essay on local culture

JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser.

Importance of Incorporating Local Culture into Community Development

Introduction

Developmental trajectories of communities are usually explained by reference to economic history, human capital deficits, and/or the structure of local labor markets. Rarely is local culture seen as playing a significant role in development outcomes. Nor does empirical research routinely consider the role of local culture in fostering a more complete understanding of community development. Instead, culture is often viewed as an outgrowth of a particular region and dependent upon economic and other experiences, not an independent force.

Such perspectives miss an important aspect of the development process. The culture of a community significantly shapes debate and action. Local culture also presents unique options for locally based economic and other development. Local understandings and interpretations of a community's history reflect past events that feed into, and are partially driven by the demands, sentiments, and interests of those in the present. This makes it crucial for community development practitioners to consider the importance of culture in efforts to improve local well-being. By paying attention to, and incorporating unique cultural values, traditions, and related factors, more efficient and effective development efforts can be achieved.

Local culture provides a sense of identity for rural communities and residents. This identity facilitates common understandings, traditions, and values, all central to the identification of plans of action to improve well-being. Culture contributes to building a sense of local identity and solidarity. It influences the confidence rural communities have for coming together to address specific needs and problems. This local commitment among residents, regardless of economic or political conditions, can serve as a valuable tool in shaping the effectiveness of development options and local actions. Such commitment, based on culture and common identity, can be seen as a potentially important tool in sustaining local government, development, and social improvement efforts.

Providing a local linkage and cultural basis for development is important. People are likely to take part in and remain committed to development efforts to which they have a direct connection. Development efforts that consider or focus on culture provide a mechanism for linking local residents to the development process. Through such efforts, local residents can encourage development that preserves or promotes their culture. This is particularly important in development efforts that seek to elicit local participation, volunteerism, and community action. In understanding the place of culture in the development process, it is important to consider the social basis of culture, its relationship to interaction, and the types of development and local actions it can contribute to.

Role of Local Culture

The concept of culture has many definitions and interpretations. In social settings, it is often used broadly to represent entire ways of life. Included in such ways of life are rules, values, and expected behaviors. At its most basic level, culture can be seen as the shared products of a society. These products have a common meaning that accumulates over time and also reflect shared attachments among community members.

Culture can be seen as consisting of ideas, rules, and material dimensions. Ideas include such things as the values, knowledge, and experience held by a culture. Values are shared ideas and beliefs about what is morally right or wrong, or what is culturally desirable. Such values are abstract concepts and are often based in religion or culture in that they reflect ideals and visions of what society should be. Such values often shape expected behavior and rules. These rules are accepted ways of doing things and represent guidelines for how people should conduct themselves and how they should act towards others.

Values and rules are often taken for granted and assumed to reflect a common understanding. Both, however, have direct origins and developed in response to conflicts or needs. At the core of such values and norms is a process of interaction that led to their emergence and acceptance. This process shapes the actions of individuals and social systems within their communities. Culture provides belonging and an arena in which residents can make a difference. At the same time, culture contributes to exclusionary practices and has been seen as a drag on development efforts. Regardless, it is clear that culture plays a critical role in local community action.

Applied Uses of Culture in Development

The inclusion of culture into community and economic development models can take many shapes and forms. Culture can serve as the central focus. Included would be tourism and other efforts that focus largely on the promotion, preservation, or enhancement of local or regional cultures. Culture can also be a factor that needs to be addressed to determine its impact on new or existing development programs (resource management, environmental protection). In facing development, the programs that communities are willing to accept and embrace are likely to depend largely on cultural factors. It is therefore vital that problems and potential solutions be defined in a manner consistent with the local culture.

Culture as a Focus of Development

Regional or local culture can serve as a basis for development. Such efforts can serve to promote the local identity, regional languages, and minority cultures. Efforts can focus on preservation or promotion of a culture, but can also use culture to mobilize the local population. Examples of cultural preservation or efforts focusing solely on a culture are often seen in relation to tourism and conservation efforts. Included are renovation of villages (architectural rehabilitation, etc.), highlighting the architectural heritage of an area (restoring historic sites to serve as a focal point for tourists), cultural venues (local heritage centers, traditional cultural events), traditional craft and artistic skills (development of industry and employment based on the production of items which are symbolic of the local culture), and cultural based entertainment and cultural dissemination (organization of cultural activities, festivals, permanent exhibitions). Equally important is the environmental aspects of culture, where traditional uses of natural resources or events symbolize local cultural ties to environmental processes (solstice festivals, harvest festivals, agriculture progress days).

These efforts serve as a basis for development, but also serve to maintain cultural traditions and ways of life. Furthermore, such forms of development highlight the importance of rural cultures and identify their role in shaping wider society. Finally, through such development, community and cultural identities are reinforced and collective identities strengthened. Such interaction can lead to an improved state of community and social well-being.

Culture and Territorial Development

It is argued by some that development should focus clearly on specific sectors of the economy, while others argue that rural development should be more tailored to the unique cultural characteristics of rural areas and highlight their territorial elements. These sectoral approaches have been central to most "top-down" or government-led development. Sectoral programs have however received criticism. Such programs are often seen as being too broad in scope and application to account for the diversity and unique needs of rural areas.

In response to such conditions, a shift from sectoral to territorial rural development policy has been suggested. In such policies, social cohesion and comprehensive planning have been included. Territorial approaches are best suited to meet the unique and complex conditions present in rural areas. The local culture is part of this later development model. As a result, increasing attention is being given to local level and "bottom-up" approaches which focus on culture, territory, local diversity, and the optimization of local resources. Territorial approaches seek to enhance the particular strengths of a rural locality by developing the potential of local resources such as individuals, businesses, and communities. Such perspectives tend to include a recognition of the total environment in which local rural development operates. Such methods attempt to address the interdependencies of people, the environment, and the communities within a locality. Enhancing or focusing on local culture serves this process.

Conclusion and Implications for Extension Programming

The perceptions of rural and urban areas, their economic bases, and means for their development will need to be more closely considered in future policy efforts. This is particularly true when considering the changing character of rural areas and the diversity of communities there. Local culture plays a central role in shaping community development, local character, and responses to needs. Continuing to ignore culture's critical role will constrain development efforts, rendering them little more than short-term solutions for endemic rural problems.

The relationship between culture and community development is vast. However, this important relationship is rarely accorded a significant role in the design of development efforts. Using an interactional approach to community development provides opportunities for incorporating insights into the role and place of culture. Further, it means conceptualizing development so as to highlight the importance of establishing and enhancing social relationships. Aligning such development with cultural promotion and preservation can serve as a tool for successful development. Moreover, focusing on the erosion of solidarity or culture would provide insight into the lack of progress or the presence of obstacles impeding existing development efforts.

Future decisions will need to be made about the types of development activities pursued. In this light, territorial perspectives that focus on local cultures and their attributes appear to provide a more comprehensive approach than those that focus on specialized economic sectors. Local culture is a fundamental component of community life which shapes the unique character, needs, and possibilities of individual rural areas. Indeed, it differentiates communities making one-size-fits-all policies and programs largely irrelevant.

Culture and attachment to it can be used as a motivating factor in opposing "anti-local development" activities such as extra local development and exploitation. Using culture to motivate community members can serve as a tool for policy makers and others interested in encouraging development at the local level. Culture can be seen as presenting both the means and ends of development. To a great extent, it is by emphasizing the wealth and diversity of their cultural heritage that rural areas will be able to develop those activities that enhance social and economic well being. Communities and rural development specialists will need to understand and learn to capitalize on the strengths of community solidarity and culture.

References and Suggested Reading

Bhattacharyya, J. 1995. "Solidarity and agency: Rethinking community development."  Human Organization. 54(1):60-69

Luloff, A.E., and J. Bridger. 2003. Community Agency and Local Development. Pp. 203-213 in,  Challenges for Rural America in the Twenty-First Century , edited by D. Brown and L. Swanson . University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Ramsay, M. 1996. Community, culture, and economic development . Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Brennan, M. A. 2005a. " The Importance of Local Community Action in Shaping Development ." EDIS . Gainesville, FL: Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Publication number: FCS 9209.

Brennan, M. A. 2005b. " Empowering Your Community: Stage 3, Goal Setting and Strategy  Development." EDIS. Gainesville, FL: Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Publication number: FCS 9213.

Brennan, M. A. and C. Regan. 2005. " Empowering Your Community: Stage 2, Organization of Sponsorship." EDIS. Gainesville, FL: Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Publication number: FCS 9212.

• Community and Leadership Development
• International Development
• Research Methods and Statistics
• Social Change/Social Movements
• Rural Sociology
• Environmental/Natural Resource Sociology

You may also be interested in ...

Extension Memories of the Twentieth Century

Grant Writing: How to Find Funds and Write a Winning Proposal

Gender in Agricultural Programs: Filling the GAP

Agriculture: Working for You

Identifying Local Power Structures to Facilitate Community Development

Best Practices for Managing and Moderating Community Social Media Groups

What Makes the 'Good Community'?

En el Camino: Agricultura Urbana en Philadelphia

Asian Americans in Leadership

On the Road: Urban Agriculture in Philadelphia

Personalize your experience with penn state extension and stay informed of the latest in agriculture..

What is local culture?

No place is a place until things that have happened in it are remembered in history, ballads, yarns, legends, or monuments. –Wallace Stegner, "The Sense of Place," 1983

Local culture is everything that we create and share as part of our lives in the place where we live or work.

Local culture recognizes the expertise that people have in living their daily lives. People bring a wealth of knowledge to their activities – where to buy the freshest meats, how to machine a part within a thousandth of an inch, when to move the infield closer to the plate for a bunt, what types of patterns go well with each other, how to reach consensus on a cooperative’s committee.

Local culture recognizes that people’s daily knowledge comes from shared life experiences and information transmitted to them by family, friends, neighbors and co-workers.

Local culture has connections to all aspects of the curriculum, including:

• art, music, theater,
• geography, history, sociology, economics, political science, psychology, anthropology, folklore,
• reading, writing, speaking, listening,
• foreign languages, English as a second language,
• media and technology, international education,
• natural history and environmental education,
• family and consumer education.

We create and share local culture as part of our lives in specific places-urban and rural. The common factor is place, yet each discipline investigates place in a different way.

Where is local culture?

Local culture is everywhere.

Local culture resides in our relations with the local environment and landscapes, in our local music and artistic expressions, in our community’s history and contemporary social issues, and in our family’s stories.

Want to explore some examples?

C lick on the map to launch an interactive exploration of local in Wisconsin.

Examples include:

• Finnish names in Washburn
• An Ojibwe story from Ashland
• Ojibwe fish decoys in Lac du Flambeau
• A tall tale from Tomahawk
• A Menominee story from the Menominee Nation
• A lumberjack story from Rice Lake
• Norwegian polka from Mondovi
• A Hmong story from Eau Claire
• A Belgian festival in Algoma
• Polish weddings near Custer
• A Czech celebration near Hillsboro
• African American gospel from DeForest
• African American quilting in Milwaukee
• Swiss yodeling in Monroe

The Work of Local Culture

Each year the Iowa Humanities Board offers a talk by a distinguished humanities scholar focusing on a theme important to the people of Iowa. Under the theme of the Exemplary Project, "A Sense of Place," the 1988 Iowa Humanities Lecture featured Wendell Berry.

FOR MANY YEARS MY WALKS HAVE TAKEN ME down an old fencerow in a wooded hollow on what was once my grandfather's farm. A battered galvanized bucket is hanging on a fence post near the head of the hollow, and I never go by it without stopping to look inside. For what is going on in that bucket is the most momentous thing I know, the greatest miracle that I have ever heard of: it is making earth. The old bucket has hung there through many autumns, and the leaves have fallen around it and some have fallen into it. Rain and snow have fallen into it, and the fallen leaves have held the moisture and so have rotted. Nuts have fallen into it, or been carried into it by squirrels; mice and squirrels have eaten the meat of the nuts and left the shells; they and other animals have left their droppings; insects have flown into the bucket and died and decayed; birds have scratched in it and left their droppings or perhaps a feather or two. This slow work of growth and death, gravity and decay, which is the chief work of the world, has by now produced in the bottom of the bucket several inches of black humus. I look into that bucket with fascination because I am a farmer of sorts and an artist of sorts, and I recognize there an artistry and a farming far superior to mine, or to that of any human. I have seen the same process at work on the tops of boulders in a forest, and it has been at work immemorially over most of the land-surface of the world. All creatures die into it, and they live by it.

