Tuesday, April 28, 2009

American culture around the world

The proliferation of “American” culture throughout the world has given rise to what many have labeled a MacDonaldization (Appelrouth & Edels, 2008:792) of the planet where many hybrid forms of culture have been born. It may be true that these new forms have been influenced and their very existence spawned by American society but it would be unfair to try and explain these as just extensions of the American culture. Although highly shaped by outsider influence the new hybrid cultural forms must be seen and explained within their own context historically and geographically speaking. An example of this incorporation of American society into the existing “native” culture is the use of rap music as a form of protest in the Gaza Strip. This American creation has been embraced by Palestinian youth as they attempt to tell the world about their daily strife against what they deem as a marginalized existence. Can you think of any of other forms of American culture that have also been integrated by cultures around the world? How is this new hybrid cultural form influencing this foreign society?

Applerouth, S. & Edles, L. D.2008.Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory:

Text Readings.Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press

4 comments:

  1. An example of American culture influencing other cultures would be the Japanese. The Japanese now have a problem with obesity because they have been following American eating habits. Now the Japanese don't know how to fix the problem. Before this their diet was based on fish, rice and vegetables.

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  2. One example of this form would be along the lines of McDonaldization. For instance creating a McBurrito in Mexico or a McSpaghetti in the Pillippines. In a sense, McDonalds adapted to the cultures of other countries. Also, car manufactures alter their cars for the needs of another culture. European cars put the drriver's side on the American left side, as American cars put them on the European right side.

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  3. An example of how American culture has influenced other cultures would be how the market of fast food grew in Mexico. Now we can see almost in every corner a Mcdonalds,a Wendy's, or a Burguer King, before there were only like restaurants or people outside their houses selling their food like burritos or gorditas or that stuff and now they have real fast food restaurants and for people that go to work it is easier to stop by and buy their food as fast as they can rather than waiting like 15 to 20 minutes in a restaurant.

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  4. We all know that McDonalds is all around the world. Even if we haven’t travel outside the U.S. we can still see commercials, or in the movies. One thing that I saw when I was outside the U.S. was the “lay’s” chips, but they were instead called “walkers”. They had the same presentation and the logo was the same, except the name. I think this is a form of how the American culture is expanding.

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