "struggle" of cultures is really starting to become more protected now.

Then I thought about the blending of the cultures.  Are there a blending of cultures?  Yes we see Chinatowns, we see Little Italies, etc.  But are they really blending?  And if they are, is this an improvement?  I couldn't really think of an example of where there is a blending of cultures.  I see these pockets of differnt cultures and I see them existing in their own bubbles without heavy influence from different cultures.

I mean, I suppose one could talk about the "chinglish" phenomenon and the blending of culture through language...but is that an improvement?  I don't really see it as an improvement, in fact it could be seen as a negative overall.

Changing Traditions

I was trying to think of any traditions that I have known which have been heavily impacted by something to the point where they have changed. I can't really think of anything. I'm not really sure what that means, especially considering my view of traditions is a fairly limited scope due to my youth, my perspective and my limited knowledge of some traditions.

I thought about Chinese New Year, since I'm fairly knowledable about Chinese cultures based on personal experience. I have been to many Chinese New Year festivals, and they all seem to have the same key elements, a dancing dragon eating an orange, fireworks, dragon boat racing, drums, traditional music and garb, the same food etc. At this point I've witnessed the Chinese New Year festivals in New York, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts and they all seem to be quite the same.

Not that I expected to see, say, Cheese curds at a Wisconsin Chinese New Year festival but I would have thought it would be different being impacted by Wisconsin culture. But no, not particularly.

I guess, with that in mind, can there be cultural purity? I can't fully answer that question since I do not know how the festivals were carried out in China, but it seems as if there is enough shared memory by the Asian (American) community to hold onto the traditions of the past.

comment on Measuring Change, Loss and Gain

in response to John Tao's blog:

Measuring change is possible at the macro-level. Measuring loss vs. gain is constantly influx. It depends completely on who is measuring and how they are measuring. Loss and gain requires a value system.

Measuring change is objective, measuring loss and gain is subjective. It is easy to look at something and see how you have changed and how you are different. Take women's rights for example. We can look at them and see a clear progression of change. In the 1920's, women were expected to stay in the home. In the 1950's women had to work outside the home because of WWII.

If you step back and look at a macro level, you can observe change. Now to measure loss vs. gain, you inherently have to put a value to the change that has occured. For example, those who believe that women should be at home to raise their children would see women who go into the workforce as a loss. Those who think that women are a value in the workforce will see this as a gain.

At a micro-level, for somethings there is a clear turning point. Like women's right to vote. There was an amendment made to the constitution and there after, women could vote. However, for most things, it is a slow progression of evolution, which is why you have to be at the macro-level.

Culture and Globalization

One of the question prompts for this topic which I thought was most interesting was the one that asked "is there even a way of measuring cultural loss and cultural gain?" This made me think about different cultures that I am familiar with, and made me think about whether or not, even in my life that, they have changed. And, if so, how did they change? And, as the question asks, I thought about whether or not there was even a way of measuring the cultural shift.

To say that we are living in an age of globalization is both true and false. Globalization did not just suddenly happen within the past twenty years. It has always been happening, there has always been interaction between different peoples and cultures. Yet, it is true that with the advent of the internet, with plane tickets being so accessible to more people, etc. the world is in an era of globalization which it has never seen before.

So with that said... how can you measure cultural changes? Cultures change. People change. Values at one point in time for one society undergo changes. Has globalization made a change to these cultures? Yes. Would these cultures have changed anyway? Yes. Since change is inevitable, since there is more of a flow between cultures, since there is more interaction between different traditions how do you measure the change?

I would say that there is no real way to measure cultural loss or gain, as the question put it. I would say, as well, that there is no real such thing as cultural loss or gain since cultures are apt to change on their own at any given point in time in order to fit the times. Cultures will change, but I think it is best to think of them as evolving with the times. That's what they have always done and what they will always do. This will not change even with the rapid globalization of the world.

Cultural Purity or Global Culture?

The topic for this Spring 2009 Forum is posted in the banner above, but we thought we'd get things started not just restating the topic in the blogroll but providing some links to get us all thinking. Not all of the connections between the questions and links are immediately obvious, but we think they are all suggestive -- and worth exploring.

But you tell us -- and your colleagues here -- and post your own links! And remember, these aren't the only questions; just a few to get us started. Ask and take a shot at answering your own.

So here we go:

Ethnic and national cultures have never existed in a vacuum, but the idea of cultural purity seems especially fantastic at this particular moment. President Barack Obama is claimed by his father’s Kenyan village as one of their own; Hollywood repeatedly dips into the East Asian film archive for its Next Big Release and major studios have even taken steps into Bollywood (and what to make of this?); afrobeat bands can be found in almost every US college town; while luxury-good retailers continue to expand into emerging markets and set new standards for ostentatious consumption (even in this challenging economic environment). Are we losing something as the walls that remain between cultures crumble? Is there even a way of measuring cultural loss and cultural gain that would allow us to make reasoned judgments? How would you go about protecting culture, when so much of it travels with people and goods which increasingly face fewer and fewer cross-border restrictions? Are we in an age of cultural “survival of the fittest” or is the blending of culture elements actually an improvement? Or does that depend on what side you – and the culture you identify with – end up on?

Read, comment, register, and share your thoughts with the UW-Madison community -- and the world!

The Spring 2009 WI-Global Forum is Open!

Welcome to the third WI-Global Forum! Global Studies and the Offices of the Dean of Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are happy to be able to once again provide this opportunity for UW students to share their thoughts and insights among themselves and with the wider world.

This semester's topic revolves around questions of cultural purity and winners and losers (if there are any) in the increasing interchange among peoples and cultures. Is this the great erasure of cultural difference or the birth of a new global culture (or just more of the same)? The full topic statement for the Spring Forum is above -- and we'll be posting it in the blog roll itself, together with some suggested links to get us thinking (and blogging) shortly.

Complete information on how you can participate in the WI-Global Forum (UW students are eligible to post and win the WI-Global Forum awards; everyone is welcome to comment on postings) is available by following the links under the header above.

This semester we are also reducing the number of postings needed to be eligible to win the $125 prize from 5 to 3; and once again we'll be giving away free flash drives to the first, eighth, and fifteenth postings.

The postings from the Spring and Fall 2008 Forums -- on music & international sport respectively -- are available below. You can get a good sense of the quality of the discussion by reading the posts. And though those Forum topics are closed, comments on those past postings, and the postings to come yet this semester, are always welcome.

WI-Global Awards for Fall 2008

Once again, thank you to all the participants in the Fall 2008 WI-Global Forum.

Unfortunately, none of the Forum participants met the 5 posting minimum to qualify for the award. Nor did we receive eligible nominations for the WI-Global Paper Award.

The Forum will reopen in the coming week (and we will offer the WI-Global Paper Award this coming semester as well). Of course, we encourage the discussions from both the Spring and Fall of 2008 (on music and sport) to continue -- we hope you will participate by commenting and joining in the Spring 2009 Forum!

The WI-Global Team.