The old bucket started out a far better one than you can buy now. I think it has been hanging on that post for something like fifty years. I think so because I remember hearing, when I was just a small boy, a story about a bucket that must have been this one. Several of my grandfather's black hired hands went out on an early spring day to burn a tobacco plantbed, and they took along some eggs to boil and eat with their dinner. When dinner came time and they look around for something to boil the eggs in, they could find only an old bucket that at one time had been filled with tar. The boiling water softened the residue of tar, and one of the eggs came out of the water black. The hands made much sport of seeing who would have to eat the black egg, welcoming their laughter in the midst of their days work. The man who had to eat the black egg was Floyd Scott, whom I remember well. Dry scales of tar still adhere to the inside of the bucket. 

However small a landmark the old bucket is, it is not trivial. It is one of the signs by which I know my country and myself. And to me it is irresistibly suggestive in the way it collects leaves and other woodland sheddings as they fall through time. It collects stories too as they fall through time. It is irresistibly metaphorical. It is doing in a passive way what a human community must do actively and thoughtfully. A human community too must collect leaves and stories, and turn them into an account. It must build soil, and build that memory of itself—in lore and story and song—which will be its culture. And these two kinds of accumulation, of local soil and local culture, are intimately related.   

IN THE WOODS, THE BUCKET IS NO METAPHOR; it simply reveals what is always happening in the woods, if the woods is let alone. Of course, in most places in my part of the country, the human community did not leave the woods alone. It felled the trees, and replaced them with pastures and crops. But this did not revoke the law of the woods, which is that the ground must be protected by a cover of vegetation, and that the growth of the years must return—or be returned—to the ground to rot and build soil. A good local culture, in one of its most important functions, is a collection of the memories, ways, and skills necessary for the observance, within the bounds of domesticity, of this natural law. If the local culture cannot preserve and improve the local soil, then, as both reason and history inform us, the local community will decay and perish, and the work of soil-building will be resumed by nature. 

A human community, then, if it is to last long, must exert a sort of centripetal force, holding local soil and local memory in place. Practically speaking, human society has no work more important than this. Once we have acknowledged this principle, we can only be alarmed at the extent to which it has been ignored. For though our present society does generate a centripetal force of great power, this is not a local force, but one centered almost exclusively in our great commercial and industrial cities, which have drawn irresistibly into themselves both the products of the countryside and the people and talents of the country communities. 

There is, as one assumes there must be, a countervailing or centrifugal force that also operates in our society, but this returns to the countryside, not the residue of the land's growth to refertilize the fields, not the learning and experience of the greater world ready to go to work locally, and not, or not often, even a just monetary compensation. What are returned, instead, are overpriced manufactured goods, pollution in various forms, and garbage. A landfill on the edge of my own rural county in Kentucky, for example, daily receives about eighty truckloads of garbage. About fifty of these loads come from cities in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Thus, the end result of the phenomenal modern productivity of the countryside is a debased countryside, which becomes daily less pleasant, and which will inevitably become less productive. 

The cities, which have imposed this inversion of forces upon the countryside, have been unable to preserve themselves from it. The typical modern city is surrounded by a circle of affluent suburbs, eating its way outward, like ringworm, leaving the so-called "inner city" desolate, filthy, ugly, and dangerous.  

MY WALKS IN THE HILLS AND HOLLOWS around my home have inevitably produced in my mind the awareness that I live in a diminished country. The country has been and is being reduced by the great centralizing process that is our national economy. As I walk, I am always reminded of the slow, patient building of soil in the woods. And I am reminded of the events and companions of my life—for my walks, after so long, are cultural events. But under the trees and in the fields I see also the gullies and scars, healed or healing or fresh, left by careless logging and bad farming. I see the crumbling stone walls, and the wire fences that have been rusting out ever since the 1930's. In the returning woods growth out of the hollows, I see the sagging and the fallen barns, the empty and ruining houses, the houseless chimneys and foundations. As I look at this evidence of human life poorly founded, played out, and gone, I try to recover some understanding, some vision, of what this country was at the beginning: the great oaks and beeches and hickories, walnuts and maples, lindens and ashes, tulip poplars, standing in beauty and dignity now unimaginable, lying deep at their feet—an incalculable birthright sold for money, most of which we do not receive. Most of the money made on the products of this place has gone to fill the pockets of people in distant cities who did not produce the products. 

If my walks take me along the roads and streams, I see also the trash and the junk, carelessly manufactured and carelessly thrown away, the glass and the broken glass and the plastic and the aluminum that will lie here longer than the lifetime of the trees—longer than the lifetime of our species, perhaps. And I know that this also is what we have to show for our participation in the American economy, for most of the money made on these things too has been made elsewhere.

It would be somewhat more pleasant for country people if they could blame all this on city people. But the old opposition of country versus city—though still true, and truer than ever economically, for the country is more than ever the colony of the city—is far too simple to explain our problem. For country people more and more live like city people, and so connive in their own ruin. More and more country people, like city people, allow their economic and social standards to be set by television and salesmen and outside experts. Our garbage mingles with New Jersey garbage in our local landfill, and it would be hard to tell which is which. 

As local community decays along with local economy, a vast amnesia settles over the countryside. As the exposed and disregarded soil departs with the rains, so local knowledge and local memory move away to the cities, or are forgotten under the influence of homogenized sales talk, entertainment, and education. This loss of local knowledge and local memory—that is, of local culture—has been ignored, or written off as one of the cheaper "prices of progress", or made the business of folklorists. Nevertheless, local culture has a value, and part of its value is economic. This can be demonstrated readily enough. 

For example, when a community loses its memory, its members no longer know each other. How can they know each other if they have forgotten or have never learned each other's stories? If they do not know each other's stories, how can they know whether or not to trust each other? People who do not trust each other do not help each other, and moreover they fear each other. And this is our predicament now. Because of a general distrust and suspicion, we not only lose one another's help and companionship, but we are all now living in jeopardy of being sued. 

We don't trust our "public servants" because we know that they don't respect us. They don't respect us, as we understand, because they don't know us; they don't know our stories. They expect us to sue them if they make mistakes, and so they must insure themselves, at great expense to them and to us. Doctors in a country community must send their patients to specialists in the city, not necessarily because they believe that they are wrong in their diagnoses, but because they know that they are not infallible, and they must protect themselves against lawsuits, at great expense to us. 

The government of my home county, which has a population of about 10,000 people, pays an annual liability insurance premium of about $34,000. Add to this the liability premiums that are paid by every professional person who is "at risk" in the county, and you get some idea of the load we are carrying. Many decent family livelihoods are annually paid out of the county to insurance companies for a service that is only negative and provisional.

All of this money is lost to us by the failure of the community. A good community, as we know, insures itself by trust, by good faith and good will, by mutual help. A good community, in other words, is a good local economy. It depends upon itself for many of its essential needs and is thus shaped, so to speak, from the inside—unlike most modern populations that depend upon distant purchases for almost everything, and are thus shaped from the outside by the purposes and the influence of salesmen.   

I WAS WALKING ONE SUNDAY AFTERNOON several years ago with an older friend. We went by the ruining log house that had belonged to his grandparents and great-grandparents. The house stirred my friend's memory, and he told how the old time people used to visit each other in the evenings, especially in the long evenings of winter. There used to be a sort of institution in our part of the country known as "sitting till bedtime." After supper, when they weren't too tired, neighbors would walk across the fields to visit each other. They popped corn, my friend said, and ate apples and talked. They told each other stories. They told each other stories, as I knew myself, that they had all heard before. Sometimes they told stories about each other, about themselves, living again in their own memories, and thus keeping their memories alive. Among the hearers of these stories were always the children. When bedtime came, the visitors lit their lanterns and went home. My friend talked about this, and thought about it, and then he said, "They had everything but money."

They were poor, as country people often have been, but they had each other, they had their local economy in which they helped each other, they had each other's comfort when they needed it, and they had their stories, their history together in that place. To have everything but money is to have much. And most people of the present can only marvel to think of neighbors entertaining themselves for a whole evening without a single imported pleasure and without listening to a single minute of sales talk. 

Most of the descendants of those people have now moved away, partly because of the cultural and economic failures that I mentioned earlier, and most of them no longer sit in the evenings and talk to anyone. Most of them now sit until bedtime, watching TV, submitting every few minutes to a sales talk. The message of both the TV programs and the salestalks is that the watchers should spend whatever is necessary to be like everybody else.

By television and other public means, we are encouraged to imagine that we are far advanced beyond sitting till bedtime with the neighbors on a Kentucky ridgetop, and indeed beyond anything we ever were before. But if, for example, there should occur a forty-eight hour power failure, we would find ourselves in much more backward circumstances than our ancestors. What, for starters, would we do for entertainment? Tell each other stories? But most of us no longer talk with each other, much less tell each other stories. We tell our stories now mostly to doctors or lawyers or psychiatrists or insurance adjusters or the police, not to our neighbors for their (and our) entertainment. The stories that now entertain us are made up for us in New York or Los Angeles or other centers of such commerce. 

But a forty-eight hour power failure would involve almost unimaginable deprivations. It would be difficult to travel, especially in cities. Most of the essential work could not be done. Our windowless modern schools and other such buildings that depend on air conditioning could not be used. Refrigeration would be impossible; food would spoil. It would be difficult or impossible to prepare meals. If it was winter, heating systems would fail. At the end of forty-eight hours many of us would be hungry. 

Such a calamity—and it is a modest one among those that our time has made possible—would thus reveal how far most of us are now living from our cultural and economic sources, and how extensively we have destroyed the foundations of local life. It would show us how far we have strayed from the locally centered life of such neighborhoods as the one my friend described—a life based to considerable extent upon what we now call solar energy, which is decentralized, democratic, clean and free. If we note that much of the difference we are talking about can be accounted for as an increasing dependence upon energy sources that are centralized, undemocratic, filthy and expensive, we will have completed a sort of historical parable.   

HOW HAS THIS HAPPENED? There are many reasons for it. One of the chief reasons is that everywhere in our country the local succession of the generations has been broken. We can trace this change through a series of stories that we may think of as cultural landmarks.

Throughout most of our literature the normal thing was for the generations to succeed one another in place. The memorable stories occurred when this succession became difficult or was threatened in one way or another. The norm is given in Psalm 128, in which succession is seen as one of the rewards of righteousness: "thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel." 

The longing for this result seems to have been universal. It presides also over The Odyssey , in which Odysseus' desire to return home is certainly regarded as normal. And this story is much concerned with the psychology of family succession. Telemachus, Odysseus' son, comes of age in preparing for the return of his long-absent father. And it seems almost that Odysseus is enabled to return home by his son's achievement of enough manhood to go in search of him. Long after the return of both father and son, Odysseus' life will complete itself, as we know from Teiresias' prophecy in Book XI, much in the spirit of Psalm 128:

a seaborn death soft as this hand of mist will come upon you when you are wearied out with sick old age, your country folk in blessed peace around you.

The Bible makes much of what it sees as the normal succession—in such stories as those of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, David and Solomon—in which the son completes the work or the destiny of the father. The parable of the Prodigal Son is prepared for by such Old Testament stories as that of Jacob, who errs, wanders, returns, is forgiven, and takes his place in the family lineage. 

Shakespeare was concerned throughout his working life with the theme of the separation and rejoining of parents and children. It is there at the beginning in The Comedy of Errors , and he is still thinking about it when he gets to King Lear and Pericles and The Tempest . When Lear walks onstage with Cordelia dead in his arms, the theme of return is fulfilled, only this time in the way of tragedy.

Wordsworth's poem, "Michael," written in 1800, is in the same line of descent. It is the story of a prodigal son, and return is still understood as the norm; before the boy's departure, he and his father make a "covenant" that he will return home and carry on his father's life as a shepherd on their ancestral pastures. But the ancient theme here has two significant differences; the son leaves home for an economic reason, and he does not return. Old Michael, the father, was long ago "bound/ In surety for his brother's son." This nephew has failed in his business, and Michael is "summoned to discharge the forfeiture." Rather than do this by selling a portion of their patrimony, the aged parents decide that they must send their son to work for another kinsman in the city in order to earn the necessary money. The country people all are poor; there is no money to be earned at home. When the son has cleared the debt from the land, he will return to it to "possess it, free as the wind/ That passes over it." But the son goes to the city, is corrupted by it, eventually commits a crime, and is forced "To seek a hiding place beyond the seas." 

