[Issue #6, Fall 2001]
La Globalización Imaginada
By Néstor García Canclini
Buenos Aires: Paidós, 1999
Reviewed by Nancy Bird
In La Globalización Imaginada, Néstor García
Canclini, a well-known Argentinian-Mexican scholar, author also of Culturas
Híbridas, declares globalization an "unidentified cultural
object." He describes its often imaginary character and contrasts this
with its more rigid version, which is referred to as globalism. That is,
there is interconnectedness and possibilities for diffusion of different
cultures, as well as the reduced manifestation in which it is perceived
that "no country could exist with rules that are different from those
that organize the system-world" (translation mine). Globalization --
as an economic, political and sociological process -- does not mean or represent
the same for everyone. Distinctions persist. The thought of everybody having
the same access to the benefits of globalization has more to do with its
imaginary aspect, and not with its different and often contradictory realities.
What does it mean then to live in and within the limits of this "unidentified
cultural object"?
García Canclini gives us an anthropological, economic, and sociological
account of what globalization implies. He cleverly brings together all these
fields in his discussion, thus underscoring the notion that in the context
of globalization, one of the main assets is the possibility to draw from
different disciplines. We're allowed to ponder how, for example, having
access to certain music, art, or literature, or even a certain type of clothes,
is at the same time an economic and political and cultural issue. Such questions
help us to examine how globalization disguises itself as globalism, making
some choices more like prescriptions, with the individual never questioning
where access derives from. It is important to mention that García
Canclini does not give a concrete definition of what globalization is, but
rather compiles socio-political and anecdotal evidence, thus pointing to
what globalization is not and stressing the fact that it refuses
uniformity in its reach and implications.
As globalization implies interconnectedness, mobility and new perspectives
on multinational corporations, it sheds both light and complications on
questions of identity, be it national, ethnic or linguistic. It is in the
migratory movements and communication within and among social groups that
new questions are raised and some labels and classifications are put to
the test (i.e., to be an "American," to be "Hispanic,"
to be "Mexican-American"). García Canclini talks about
hybridization and the manner in which new blendings and perspectives on
identity are set forth. It does not mean that a Cuban dancing to country
music has ceased to be "Cuban" or has become "American."
The question is why and when mainstream forces decided that it was the right
time to let country or Latin music, for example, gain momentum. These and
related questions are raised by García Canclini, taking into consideration
the dilemmas of globalization as a capitalist enterprise, which on the one
hand has the goal of homogenization, while on the other needs to draw from
multiplicity itself. In other words, the phenomenon here described as the
"imagined globalization" is neither a fundamentally negative or
positive force; it is a cultural matter that has integrative and at the
same time conflictive expressions in the arts. La Globalización
Imaginda should appeal to individuals in different disciplines and is
a good point of departure for cultural studies in literature and other narratives.
____________________________
Nancy Bird is a doctoral student in Hispanic literatures at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison.
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