"Michael" is a sort of cultural watershed. It carries on the theme of return that goes back to the beginnings of Western culture, but that return now is only a desire and a memory; in the poem it fails to happen. Because of that failure, we see in "Michael," not just a local story of the Lake District in England, which it is, but the story of rural families in the industrial nations from Wordsworth's time until today. The children go to the cities, for reasons imposed by the external economy, and they do not return; eventually the parents die and the family land, like Michael's, is sold to a stranger. By now it has happened millions of times.

And by now the transformation of the ancient story is nearly complete. Our society, on the whole, has forgot or repudiated the theme of return. Young people still grow up in rural families, and go off to the cities, not to return. But now it is felt that this is what they should do. Now the norm is to leave and not return. And this applies as much to urban families as to rural ones. In the present urban economy the parent-child succession is possible only among the economically privileged. The children of industrial underlings are not likely to succeed their parents at work, and there is not reason for them to wish to do so. We are not going to have an industrial "Michael" in which it is perceived as tragic that a son fails to succeed his father on an assembly line.

According to the new norm, the child's destiny is not to succeed the parents, but to outmode them; succession has given way to supersession. And this norm is institutionalized, not in great communal stories, but in the education system. The schools are no longer oriented to a cultural inheritance which it is their duty to pass on unimpaired, but to the career, which is to the future, of the child. The orientation is thus necessarily theoretical, speculative, and central. The child is not educated to return home and be of use to the place and community; he or she is educated to leave home and earn money in a provisional future that has nothing to do with place or community. And parents with children in school are likely to find themselves immediately separated from their children, and made useless to them, by the intervention of new educational techniques, technologies, methods and languages. School systems innovate as compulsively and eagerly as factories. It is no wonder that, under these circumstances, "educators" tend to look upon the parents as a bad influence, and wish to take the children away from home as early as possible. And many parents, in truth, are now finding their children an encumbrance at home – where there is no useful work for them to do – and are glad enough to turn them over to the state for the use of the future. The extent to which this order of things is now dominant is suggested by a recent magazine article on the discovery of what purports to be a new idea:

The idea that a parent can be a teacher at home has caught the attention of educators... Parents don't have to be graduates of Harvard or Yale to help their kids learn and achieve...

Thus the home as a place where a child can learn has become an idea of the professional "educator," who retains control of the idea. The home, as the article makes clear, is not to be a place where children may learn on their own, but a place where they are taught by parents according to the instructions of professional "educators." In fact, "The Home and School Institute, Inc., of Washington, D.C." (known, of course, as "The HSI") has been "founded to show... how to involve families in their kids' educations."

In such ways as this, the nuclei of home and community have been invaded by the organizations, just as have the nuclei of cells and atoms. And we must be careful to see that the old cultural centers of home and community were made vulnerable to this invasion by their failure as economies. If there is no household or community economy, then family members and neighbors are no longer useful to each other. When people are no longer useful to each other, then the centripetal force of family and community fails, and people fall into dependence upon exterior economies and organizations. The hegemony of professionals and professionalism erects itself upon local failure. And from then on the locality exists merely as a market for consumer goods as a source of "raw material," human and natural. The local schools no longer serve the local community; they serve the government's economy and the economy's government. Unlike the local community, the government and the economy cannot be served with affection, but only with professional zeal or professional boredom. Professionalism means more interest in salary and less interest in what used to be known as disciplines. And so we arrive at the idea, endlessly reiterated in the news media, that education can be improved by bigger salaries for teachers – which may be true, but not, as the proponents too often imply, by bigger salaries alone. There must also be love of learning and of the cultural tradition and of excellence. And this love cannot exist, because it makes no sense, apart from the love of a place and community. Without this love, education is only the importation into a local community of centrally prescribed "career preparation" designed to facilitate the export of young careerists. 

Our children are educated, then, to leave home, not to stay home, and the costs of this have been far too little acknowledged. One of the costs is psychological, and the other is at once cultural and ecological.

The natural or normal course of human growing-up must begin with some sort of rebellion against one's parents, for it is clearly impossible to grow up if one remains a child. But the child, in the process of rebellion and of achieving the emotional and economic independence that rebellion ought to lead to, finally comes to understand the parents as fellow humans and fellow sufferers, and in some manner returns to them as their friend, forgiven and forgiving the inevitable wrongs of family life. That is the old norm, of which the story of the Prodigal son is an example.

The new norm, according to which the child leaves home as a student and never lives at home again, interrupts the old course of coming of age at the point of rebellion, so that the child is apt to remain stalled in adolescence, never achieving any kind of reconciliation or friendship with the parents. Of course, such a return and reconciliation cannot be achieved without the recognition of mutual practical need. However, in the present economy where individual dependences are so much exterior to both household and community, family members often have no practical need or use for one another. Hence, the frequent futility of attempts at a purely psychological or emotional reconciliation.

And this interposition of rebellion and then of geographical and occupational distance between parents and children may account for the peculiar emotional intensity that our society attaches to innovation. We appear to hate whatever went before, very much as an adolescent hates parental rule, and to look upon its obsolescence as a kind of vengeance. Thus we may explain industry's obsessive emphasis upon "this year's model," or the preoccupation of the professional "educators" with theoretical and methodological innovation. And thus, in modern literature we have had for many years an emphasis upon "originality" and the "anxiety of influence" (an adolescent critical theory), as opposed, say, to Spenser's filial admiration for Chaucer, or Dante's for Virgil.

But if the norm interrupts the development of the relation between children and parents, that same interruption, ramifying through a community, destroys the continuity and so the integrity of local life. As the children depart, generation after generation, the place loses its memory of itself, which is its history and its culture. And the local history, if it survives at all, loses its place. It does no good for historians, folklorists, and anthropologists to collect the songs and the stories and the lore that comprise local culture and store them in books and archives. They cannot collect and store, because they cannot know, the pattern of reminding that can survive only in the living human community in its place. It is this pattern that is the life of the local culture, and that brings it usefully or pleasurably to mind. Apart from its local landmarks and occasions, the local culture may be the subject of curiosity or of study, but it is also dead.  

THE LOSS OF LOCAL CULTURES IS, IN PART, A PRACTICAL LOSS and an economic one. For one thing, such a culture contains, and conveys to succeeding generations, the history of the use of the place and the knowledge of how the place may be lived in and used. For another, the pattern of reminding implies affection for the place and respect for it, and so, finally, the local culture will carry the knowledge of how the place may be well and lovingly used, and moreover the implicit command to use it only well and lovingly. The only true and effective "operator's manual for spaceship earth" is not a book that any human will ever write; it is hundreds of thousands of local cultures. 

Lacking an authentic local culture, a place is open to exploitation, and ultimately destruction, from the center. Recently, for example, I heard the dean of a prominent college of agriculture interviewed on the radio. What have we learned, he was asked, from last summer's drouth? And he replied that "we" need to breed more drouth resistance into plants, and that "we" need a government "safety net" for farmers. He might have said that farmers need to reexamine their farms and their circumstances in light of the drouth, and to think again on such subjects as diversification, scale, and the mutual helpfulness of neighbors. But he did not say that. To him, the drought was merely an opportunity for agribusiness corporations and the government, by which the farmers and rural communities could only become more dependent on the economy that is destroying them. This is as good an example as any of the centralized thinking of a centralized economy—to which the only effective answer that I know is a strong local economy and a strong local culture. 

For a long time now, the prevailing assumption has been that if the nation is all right, then all the localities within it will be all right also. I see little reason to believe that this is true. At present, in fact, both the nation and the local economy are living at the expense of localities and local communities—as all small town and country people have reason to know. In rural America, which is in many ways a colony of what the government and the corporations think of as a nation, most of us have experienced the losses that I have been talking about; the departure of young people, of soil and other so-called natural resources, and of local memory. We feel ourselves crowded more and more into a dimensionless present, in which the past is forgotten, and the future, even in our most optimistic "projections," is forbidding and fearful. Who can desire a future that is determined entirely by the purposes of the most wealthy and the most powerful, and by the capacities of machines?

Two questions, then, remain: Is a change for the better possible? And who has the power to make such a change? I still believe that a change for the better is possible, but I confess that my belief is partly hope and partly faith. No one who hopes for improvement should fail to see and respect the signs that we may be approaching some sort of historical waterfall, past which we will not, by changing our minds, be able to change anything else. We know that at any time an ecological or a technological or a political event that we will have allowed may remove from us the power to make change and leave us with the mere necessity to submit to it. Beyond that, the two questions are one: the possibility of change depends upon the existence of people who have the power to change. 

Does this power reside at present in the national government? That seems to me extremely doubtful. To anyone who has read the papers during the recent presidential campaign, it must be clear that at the highest level of government there is, properly speaking, no political discussion. Are the corporations likely to help us? We know, from long experience, that the corporations will assume no responsibility that is not forcibly imposed upon them by government. The record of the corporations is written too plainly in verifiable damage to permit us to expect much from them. May we look for help to the universities? Well, the universities are more and more the servants of government and the corporations.

Most urban people evidently assume that all is well. They live too far from the exploited and endangered sources of their economy to need to assume otherwise. Some urban people are becoming disturbed about the contamination of air, water, and food and that is promising, but there are not enough of them yet to make much difference. There is enough trouble in the "inner cities" to make them likely places of change, and evidently change is in them, but it is desperate and destructive change. As if to perfect their exploitation by other people, the people of the "inner cities" are destroying both themselves and their places. 

My feeling is that, if improvement is going to begin anywhere, it will have to begin out in the country and in the country towns. This is not because of any intrinsic virtue that can be ascribed to country people, but because of their circumstances. Rural people are living, and have lived for a long time, at the site of the trouble. They see all around them, every day, the marks and scars of an exploitive national economy. They have much reason, by now, to know how little real help is to be expected from somewhere else. They still have, moreover, the remnants of local memory and local community. And in rural communities there are still farms and small businesses that can be changed according to the will and the desire of individual people.

In this difficult time of failed public expectations, when thoughtful people wonder where to look for hope, I keep returning in my own mind to the thought of the renewal of the rural communities. I know that one resurrected rural community would be more convincing and more encouraging than all the government and university programs of the last fifty years, and I think that it could be the beginning of the renewal of our country, for the renewal of rural communities ultimately implies the renewal of urban ones. But to be authentic, a true encouragement and a true beginning, this would have to be a resurrection accomplished mainly by the community itself. It would have to be done, not from the outside by the instruction of visiting experts, but from the inside by the ancient rule of neighborliness, by the love of precious things, and by the wish to be at home.

This article is shared here with permission.  

Wendell Berry  lives and farms with his wife, Tanya, on the banks of the Kentucky River. His published works include The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, What are People For?, numerous poetry anthologies, novels, and essays. For further information about Mr. Berry’s books, contact Counterpoint Press, your local independent bookseller, or your local library. 

Mr. Berry was born in Henry County, Kentucky, and received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Kentucky. He has taught at many colleges and universities. Mr. Berry has received numerous awards and fellowships, including a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship; a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship; the American Academy of Arts & Letters Jean Stein Award; and the Kentucky Governor's Milner Award in the Arts. Currently Mr. Berry is a professor at the University of Kentucky, and continues to farm 125 acres in the county of his birth.

A prolific writer, Wendell Berry is the author of ten books of poetry, nine collections of essays, and four novels, including Remembering, published in the fall of 1988. He is a frequent, popular lecturer, including both the 1980 and 1986 Annual E.F. Schumacher Society Lectures. Mr. Berry is considered to be the foremost advocate for rural culture in America.

SHARE YOUR REFLECTION

You may opt out or contact us anytime.

Zócalo Podcasts

What Does It Mean to Be a ‘Local’ in Hawai‘i?

A honolulu-born writer reflects on how demographic and economic change are making an idealized aloha state identity obsolete.

A statue in Honolulu depicts an idealized image of Hawaiian identity. Courtesy of Shutterstock .

by Peter Hong | October 9, 2018

The story of the modern Hawai‘i diaspora is a paradox: Many of us who grew up in Hawai‘i in the second half of the 20th century developed a powerful sense of “local” identity—but were compelled by economics to live elsewhere in the United States.

I am one of many in this long diaspora who still refers to Hawai‘i as “home.” And if you ask me what it means to be from Hawai‘i today, the question is tough to answer. It’s especially hard if you were influenced by the transformative period—sometimes referred to as the Hawaiian Renaissance—that began a little more than a decade after the arrival of U.S. statehood in 1959.

Members of the diaspora cling to a set of beliefs about our identity—as Hawaiʻi “locals” shaped by the islands where we were born in raised—that are increasingly removed from today’s realities.

I was born in Honolulu in 1965 to parents who had recently emigrated from Korea for graduate studies at the university. My family then lived in a dingy apartment in the headquarters of the Korean National Association (KNA) on Rooke Avenue. The Mediterranean Revival compound had once housed a prominent island Portuguese family, and some still knew it as the “Canavarro Castle.”

The KNA’s roots dated back to 1909, when exiled Koreans in Honolulu and San Francisco organized to raise funds and strategize for Korean independence from Japan. Following Japan’s defeat in World War II, the KNA became a local community organization. By the time we were living there in the 1960s, the headquarters building had become a convening spot for occasional weekend festivities for local Koreans. Along with our family, a couple other units were rented to elderly former plantation laborers who had been among the first Korean immigrants to the United States in the early 1900s.

By the time I started kindergarten in 1970, my parents had divorced, and my mother, brother, and I had moved to another modest apartment, this one a low-rise walk-up in the Mōʻiliʻili area of Honolulu across the canal from the new high-rise hotels at Waikīkī.

I attended Ala Wai Elementary school, which was, then and now, a gateway for many families who had recently arrived from another country or state. I remember sometimes beginning our pickup football games with a raucous Samoan chant and seeing new kids arrive from places like Taiwan and Texas.

Yet the legacy of earlier agricultural immigrant waves from Japan, China, the Philippines, Portugal, and Puerto Rico surrounded us. There was judo and sumo in the community center. For about a year, an ancient “manapua man” sold steamed pork buns from pails suspended from a wooden pole slung across his shoulders. His industrial age competitor sold his treats from a white Volkswagen beetle. When the original manapua man no longer made his rounds, the kids swore they had seen the VW manapua man run him down; it was a childish tall tale, but contained some truths about the force of modernity.

My walk home from school passed the ʻIolani School campus, where Sun Yat-sen, who eventually overthrew China’s last imperial dynasty to become the country’s first president, was graduated in 1882. (Sun had a brother in Honolulu who paid for his education.) My own brother and I liked to stop in at the 100th Infantry Battalion clubhouse to get a drink from their water fountain and gawk at the display case of World War II weapons, which, if my memory isn’t too hazy, contained a German water-cooled machine gun. We would learn later of the heroics of the Japanese-American soldiers and the role of returning veterans in democratizing Hawaiʻi’s politics and breaking down the caste-like plantation economy.

In the early 1970s, there was an idealized view of Hawaiʻi as a progressive, multicultural state that might be a model for a new, transpacific United States. At least, that was the pretty picture broadcast to millions on “Hawaii Five-O.” “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry said the multiracial crew of the S.S. Enterprise was inspired by what he saw in Hawaiʻi when he was based there as a pilot during the war. This “Paradise of the Pacific” image was pushed by the tourism industry and taught to us in school.

It was a flawed paradise. The rise of the upwardly mobile middle class was fueled by organized labor, federal defense, and infrastructure spending, and the growth of tourism. But many native Hawaiians were left behind economically, or actively displaced from their housing, by Americanization. Poverty and incarceration rates were alarming, and the indignity of suppressing the native language and culture would no longer be tolerated. Things fell apart.

By the mid-1970s, open revolt against Americanization and displacement had begun. The actions were both entirely peaceful and undeniably forceful. In Kalama Valley on Oʻahu, farmers refused to leave their leased lands to make way for residential real estate development. Activists began regular landings on Kahoʻolawe island to protest its use by the Navy as a bombing range. Hundreds of homeless native Hawaiians cleaned up the land around the Sand Island garbage dump to build a fishing village.

The physical protests and reclamations of land produced mixed results. Kalama Valley was turned into an expensive suburb in spite of the farmers’ protests. The Sand Island residents were evicted, their homes bulldozed. But military use of Kahoʻolawe ceased.

More important, these actions raised Hawaiian consciousness and galvanized a sophisticated critical mass of native leadership well-versed in law and public organizing. On a parallel course, a Hawaiian renaissance in language, culture, and the arts largely succeeded in establishing a distinctive regional identity.

By the late ‘70s, as I entered my teens, there was growing talk of Hawaiian sovereignty .

By the late 1980s, when I finished college in Los Angeles, Hawaiian sovereignty was still building momentum; today it is inseparable from any substantial discussion of Hawaiʻi’s political future.

At the same time, the high cost of living, especially for housing, meant many in my generation could not afford to make a life on the islands. The trend continues today, even more intensely. New homes on Oʻahu are routinely priced in the seven figures, and luxury condominium units actually sell in the eight figures. The market resembles that of California, where few can afford to live in the neighborhoods their parents settled in the 1960s or 1970s. Hawaiʻi continues to have negative net migration with the rest of the United States. Most newcomers are whites from other parts of the continental United States. So many native Hawaiians have left that the numbers of native Hawaiians on the U.S. continent far outnumber those in Hawaiʻi.

So what does it mean to be of Hawaiʻi today? The answer lies in an ongoing dispute over whether native Hawaiian ancestry is a requisite to being a Hawaiian.

For those without native blood, there has often been a belief that if you held certain values, or ate certain foods, or spoke the Hawaiian language to some degree and pidgin English fluently, you were “local.” In his 1986 book Kū Kanaka , George Kanahele noted that one answer given to the question, “Who and what is a Hawaiian?” was “someone who eats palu (a relish made of the head or stomach of a fish, mixed with kukui nut, garlic, and chili peppers).” Kanahele himself held that any Hawaiʻi resident with a “true understanding of the values of Hawaiian culture” was a Hawaiian.

But today’s demographic and economic trends in Hawai‘i are making that identity obsolete. The “locals” are dying or leaving.

What is then left? One answer comes from the diaspora itself, which is defining the values of Hawai‘i culture, even though they don’t actually live in Hawai‘i. Thanks to the diaspora, you can now find multiple hula hālau (schools teaching the ancient Hawaiian dance form) in several U.S. metro areas. Numerous Facebook groups for Hawaiʻi expats exist to answer questions like, “Where can I get luau leaf in Seattle?”

But such extensions of Hawai‘i identity to the continental U.S. don’t solve the tough questions that face the state. Can Hawaiʻi exist as a place where more children will grow up to move elsewhere than remain? Will the pattern of large-scale local and native out-migration become permanent?

Or will this large and ongoing diaspora inspire a backlash at home? Will those left in Hawai‘i seek to protect themselves in ways that force a dramatic upheaval in the demography and economy of the islands? For example, could native Hawaiians respond to the outflow of their friends, and the arrival of American strangers, by seeking some form of political sovereignty—including independence from the United States itself? And would such a rupture bring Hawai‘i locals and other members of the diaspora home?

George Kanahele, in that 1986 book, noted that the Hawaiian cultural resurgence of the 1960s and 1970s was tied to similar U.S. and global movements. The population outflow of Hawaiʻi today is also tied to broader U.S. and global trends.

Oʻahu shares its stratospheric housing costs with cities from Vancouver to Tokyo to Auckland, all of which have seen backlashes from locals displaced by wealthy new arrivals. Mass homelessness and stubborn wage stagnation are fueling frustration and reassessment in Honolulu and in other U.S. cities. Will Hawaiʻi’s still-distinctive culture yield homegrown solutions, like its current and innovative homelessness project ? Or will Hawaiʻi be the first to act on a Brexit-like rejection of the American status quo?

The paths of Hawaiʻi’s people at home and abroad could well become a case study in the long-term viability of statehood and citizenship for many nations.

Send A Letter To the Editors

Please tell us your thoughts. Include your name and daytime phone number, and a link to the article you’re responding to. We may edit your letter for length and clarity and publish it on our site.

(Optional) Attach an image to your letter. Jpeg, PNG or GIF accepted, 1MB maximum.

By continuing to use our website, you agree to our privacy and cookie policy . Zócalo wants to hear from you. Please take our survey !-->

Get More Zócalo

No paywall. No ads. No partisan hacks. Ideas journalism with a head and a heart.

Cultural Globalization: Research on Globalization and Local Culture

Globalization of Culture: This thesis examines how globalization affects the world’s traditions and personalities, and how the effects of this blending of indigenous cultures with the rest of the world from the modern world order.

Review of literature –

• Yogendra Singh, in Culture change in India: identity and globalization (2000).

This book investigates Changes in cultural styles because of exposure to global cultural trends from India’s perspective, highlighting qualitative research on the prevalence of different outcomes on cultures and their identities because of globalization, while challenging the effect of our Indian culture.

• LUKE MARTELL, in SOCIOLOGY OF GLOBALIZATION (2017).

In view of increasing globalization, Martell contends that while it provides many opportunities for greater engagement and involvement in communities around the world, such as through the media and migration, it also has negative consequences such as violence, global poverty, climate change, and economic instability.

• Marwan Kraidy, in Hybridity, or the Cultural Logic of Globalization (2006).

This book explores the use of the term “hybridity” in cultural and postcolonial studies and presents a history of the definition as well as prescriptions for its future use, building on original study. Karidy advocates critical trans culturalism, a new theory he developed to study cultural blending And, in addition to using hybridity as its central principle, offers a realistic method for exploring how media and communication function in foreign contexts.

• Abderrahman Hassi & Giovanna Storti, Globalization and Culture: The Three H Scenarios, Globalization – Approaches to Diversity (2012).

This research looks at the transnational movements of individuals, financial resources, goods, knowledge, and culture that have recently expanded significantly and fundamentally changed the world, providing three cultural transformation possibilities: homogenization, hybridization, and heterogeneity.

• Dani Rodrik, Has Globalization Gone Too Far? 41 Challenge 81–94 (1998).

The project presented an analysis of the different analytical viewpoints and empirical responses and examines the benefits—and drawbacks—of international economic integration, and criticizes orthodox economists for downplaying the risks.

Globalization

Globalization is a process of exchange and convergence among individuals, companies, and governments from various countries, fueled by foreign trade and investment and assisted by information technology. Since it is multidimensional and global in nature, this mechanism has global implications for the environment, society, democratic processes, economic stability and security, and human physical well-being.

Globalization, as a philosophy and a system, has emerged as the overarching political, economic, and cultural power in the twenty-first century, with significant implications for the state’s status.

“Culture is composed of explicit and tacit patterns of and for action taught and expressed by symbols, which constitute the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiment in artefacts; the basic Center of culture is composed of universal concepts and their attached beliefs. Culture mechanisms can be viewed as action components on the one hand, and conditioning elements of potential action on the other.”

Local culture –

Local culture is a term that is commonly used to identify the everyday environment of people who live in unusual and distinctive places. It reflects ordinary people’s feelings of appropriateness, ease, and correctness—qualities that classify personal desires and changing tastes.

  Cultural globalization

The method of integrating local culture with the outside world through globalization is referred to as cultural globalization. It is a process in which everyday life experiences, as influenced by the spread of goods and ideas, reflect a global standardization of cultural expressions.

The term “globalization of culture” first emerged in conjunction with the topic of nation-state unification and the extension of people’s cultural relations in the late 1980s. Many people agree that cultural globalization is a long-term historical phenomenon that brings diverse cultures together.

“Human integration and hybridization are included in cultural globalization. Cultural convergence across continents and countries has been going on for decades. – Jan Pieterse

The positive contribution of cultural globalization   –

Rather than dismantling those cultures, as others predicted, mainstream media contributes to the revitalization and regeneration of nations’ cultural preservation. Language, rituals, and history will also be maintained using technologies. Technology promotes self-representation and the preservation of personal and social identities by providing individuality and empowerment.

The new period of globalization, with its unprecedented expansion and intensification of global transfers of money, Labour, and information, is the homogenizing of local culture. This phenomenon promotes social convergence and has opened new doors for millions of people. It leads to the strengthening of cultural relations between cultures and to human migration.

Global media centres provide groups with a distinct identity to increase awareness and provide knowledge and understanding of their experiences and cultures to the public. It also provides for the sharing of relevant accounts and commentaries on matters vital to cultural continuity and knowledge conservation in cultural ways, thus assisting them in maintaining their plurality.

Global positioning of cultural groups enables previously unseen social and political influence. There have been many times when increased contact between cultures has resulted in a flowering of innovation. Prime examples include Periclean Athens and Renaissance Italy.

The negative contribution of cultural globalization

Cultural globalization reduces the individuality of local societies and may contribute to feelings of isolation, alienation, and even abuse. This is particularly important for traditional cultures and communities that are subjected to accelerated “modernization” based on ideas imported from elsewhere that have not been adapted to their specific background.

Globalization’s effect on cultural diversity encompasses multinational companies’ adoption of commercial culture, manipulation of Labour and economies, and influence on social values. This increased availability of commercial media and merchandise has the potential to “overpower” local cultural influences. It contributes to the perilous erosion of ethnic identity.

Because of unparalleled linguistic transparency, a far larger audience than ever before has a window into watching, listening to, and observing previously inaccessible phenomena. Unrestricted access results in misrepresentation, stereotyping, and the destruction of cultural and intellectual property properties. Globalization facilitates more colonization, which has implications for intellectual property and cultural rights. Many people believe that “if it’s out there, it’s free to take,” including cultural signs, poetry, dance, rituals, and other cultural artefacts. These cultural symbols are part of a person’s culture and are called living heritage.

Individualism and national cultures are eroding as globalization promotes a “Western ideal of individualism.” This supports a consistent collection of principles and ideals. These Western ideas are quickly assimilated into other practices and paradigms, with far-reaching consequences.

“The prevailing society and society of the day decide the next greatest technology as well as the next commercialized product that will be made accessible to the public and admired by those who are unable to use these devices due to financial constraints. – Kanuka (2008)

Impact on Indigenous people –

Many indigenous peoples are rapidly being exploited by the tourist industry because of globalization. Because of the simplicity with which Western travellers can visit these cultures, there is more interaction between the two, which is not entirely equal. Countries that have this kind of tourism often change their policies to encourage the influx of tourist dollars. Many tribal people have been displaced from their native territories to accommodate Western tourists.

One advantage is that locals would have more work openings in the retail industry. This, however, contributes to the visitors and municipal employee status disparities. Furthermore, the wealthy elite, not indigenous workers, are the prime economic beneficiaries of these nations’ tourism industries.

Indigenous property is seen as a valuable commodity that foreign companies can buy, lease, and manipulate. Which has had a direct impact on local economies, as traditional land uses are being replaced by specific uses designed to maximize revenue for larger organizations. This contradicts the conviction of many indigenous peoples that the soil is the cornerstone that connects them to their heritage. As a result of this exploitation, many aboriginal communities have been pushed back to the periphery of civilization.

One of the most significant classes of indigenous peoples that international companies directly target is the youth. Adolescents are more vulnerable to targeted consumerism, so they may find western marketing values more attractive than their own cultural practices. Since their personal identity is less fixed than that of an adult in their culture, they are converted more easily. As a result, societal hierarchy is eroding and a sense of identity is becoming more personal and human rather than communal.

Many indigenous people see globalization as a challenge to traditional family arrangements, leading to the extinction of cultural practices. Globalization’s consumerist nature often contradicts traditional indigenous values. Cultural and social factors are not permitted because of globalization. Instead, it seeks to further the interests of the larger, more powerful countries and companies that are behind its globalization.

Globalization’s direction in prospects of changing the cultural system –

  cultural homogeneity –.

Homogeneity implies that, because of the globalization movement, human experiences will inevitably become the same everywhere. Any theorists argue that America’s racial dominance over the rest of the planet will inevitably lead to the disappearance of cultural diversity. This form of cultural globalization has the potential to create a human monoculture. In a society dominated by a homogenized and Westernized mass society, this approach is known as cultural hegemony, and it is associated with the annihilation of cultural traditions.

This presence can be seen in American-based television shows that are rebroadcast all over the world. Major American corporations, such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, have contributed significantly to the globalization of American culture. Coca-colonization refers to the dominance of American goods in foreign markets, which some critics of imperialism see as a threat to the indigenous cultures of these countries.

However, critics argue that this is an exaggeration of the phenomenon. While homogenizing forces do exist, globalization research has revealed that they are not an omnipotent, unidirectional force that levels everything in its route. Any quest for a global culture will be futile because it does not exist. It is more fruitful to concentrate on specific aspects of life, since we are still a long way from having anything resembling a unified global society.

Cultural Heterogeneity-

Diversification, also known as heterogenization, refers to obstacles that block flows that would lead to cultures looking similar. Cultures, in this view, remain distinct from one another.

Distinct cultural groups evolve into heterogeneous structures because of disparities in demands imposed by their society to conform to the latter’s requirements. These populations become diversified and slightly variable over time because of environmental factors and strains.

For example, as the proliferation of the colonization phenomenon resulted in a decline in cultural difference, communities emerged and cultural distinctions was desired as the colonization revolution faded.

It is important to note that, according to this viewpoint, markets are affected by financial flows and globalization in general, but the real crux of the world remains intact and constant, as it has always been, with only periphery surfaces directly impacted. Concerning the consequences of globalization, it appears that cultural differentiation will continue to be high. The definitions used by various cultural communities to characterize their status and differentiation from other cultures are likely to change.

Cultural Hybridization

The fusion of Asian, African, American, and European cultures is referred to as cultural hybridization: hybridization is the development of global culture as a global mélange. As a point of view, hybridization belongs to the more fluid end of cultural relations: the mixing of races, rather than their separateness, is stressed. Thus, cultural hybridization refers to the process of blending a cultural component into another culture by modifying the feature to conform to cultural norms.

Consider the migration of religious practices, literature, and history that occurred because of Spanish colonization of the Americas. To take another example, the Indian experience exemplifies both the diversification of cultural globalization’s reach and its long history.

This has been accelerated by people’s interaction through technological revolutions and mass communication. Every aspect of culture has been hybridized with another. Creole languages, for example, are modern languages that were developed by simplifying and merging different languages that came into contact within a specific community at a certain time. Louisiana Creole is a language that combines African, French, and English elements.

Reaction to cultural globalization: alternative prospective

Conflict intensification (single culture community).

Another point of view contends that the process of cultural globalization may result in a “Clash of Civilizations.” Indeed, as the planet shrinks and becomes increasingly integrated, connections between individuals from various societies increase society awareness, which in turn energizes disparities. Indeed, rather than achieving a global ethnic community, the cultural disparities compounded by cultural imperialism will be a cause of dispute. While few scholars believe in a “Clash of Civilizations,” there is consensus that cultural globalization is an enigmatic process that fosters a keen sense of local difference. conflicting ideologies

Indian example: Research on how globalization changed local culture

The formation of bicultural identity in Indian society –

The creation of a bicultural or hybrid identity, meaning that part of one’s identity is embedded in local culture and the other derives from an understanding of one’s place in the global world.

Immigrants and national minorities are no longer the only ones that can build a global identity. People today, especially the youth, develop identities that give them a sense of belonging to a global community, which includes knowledge of global cultural practices, traditions, styles, and facts.

How it is influencing the local culture of Indian society –

• Educational attainment : On the one hand, globalization has contributed to an explosion of content on the internet, which has raised people’s awareness. It has also strengthened the region’s need for specialization and the promotion of higher education.
• Nuclear Families : Growing migration, as well as financial independence, has culminated in the separation of joint families into nuclear families. The Western domination in individualism has resulted in an aspirational generation of adolescents. National history, family culture, job culture, and culture are all changing at a fast and significant pace.
• Indian cuisine: Indian cuisine is one of the most common all over the world. Historically, Indian spices and herbs were highly prized trade commodities, but Western foods are now more common.

McDonaldization: A term used to describe the increasing rationalization of everyday practices. It manifests when a population adopts the characteristics of a fast-food chain. McDonaldization is a rethinking of rationalization, as well as a transition from traditional to legitimate ways of thinking, as well as scientific management.

• Clothing : Traditional Indian clothing for people was once the mark of our society. Formal clothing was once required to attend weddings and ceremonies, but this is no longer required. Instead, Indo-western clothing, a hybrid of Western and Subcontinental styles, is common.
•  Indian Performing Arts : Sacred, folk, mainstream, pop, and classical music are all popular in India. India’s classical music remains a vital source of religious inspiration, creative creativity, and pure entertainment. There are many folks and classical forms of Indian dance.

Though Indian classical music has received international acclaim, western music has only recently gained traction in our country. Fusing Indian and Western music is encouraged by musicians. Western dance styles are becoming increasingly common among Indian youth.

•   Consumerization : A term used to describe the drastic shifts that have occurred in regional and global markets because of the overwhelming size, presence, and power of big-box department stores. It is evident in the growth of multinational enterprises, which have almost wiped out small traditional businesses in our world.

Conclusion –

Cultural globalization encourages nations to share similar values and integrate customs. Cultural globalization is described as the globalization of corporate and market cultures, as well as the extension of foreign interaction. On the one side, this promotes individual national cultures around the world. Common international cultural phenomena, on the other hand, can displace national or transform them into international. Many see this as a lack of traditional cultural traditions and a struggle for the rebirth of national culture, while others see it as the beginning of a prosperous period.

“We must establish a kind of globalization that benefits all… not just a handful”

Ajay Sarpal

I am Pankaj sarpal, a student in symbiosis law school Noida pursuing BA.LLB and currently in my 3rd year. Sociology isn't just my passion but rather it is something how I perceive things around me.

Local Museums and Their Cultural Heritage Essay

Introduction.

Museums have a great role in preserving the cultural heritage of various ethnicities. Although they have successfully gained this goal, the pressing issue has remained in its capacity of educating visitors about natural heritage, history and culture, or a chosen subject in context.

Many archaeological historians have argued that Museums’ are the only organizations which have the competence of passing on cultural knowledge to the public. This is in fact true because they house several collections of materials and tools for achieving the objective.

In present society, the museums complement educational shrewdness by revealing to the society their histories satisfactorily (Aguirre and Turner 2010). They do the task of granting a medium in which future generations can understand and recognize their cultural history and take delight in succeeding their past and present.

In understanding how museums shape various societies across the world, this paper explores three museums dedicated to three communities. These communities are the Asian Pacific Americans, the Nordic and the African-Americans.

The paper singles out museums in their respective domains and explores their contributions towards their cultural heritage. In exploring the communities at a deeper level, the writer utilizes the fieldwork and library research to understand the community’s culture through museum exhibitions.

The writer explores how the museum has shaped and redesigned the tourism industry. They provide visitors with a new dimension in tourism where ethnography is much emphasized. Ethnography gives a visitor more flexibility by allowing him or her discover about his or her culture compared to other cultures.

The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience

The Wing Luke Museum is located in Seattle. Its location is unique because of the closeness to the hotel where the many first immigrants from the Asian continent fixed their home, had a meal and found solace. It is a museum of its own kind devoted to the Asian Pacific ethnicities in the United States. The museums have a vast collection of Asian culture which helps to showcase their story of struggle, compassion, conflict, success and survival on their long journey to America.

The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience is the only museum in America devoted to the Asian Pacific American experience. The culture of Asian Pacific American is presented using various collections available in the museum. One area in which the museum represents this culture is through food. The museum describes or traces the history of Asian Pacific American contributions in the American food industry.

Food was a critical constituent within the Asian family and community at large. The museums through its collection help to explain the connection of food to politics of Asians through issues such as sustainability, labor and nutrition and access. It also describes the heritage food recipe and process, adaptations and creativity, which has changed over the generations as a result of Asian immigration to America.

The Asian Pacific American are also presented through dual nature. This is showcased in the display of modern jewelry and glass in the museum. The museum has a series of histories of jewelry or metal smiting and glass which over the ages have been part and parcel of Asian American identity in the Pacific Northwest.

The jewelry and glass consist of complex metal work. The design was inspired by organic forms in resin and paper, botany, architectural class vessels, decorative micro-mosaic brooches, and an expression of identity and cultural roots. All these aspects were predominant in Asian society for ages.

The epic tales were significant to Asian Pacific Americans too. The Wing Luke Museum represents this ethnicity through the well-known creatures and animals. The creatures and animals have for a long time characterized their history. Various animals such as the Chinese zodiac animals revitalize the history of Asian Pacific American.

These animals connect the Pacific and Asia folktales. The animals are well-known for their playful nature. Other animals with significant importance in Asian Pacific American are Monkey King are associated with loyalty, Moon rabbit is linked to loyalty and the Pig Child which is assigned the character of fiery romance. All these animals sketches the Asian Pacific history, culture and geography.

The museum also embraces technology in its heritage collection and presentation. The Museum has a library equipped with modern forms of technology equipments. They include computers, digital recorders, audiotapes and films. These tools play a role of recording and storage of information’s such as interviews and other oral collections. Visitors have a choice of listening to recorded interviews, cultural music and other information stored on these audio devices.

The dark part of the Asian Pacific American experience has not been well represented. The tribulations they faced such as slavery and the agony of sailing across the Atlantic Ocean is scanty (Aguirre and Turner 2010). Historians believe most of them died, suffered and were affected with various tropical diseases. Perhaps, lack of this information is to hide the miseries of the past and assist the Asian-Americans to concentrate in the positive part of history.

Northwest African-American Museum

The Northwest African-American Museum is found in Seattle, like the others mentioned earlier. The museum became operating as a nonprofit private organization in 2008. The birth of the museum was initiated by the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle. The museum has documented, and displays unique cultural and historical collections of African-Americans in the Pacific Northwest and in the area around Seattle.

The museum links Seattle to the rest of the world. This is accomplished by honoring, celebrating and discovering the African-American community heritage, education, history and culture (Northwest African American Museum 2011). The museum presents the community by using artifacts, sculptures, folklores, stories among other types of forms.

The museum has a measurement of about 19,000 square feet floor and it encompasses various galleries. The first gallery is known as the journey, multipurpose and northwest gallery. The displays in the gallery describe the wider challenges the African-Americans faced while arriving in Northwest to model their lives.

The gallery, through various colors helps to underscore the diversity of experiences and draws various countries of origin of African-American, religion, families and friends during the early periods of their migrations. The historical pictures in the museum illustrate the changing society that continues to form and redesign the human experience. This gallery has many, artifacts, photos with intriguing histories that represent the ethnicities of the African-American heritage. There is also a Northwest gallery.

The gallery houses great history of African-American experiences in the Northwest. It explores the community leaders, cultural icons, early pioneers and unsung heroes. They are illustrated with portraits, sculptures and clay works (Northwest African American Museum 2011).

The museum traces the immigrants from various parts of Africa. African countries such as Kenya, Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia besides, other communities beyond the mentioned countries are also shown.

The museum singles out the Ethiopians immigrants in Seattle and explores their contribution to United States growth through fields such as medicine, corporate executives, entrepreneurship and education.

They are also credited for contributing their talents and experiences to countless social organizations, political parties and community groups. As one of the curators narrates, the African American community in Seattle has defined its cultural landscape and provided the needed appreciation of cuisine, historic infusion of language, sports, dress and music.

What I discovered about the Museum is the dark side of African-American is not extensively presented. Issues linked to African-American curses, witchcraft and others, which from the dark side of African American history, have not been explored. Perhaps, this has been done to avoid memories associated with such practices and to portray African-American as a culture not associated with unique practices.

The Nordic Heritage Museum

The Nordic is an international museum situated in Seattle. The museum shares the Nordic culture with the wider people of all ages and background. Its uniqueness has been attributed for its role in the preservation of arts, values, traditions and the heritage of Nordic people. The museum serves as a center for collection of various objects of arts, culture and acts as a center for educational and cultural experience. The story of Nordic people is represented in the museum through lifelike dioramas.

The diorama traces the Nordic and Scandinavian migration from the nineteenth century across the oceans to America. The diorama draws the story of the Nordic beginning of the voyage from the sea to crossing the Atlantic Ocean and Ellis Island. The exploration advances to experiences in New York and further expansion to the Pacific Northwest, Midwest and the Great Plains culminating at Ballard. It is at Ballard the Nordic forms a Northwest community; with a drug store, blacksmith shop, post office and a family home.

The history of the Nordic is also represented on the second floor of the museum. It has two dedicated the galleries which focus on fishing and logging industries. These two industries were the major employers of Nordic immigrants who had ready skills from their native lands.

Besides, the galleries explore notable Nordic pioneers who contributed tremendously to the settlement in the Pacific Northwest. What is intriguing is the treasured and vital items that immigrants carried alongside. These items which included, tools, furniture’s, textiles and folk costumes are found at the Fork Art Gallery.

Despite of Nordic communities having some differences, the gallery on the third floor illustrates the bonds that Scandinavian people had for each other. The floor has a designation of five major Scandinavian countries i.e. The Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Each gallery draws the uniqueness of each country and the success and accomplishments in the Pacific Northwest.

Also present in the museum is the Tracie Music Library. The library has extensive collections of Nordic music and dances. Of importance is the work of Gordon Ekval. Gordon was a famous person who emphasized Nordic music and dance. His music was focused on Nordic tradition and culture. The library has embraced technology. It has hundreds of video and audio recordings with great documentation of Nordic traditional and folk music, folklore, music, costumes, dance and fork art.

These materials were collected by Tracie from the 19 -80’s. Besides the commercial documentations, the library has more than five hundred reel-to reel original field recordings credited to Tracie. They have been documented in the form of radio programs, conversations, presentation and dance programs.

Most of the reel recordings have been transformed to digital recordings, audio cassettes and some to Compact discs. Hence, they are readily available for listening. The technology has also been applied in preserving the Nordic history, photos, posters, music, display boards and dance records. These materials are displayed in the museum.

Another intriguing phenomenon in the Nordic museum is the “looking back and finding our future”. This section embraces collections of jewelry and fashions from different countries such as Norway, Island, Faroe Islands, Greenland and Denmark. The museums have meticulously designed and installed these collections which haze the past and the present Nordic traditions. This is in innovation and craft of Nordic designs. The museum pictures the significant nature and heritage of Nordic designs and how it influences the Nordic designers.

Nordic like any other society has its dark side. The subject of Nazi sympathizers and the vast wealth it gained during the Second World War has been hidden from the wider society.

Nordic countries for example, Sweden acted as transfer camps for raid of Norway. Perhaps, this is to avoid the atrocities and other human suffering that characterized the Nazism. The Nordic communities also posses chauvinism, most foreigners view chauvinism as a joke especially if they have lived in Nordic countries. Hence chauvinism has revealed itself in racism (Aguirre and Turner 2010).

Literature Review and Analysis

A museum plays a significant role that succeeds various elements in the present society. While they are recognized as centers of community, cultural preservation and education, they are invoked in new styles that are beyond their conventional preserves. Their role has attracted a new phenomenon known as ” cultural tourism”. They have become centers for many cultural and tourism plans explored to stimulate economic and development in places they exist (Kotler 2001).

According to Leslie and Rantisi (2006) tourism has positively influenced museums. This is because it communicates the local culture to the “outside visitors”. Hence the communications give rise to an impetus for proper financial and conservation and support for other museums functions or activities. However, Timothy and Stephen (2006) argue that some people view tourism differently. They opine that mass cultural tourism creates degradation, cultural commoditization and site congestion.

Museums and Tourism

Cultural and heritage tourism is an important aspect of the American tourism sector. According to Timothy & Boyd (2006: 1) cultural tourism is among the oldest form of travel. It has over the ages become a kind of a group tourism in which visitors seek to familiarize with educational and nostalgic insight.

Heritage tourism is regarded as a form where participants may witness and learn about the cultural experience of cultural heritage of the “destination”. In his words, Li (2003: 248) asserts that “heritage tourism provides a concrete enthusiasm for conservation”.

However, Yuen (2006) observes that for heritage tourism to flourish, history and heritage go beyond the borders of preservation. Therefore, its importance should be suggested to the visitor. This will contribute to a more enriched environment in the structure of understanding the present (Nuryanti 1996).

People have become more interested in cultural experiences this trend has surged the interest of tourists in exploring alternatives in understanding the culture of different communities. Museums therefore have increasingly become an important center supporting tourism through entertaining and educating visitors.

Many researchers such as Timothy & Boyd (2006) links this process as part of interconnected, devising cultural life that supports the discovery of culture as a fabric. He further asserts that museums have stood as a popular choice for most people in learning their destination.

This is because they are actively involved in displaying and interpreting the local culture for the visitors. Nuryanti (2006) seems to agree with Timothy and Boyd; he explains that a museum provides a guide for a destination heritage by providing the vital information in context. Thus, they have become a “must-see” for tourist embracing cultural tourism as part of their cultural itinerary.

A Social Approach

Environmental themes and social history have formed part of the materials displayed in museums. Museums have depicted a different trend of presenting artifacts and in contextualization of exhibitions. This has demanded new approaches and methods to be embraced by museums.

In most cases, the museum’s collections have taken a different perspective of diachronic or synchronic approach. However, as Li (2003) notes most significant changes have happened of late, and a social approach has been a common phenomenon by majority of museums. Nuryanti (2006) assigns these new approaches of museums because of social, economic and technological changes.

Technology and globalization for instance, has altered the expectations of people in all spheres of life thus, culture has not been spared either. With technology infiltrating in the society, tourism has remained essential, so do culture and its utilization. Cultural heritage and museum sites make up a significant part in cultural and tourism programs.

A New Look at Visitors

Museums have adopted a new approach of ethnography. Ethnography allows a visitor to the museum to put himself or herself in a position of learning or asking about his or her culture in comparison to others. Perhaps, it is fascinating to note how the perception of the visitor has changed since ethnography began to alter the uni-linear cultural evolution embraced by the 19 th century museums (Li 2003).

This infers that it is the culture of the visitor that need to be examined, judged, evaluated and tested rather than is exhibited. Hence, evaluations or the judgment of a visitor makes him or her to view museums in different perspective. One of the approaches is communicating and interpreting cultures of other communities to the advantage of the local community. The visitor learns or observes this during exhibitions.

Also, the visitor learns the importance of museums by assessing how they relieve the local communities and makes them recognize and understand other cultures in a health and social manner. Tuft and Milne (1999) contend that communicating and interpreting the local culture of the past and the present for the advantage of the visitor/tourist is essential. This is because it backs in spreading the culture of a given community in context.

Museum and Culture Formation

The Museum contributes greatly in cultural formation. It is an organization that has directed and influenced the growth of local and national culture. Tufts and Milne (1999: 614) Argues the museum acts as centers where the society and its members can “embraces the past and develop wisdom of their enriching identity”.

They are the main point in the society, a point of physical convergence where reflection, convergent thinking, knowledge and pleasure is condensed. The importance of the museums lies within their ability of collecting objects and putting them to some significant use and in context (Kotler 2001).

Therefore this ability of museums has influenced the importance of museums in cultural development and its role in the community and the society in general. Traditionally, museums were relied on preserving heritage; however, the public over time have become more and more reliant on external depiction of truth. Hence, museums have become indispensable in finding the truths about the people past and predicaments.

Leslie and Rantisi (2006) also note the exhibitions widely carried out by museums are designed to provide visitors with insight into American culture with a purpose of influencing the visitor’s behavior. Through exhibitions such as natural history, zoos and aquarium among others have created an awareness and knowledge and granted support towards caring and conservation of fauna and flora.

Museums are embraced for succeeding various roles in the society. These roles have contributed significantly in shaping people’s understanding of the past, present and future. Despite of being centers of education and conservation, new dimensions such as cultural tourism has of late been a trend of most museums across the world.

Cultural tourism has economically contributed to the growth of local and national through cultural activities of countries where museums are located. Also, tourism has shaped the social and environmental perspectives of the society because of the materials collected. Hence they have inclined towards either synchronic or diachronic methods in their exhibitions.

Reference List

Aguirre, Adalberto and Turner Jonathan H. 2010. American Ethnicity: The Dynamics and Consequences of Discrimination . New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.

Heritage Nordic Museum. 2011. “What’s Happening at the Museum.” Web.

Kotler, Neil. 2001. “New Ways of Experiencing Culture: the Role of Museums and Marketing Implications.” Museum Management and Curatorship 19 (4): 417-425. Web.

Leslie, Deborah and Rantisi Norma. 2006. “Governing the Design Economy in Montreal, Canada.” Urban Affairs Review 41 (3): 309-337. Web.

Li, Yiping. 2003. “Heritage Tourism: The contradictions between conservation and change.” Tourism and Hospitality Research , 4 (3): 247- 261. Web.

Northwest African American Museum. (2011). What is Happening at NAAM . Web.

Nuryanti, Wiendu. 1996. “Heritage and Postmodern Tourism.” Annals of Tourism Research 23 (2): 249-260. Web.

The Wing. 2011. Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience . Web.

Timothy, Dallen J. and Boyd, Stephen W. 2006. “Heritage Tourism in the 21st Century: Valued Traditions and New Perspectives.” Journal of Heritage Tourism 1 (1): 1- 16. Web.

Tufts, Steven and Milne, Simon. 1999. “Museums: A Supply Side Perspective.” Annals of Tourism Research 26 (3): 613-631. Web.

Yuen, Belinda. 2006. “Reclaiming Cultural Heritage in Singapore.” Urban Affairs Review 41 (6): 830-854. Web.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, January 8). Local Museums and Their Cultural Heritage. https://ivypanda.com/essays/local-museum-research-paper/

"Local Museums and Their Cultural Heritage." IvyPanda , 8 Jan. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/local-museum-research-paper/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'Local Museums and Their Cultural Heritage'. 8 January.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Local Museums and Their Cultural Heritage." January 8, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/local-museum-research-paper/.

1. IvyPanda . "Local Museums and Their Cultural Heritage." January 8, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/local-museum-research-paper/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Local Museums and Their Cultural Heritage." January 8, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/local-museum-research-paper/.

• The Nordic’s Business and Accounting Environment
• Seattle's Hospitality, Travel and Tourism
• Socialism as an Economic Model
• Leadership Development and Improvment Plan in Business
• Primary Prevention of Violence Against Women
• Business Culture of Northern Europe
• Agriculture in the Pacific Northwest
• Diverse Contexts and Intercultural Communication at Work
• A New Perspective on the Myth of Creation
• Visual Culture and the Avant-Garde - Alvar Aalto and Scandinavian Modern
• Coping With Cultural Shock and Adaptation to a New Culture
• American Cultural Imperialism in the Film Industry Is Beneficial to the Canadian Society
• Popular Culture: The Use of Phones and Texting While Driving
• Culture Jamming
• Cross-Cultural Interaction: Prejudices and Stereotypes

Science and Information Conference

SAI 2020: Intelligent Computing pp 491–501 Cite as

Social Media: Influences and Impacts on Culture

• Mui Joo Tang 17 &
• Eang Teng Chan 17  
• Conference paper
• First Online: 04 July 2020

3081 Accesses

5 Citations

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 1228))

Advanced technologies of communication have brought influences and impacts on cultures. There are views that the influences and impacts are brought forward by social media which has been a powerful tool that can affect and form human behaviors as well as culture. Social media may have crossed the boundaries of culture due to the concept of borderless. Facebook may have been the social media that connects people around the world with massive cultural backgrounds to meet at the platform. The media content uploaded may spark the invasion of culture. There are many other social media which come with influencers that may shout about different values and practices around. Local cultures had therefore slowly lost their identities and replaced with a cross-cultural phenomenon. The cultural values invaded may include human behaviors, beliefs, values or even fashion and lifestyle. This research is to examine the factors of cross cultural communication, the reasons of culture being influenced by foreign countries through social media and the possibility of cultural invasion through social media. Social Influence theory is used in this research. Social influence occurs when a person’s emotions, opinions or behaviors are affected by others intentionally or unintentionally. Online survey Google Form is used at the target of 150 respondents aged between 18 to 25 years old. There is a contradicting view that people will lose their own culture after viewing too much of online content. The online activities and actions will slowly lead them to the change without their realization.

• Social media
• Media content

The authors acknowledged the raw material provided by Khoo Rose Lyn and Yong Zheng Wai.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution .

Buying options

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Furedi, F.: http://www.aspeninstitute.cz/en/article/4-2014-how-the-internet-and-social-media-are-changing-culture/ . Accessed 28 Jan 2019

Kirkpatrick, D.: The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World. Simon & Schuster, New York (2010)

Google Scholar  

Ta, J.Q.: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/impact-social-media-truly-society-0974685#QClV2qf84zb4iRzf.97 . Accessed 13 July 2016

Glucksman, M.: https://www.elon.edu/u/academics/communications/ . Accessed 1 July 2018

Tapinfluence Research. https://www.tapinfluence.com/tp_resource/future-influencer-marketing/ . Accessed 25 May 2019

Kasteler, J.: http://searchengineland.com/how-social-media-is-influencing-your-behavior-4061 . Accessed 1 July 2018

Mariella, A.: https://www.elitedaily.com/life/culture/x-pro-ii-valencia-instagram-choose-neither/614571 . Accessed 15 July 2018

Barcon, L.: http://monroviainquirer.com/2014/05/30/the-importance-of-culture-and-national-identity-in-the-societythe-sad-story-of-liberia/ . Accessed 15 July 2018

Wikipedia: Culture of Malaysia (2019). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Malaysia . Accessed 13 June 2019

NCBI. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792691/ . Accessed 10 Aug 2018

Kevin, H.: Stanford. https://www.business2community.com/brandviews/growing-social-media/social-media-culture-01635249 . Accessed 12 Aug 2018

Cross, T.: http://wallblog.co.uk/2013/11/08/the-culture-of-now-the-rise-of-imagery-in-social-media/ . Accessed 15 Aug 2018

Keller, M.: http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/051313p10.shtml . Accessed 10 Sept 2018

Kelman, H.: Compliance, identification, and internalization: three processes of attitude change. J. Conflict Resolut. 2 (1), 51–60 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1177/002200275800200106

Article   Google Scholar  

Kietzmann, J.H., Hermkens, K.: Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Bus. Horiz. (Submitted manuscript) 54 (3), 241–251 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.005

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Tunku Abdul Rahman University College, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Mui Joo Tang & Eang Teng Chan

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mui Joo Tang .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Saga University, Saga, Japan

The Science and Information (SAI) Organization, Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK

Supriya Kapoor

Rahul Bhatia

Please Click (✓) For Your Choice

Student ID:   ________________________________________________

Section B – Culture

In your opinion, how has the local culture been influenced?

□ Overseas media/social media content through internet

□ Foreign culture is better than local culture

□ Did not practice own culture well

□ Other than the above:   _______________________

Section C – Social Media and Culture

What is your view if local culture is influenced?

(If POSITIVE , proceed to 7a ; NEGATIVE , proceed to 7b )

If positive, why?

□ It is good if we accept other culture

□ It is more educational

□ Other cultures are better

□ Others:   ________________________________________________________

If negative, why?

□ Culture makes us who we are in identity

□ Culture is important

Section D – Effects of Social Media on Culture

Please Click (✓) Your Choice

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Cite this paper.

Tang, M.J., Chan, E.T. (2020). Social Media: Influences and Impacts on Culture. In: Arai, K., Kapoor, S., Bhatia, R. (eds) Intelligent Computing. SAI 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1228. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52249-0_33

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52249-0_33

Published : 04 July 2020

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-52248-3

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-52249-0

eBook Packages : Intelligent Technologies and Robotics Intelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)

Share this paper

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Local Culture Essays

Governmental, cultural, and subcultural ethics and social responsibilities, popular essay topics.

• American Dream
• Artificial Intelligence
• Black Lives Matter
• Bullying Essay
• Career Goals Essay
• Causes of the Civil War
• Child Abusing
• Civil Rights Movement
• Community Service
• Cultural Identity
• Cyber Bullying
• Death Penalty
• Depression Essay
• Domestic Violence
• Freedom of Speech
• Global Warming
• Gun Control
• Human Trafficking
• I Believe Essay
• Immigration
• Importance of Education
• Israel and Palestine Conflict
• Leadership Essay
• Legalizing Marijuanas
• Mental Health
• National Honor Society
• Police Brutality
• Pollution Essay
• Racism Essay
• Romeo and Juliet
• Same Sex Marriages
• Social Media
• The Great Gatsby
• The Yellow Wallpaper
• Time Management
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Violent Video Games
• What Makes You Unique
• Why I Want to Be a Nurse
• Send us an e-mail

• A Beginner’s Guide to IELTS
• Common Grammar Mistakes [for IELTS Writing Candidates]

Writing Correction Service

• Free IELTS Resources
• Practice Speaking Test

Select Page

Immigration Topic [IELTS Writing Task 2]

Posted by David S. Wills | Aug 6, 2018 | IELTS Tips , Writing | 0

Today we’re going to look at a typical IELTS writing task 2 question about immigration. I will show you how to analyze the question , generate ideas and examples, structure your essay, and then finally write it. This question type is “discuss both views” but remember that the topic of immigration could be addressed in various ways for IELTS writing task 2.

Analyze the Question

Here is the question we will answer today:

Some people claim that immigrants should adopt the local culture when immigrating to a new country. While others think that they can establish a minority community instead. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Let’s look first at some of the key words that can help us to understand what we should do:

• immigrants – people who have moved to a new country
• immigrating – the process of moving to a new country
• adopt – to begin to use something
• minority – meaning less than half; a small proportion of something

So what is this question about?

It is about whether or not immigrants should adopt the local culture or establish a minority community.

What do you need to do?

You need to (1) discuss both views and (2) give your opinion.

Choosing the Right Language

By now you have read the question and should be familiar with its meaning. You should have already noted down useful vocabulary from the question that you may want to use in your essay.

Remember: Don’t copy from the question. You can use some words or a short phrase, but don’t repeat the question in your essay.

Changing Word Form

• immigrant/immigrating -> immigration
• culture -> cultural
• adopt -> adoption

Think of Synonyms

It is also very important to have some synonyms handy to avoid repetition. It also makes your writing look much better to have a few carefully chosen synonyms for key words in the question.

• immigrants -> new arrivals/ newcomers
• local -> native/ regional
• establish -> create/ set up

A word I think is really, really useful for the topic of immigration and culture is “assimilate” or “assimilation”. This means the same as “adopt the local culture”.

And Don’t Forget Antonyms

Everyone knows that you need to be good with synonyms to do well in IELTS, but it also helps to know a few antonyms, too. (Antonym means the opposite of synonym.)

• minority -> majority
• adopt -> reject
• immigrating -> emigrating

By the way, it’s really useful to have a good dictionary or thesaurus for this sort of thing.

Generating Useful Ideas and Examples

When writing an IELTS writing task 2 essay, you need to be able to explore complex topics in an intelligent manner. As such, you need to be able to generate useful ideas and examples to use in your essay. It shows logical thought and will impress the examiner.

The first step is to fully understand the question. You cannot begin planning an answer until you fully comprehend the task. Go back to step one if you are unsure.

Next, you need to brainstorm . Brainstorming means thinking of lots of ideas. You can quickly think about or note down any ideas related to the question.

Here are my notes on the above question:

For – good for local culture (multiculturalism)

– makes life easier

– more job opportunities

– people will trust you more

– learn more about new country

Against – safer

– preserve traditions and language

– scary to mix

– fear of other people

– fosters strong sense of identity

If we look at the above list, we can clearly see some good ideas, and some bad ones. There are also some that would be easy to write about and some that would not be easy to write about.

When choosing ideas for your essay, ask yourself whether you (1) know enough about the subject and (2) have the language to describe it.

Pick just your very best ideas and then think of how to explain them. Can you cite examples, or give details? You must be able to elaborate in order to write a fully-developed paragraph.

Remember: It is better to describe one thing in detail than four things briefly. This is because it shows your ability to construct arguments and usual transitional phrases.

Here are some of my ideas from above, with the worst ones removed:

Developing Your Ideas

From the remaining two ideas in favour of adopting the local culture, I would probably choose to write about job opportunities .

But what could I say about job opportunities? What are some ideas relevant to immigration and culture?

• I could explain that assimilation to the local culture would increase job opportunities.
• This would then result in better quality of living for the immigrant.
• It would also be beneficial to society and the economy.
• I could then give a real or hypothetical example.

Learning to structure an IELTS writing task 2 essay is really easy. It have lots of articles on this topic here:

• IELTS Writing Task 2 Essay Structures
• Selecting Ideas and Structuring an Essay [IELTS Writing Task 2]
• Structuring an IELTS Task 2 Essay
• How to Structure a Paragraph
• IELTS Writing: Should I Write 4 or 5 Paragraphs?

You should be able to master the basics of essay structure in under a day. Just follow these instructions:

• Analyze the question
• Choose 4 or 5 paragraph structure 
• Generate several good ideas
• Decide on the order of your ideas
• Make notes on the content of each paragraph
• Write the essay

In the above sections, I have outlined steps 1-3, and now I will show you my notes, which make up steps 3-4.

Introduction – paraphrase question essay outline Para #1 – in favour of assimilation main argument: job opportunity explain Para #2 – in favour of minority community main argument: preserve traditions and language explain Conclusion – state my position and review para 1-2

Here’s a useful video about structuring IELTS essays

Sample Answer

Here is my sample answer to the above question about immigration.

As the world population grows and people become increasingly mobile, people are divided over the extent to which immigrants should attempt to assimilate into the local culture. This essay will look at the main argument from each side of the debate, and then suggest that a compromise is needed, wherein immigrants both assimilate and form a strong community. The people who argue in favour of immigrants assimilating into the local culture often point out that it increases the number of job opportunities available to the newcomers. Immigrants often find it difficult to find a job when they move to a new country, but by becoming part of the wider community, they open themselves to more possibilities. The immigrant will be able to improve his quality of life, as well as to contribute to the economy, so there are clear benefits from both the perspective of the immigrant and the local society. On the other hand, the people who think immigrants should form minority communities point to the preservation of cultural traditions and language. They believe that adopting the local culture would cause a loss of the immigrants’ original language and culture. Indeed, this is something that has happened all around the world, and it is not hard to find a Little Italy or Chinatown far from Italy or China. Therefore, it makes sense that immigrants form tight-knit communities in their new countries. In conclusion, it is clear that a balance needs to be sought between these two approaches to immigration, and so neither is entirely correct. Without assimilating into the local culture, immigrants may find it difficult to get ahead in life, but if they become completely immersed in the new culture, they might forget their roots and their language may disappear.

A Final Note

If you have followed my instructions above, you should have a pretty good essay!

Remember to leave a few minutes for editing at the end. Here’s a good checklist:

• Have I spelled all the words correctly?
• Is my grammar correct?
• Did I stray off-topic in any paragraph?
• Is my position clear from beginning to end?
• Did I completely answer the question?

If you are struggling with #2, you can pick up a FREE copy of my grammar textbook :

About The Author

David S. Wills

David S. Wills is the author of Scientologist! William S. Burroughs and the 'Weird Cult' and the founder/editor of Beatdom literary journal. He lives and works in rural Cambodia and loves to travel. He has worked as an IELTS tutor since 2010, has completed both TEFL and CELTA courses, and has a certificate from Cambridge for Teaching Writing. David has worked in many different countries, and for several years designed a writing course for the University of Worcester. In 2018, he wrote the popular IELTS handbook, Grammar for IELTS Writing and he has since written two other books about IELTS. His other IELTS website is called IELTS Teaching.

Related Posts

How to Put Examples in an IELTS Essay

February 12, 2024

Should You Take IELTS on a Computer or Paper?

November 23, 2018

Reading Practice: An Audacious Plan

May 13, 2016

What Are the Common Mistakes when Taking IELTS?

February 5, 2018

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Download my IELTS Books

Recent Posts

• Past Simple vs Past Perfect
• Complex Sentences
• How to Score Band 9 [Video Lesson]
• Taxing Fast Food: Model IELTS Essay
• Airport Vocabulary

Recent Comments

• Daisey Lachut on IELTS Discussion Essays [Discuss Both Views/Sides]
• David S. Wills on Describe a Historical Period
• Siavash on Describe a Historical Period
• fabliha on IELTS Speaking Partners
• tufail khan on IELTS Discussion Essays [Discuss Both Views/Sides]
• Lesson Plans
• Model Essays
• TED Video Lessons
• Weekly Roundup

Some people claim that immigrants should adopt the local culture when immigrating to a new country. While others think that they can establish a minority community instead. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Writing9 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

• Check your IELTS essay »
• Find essays with the same topic
• View collections of IELTS Writing Samples
• Show IELTS Writing Task 2 Topics

Some people think it is better to choose friend who always have the same opinions as them.Other people believe it is good to have who sometimes disagree with them. Discuss bot these views and give your own opinion .

Some people say that industrial growlh is necessory to solve poverty, bul some other people argue that industrial growth is creating environmentol problems ond it should be stopped. discuss both views ond give your opinion., you read an article in a magazine recently which might be useful for you and your friend's job. write a letter to your friend and say -describe an article and its content, explain why it is good for you, why would it be helpful for your friend, some people believe that children of all ages should have extra responsibilities. other believe that, outside of school, children should be free to enjoy life. discuss both views and give your own opinion, the diagrams show the life cycle of a species of large fish called the salmon.

Jump to navigation

CFP: "Horror," SWPACA Virtual Conference, June 20-22, 2024

Call for Papers

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

2024 SWPACA Summer Salon

June 20-22, 2024

Virtual Conference

https://www.southwestpca.org

Submissions open on March 25, 2024

Proposal submission deadline: April 15, 2024

Proposals for papers are now being accepted for the SWPACA Summer Salon. SWPACA offers nearly 70 subject areas in a variety of categories encompassing the following: Film, Television, Music, & Visual Media; Historic & Contemporary Cultures; Identities & Cultures; Language & Literature; Science Fiction & Fantasy; and Pedagogy & Popular Culture. For a full list of subject areas, area descriptions, and Area Chairs, please visit https://southwestpca.org/conference/call-for-papers/

The area chair for Horror invites all interested scholars to submit paper proposals on any aspect of horror in literature, film, television, digital and online media, as well as in general culture. Given the strong showing of work on horror cinema in recent years, we hope to continue this tradition, but also to diversify into new and unconventional areas, new media, and performative aspects of popular culture.

All proposals must be submitted through the conference’s database at https://register.southwestpca.org/southwestpca

For details on using the submission database and on the application process in general, please see the Proposal Submission FAQs and Tips page at https://southwestpca.org/conference/faqs-and-tips/ Registration information for the conference will be available at https://southwestpca.org/conference/conference-registration-information/

Individual proposals for 15-minute papers must include an abstract of approximately 200-500 words. Only one proposal per person, please; no roundtables.  

If you have any questions about the Horror area, please contact its Area Chair, Steffen Hantke, Sogang University, [email protected] . If you have general questions about the conference, please contact us at [email protected] , and a member of the executive team will get back to you.

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

Voters denied chance to vote in Queensland council election due to ballot shortages

Queensland's electoral commission is under scrutiny after widespread complaints of people being turned away from voting at last weekend's council elections.

Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath has promised an external review after a government MP labelled the issues "an absolute disgrace". 

Residents across Queensland complained about Saturday's long queues at polling booths and ballot shortages that caused hundreds of people to be turned away without voting. 

Bundaberg Labor MP Tom Smith said he had written to the Premier about the "outrageous" conduct by the Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ). 

"Right across the state we saw people being turned away from the booths because the ECQ was not able to provide enough ballot papers," he said. 

"The ECQ have absolutely failed in their role." 

The ABC asked the ECQ how many people were denied their right to vote, but they would not say how many people were affected. 

The ECQ said the long queues were "regrettable" but officials made "every effort" to ensure all voters who attended a polling booth before 6pm on Saturday were able to vote. 

"Where ballot papers were depleted in some locations on election day, these were quickly replenished by our team of returning officers," a spokesperson said.

"This is not an out of the ordinary occurrence, and electors who remained in those polling places received their ballot papers and cast their votes on Saturday." 

'A disaster'

Lawyer Rae Anderson was a scrutineer at the Landsborough polling booth on the Sunshine Coast and called the situation a "disaster".

She said the mayoral ballot papers ran out by 5.30pm with a queue of people still lined up. 

"They were just writing people's names down and then sending them away without voting," Ms Anderson said. 

She said it was frustrating because, while the mayor ballots had run out, there were still enough divisional councillor ballots. 

"I said, 'Why aren't you letting these people at least vote for their local representative?' 

"At least 100 people were sent away ... I found that astounding. 

"Surely at 5pm on Friday after early voting [closed], they knew how many people had not voted," she said. 

Fines still on the table

The ECQ would not guarantee that people who were prevented from voting would avoid a fine.   

"The Electoral Commissioner may decide to contact people who appear to have failed to vote after the election, and there will be an opportunity for those people to provide us with a valid reason for not voting," the spokesperson said. 

"The circumstances of any voter who had attended a polling booth will be taken into account." 

Mr Smith was more blunt. 

"If the ECQ think they're going to fine these people, they're mad," he said.

"If they want to slug a $150 fine on those people, that's absolutely outrageous and we'll fight them tooth and nail." 

Mr Smith said the weekend's failures risked undermining democracy if voting became too hard. 

"That's how voter suppression starts," he said. 

"If we start getting people say, 'I'd rather cop the fine' ... then the ECQ are actually a threat to democracy." 

Attorney-General Ms D'Ath said she expects the review to fix the issues before October's state government election.

"It is essential that every Queenslander is able to exercise their democratic right to vote," she said. 

Law unclear

University of Queensland electoral law professor Graeme Orr said, while voting is compulsory, there is no legislation governing how long the process should take. 

"What the law doesn't say is what would be a reasonable time or an unreasonable time to have to wait, or to come back to get that ballot paper," he said. 

Professor Orr said the root of the problem was not having enough ballot papers printed that could be moved quickly between polling booths when one ran out. 

"It's not a perfect science ... what really matters here is the investigation going forward," he said. 

Cairns councillor Cathy Zeiger said the polling booth failures were upsetting. 

"I almost felt teary ... It was disgusting," she said. 

"If [ECQ] was a business, it would be broke." 

• X (formerly Twitter)

Related Stories

Cost of living, youth crime lead voters to kick incumbents across regional queensland.

It's a well-paid job so why are fewer people nominating for local councils?

• Electoral System
• Local Government
• Maroochydore
• Rockhampton

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Guest Essay

It’s Not You: Dating Apps Are Getting Worse

By Magdalene J. Taylor

Ms. Taylor is a writer covering sex and culture.

“The golden age of dating apps is over,” a friend told me at a bar on Super Bowl Sunday. As we waited for our drinks, she and another friend swiped through Bumble and Hinge, hunting for new faces and likes. Across the bar were two young men: phones out, apps open, clearly doing the exact same thing. Never did the duos meet.

What’s lamentable here isn’t only that dating apps have become the de facto medium through which single people meet. Since 2019, three in 10 U.S. adults have reported using them, with that figure rising to roughly six in 10 for Americans under 50 who have never been married. Not only are people not meeting partners in bars or any of the once normal in-person venues — they’re barely meeting them on the apps, either.

Maybe most of us just aren’t as hot as we used to be. Maybe it’s time our inflated egos got knocked down a notch. Maybe the market of people still willing to put themselves out there in an attempt to date has gotten smaller. Or maybe the apps have functionally, intentionally gotten worse, as have our romantic prospects. The more they fail to help us form relationships, the more we’re forced to keep swiping — and paying.

The internet, where so many of us spend so much of our time, has not been spared from the decline in quality that seems to plague so much of consumer life. This phenomenon was described by the writer Cory Doctorow in a November 2022 blog post and is sometimes called “platform decay”: Tech platforms like Amazon, Reddit and X have declined in quality as they’ve expanded. These sites initially hooked consumers by being almost too good to be true, attempting to become essential one-stop shops within their respective spaces while often charging nothing, thanks to low interest rates and free-flowing venture capital funding . Now that we’re all locked in and that capital has dried up, those initial hooks have been walked back — and there’s nowhere else to go.

This is precisely what is happening with dating apps now, too, with much more urgent consequences. What’s worsening isn’t just the technological experience of online dating but also our ability to form meaningful, lasting connections offline.

The collapse of dating apps’ usability can be blamed on the paid subscription model and the near-monopoly these apps have over the dating world. While dozens of sites exist, most 20-something daters use the big three: Tinder, Hinge and Bumble. (Older people often gravitate toward Match.com or eHarmony.) All three sites offer a “premium” version users must pay for — according to a study conducted by Morgan Stanley , around a quarter of people on dating apps use these services, averaging out at under $20 a month. The purpose, many believe, is to keep them as paid users for as long as possible. Even if we hate it, even if it’s a cycle of diminishing returns, there is no real alternative.

In the early heyday of Tinder, the only limits on whom you could potentially match with were location, gender and age preferences. You might not have gotten a like back from someone you perceived to be out of your league, but at least you had the chance to swipe right. Today, however, many apps have pooled the people you’d most like to match with into a separate category (such as Hinge’s “Standouts” section), often only accessible to those who pay for premium features. And even if you do decide to sign up for them, many people find the idea of someone paying to match with them to be off-putting anyway.

“If I don’t pay, I don’t date,” a friend in his 30s told me. He spends around $50 a month on premium dating app subscriptions and digital “roses” to grab the attention of potential matches. He’s gone on 65 dates over the last year, he said. None have stuck, so he keeps paying. “Back in the day, I never would have imagined paying for OKCupid,” he said.

Yet shares (Bumble’s stock price has fallen from about $75 to about $11 since its I.P.O.) and user growth have fallen , so the apps have more aggressively rolled out new premium models. In September 2023, Tinder released a $500 per month plan. But the economics of dating apps may not add up .

On Valentine’s Day this year, Match Group — which owns Tinder, Hinge, Match.com, OKCupid and many other dating apps — was sued in a proposed class action lawsuit asserting that the company gamifies its platforms “to transform users into gamblers locked in a search for psychological rewards that Match makes elusive on purpose.” This is in contrast to one of the group’s ad slogans that promotes Hinge as “designed to be deleted.”

People are reporting similar complaints across the apps — even when they aren’t taking the companies to court. Pew Research shows that over the last several years, the percentage of dating app users across demographics who feel dissatisfied with the apps has risen . Just under half of all users report feeling somewhat to very negative about online dating, with the highest rates coming from women and those who don’t pay for premium features. Notably, there is a gender divide: Women feel overwhelmed by messages, while men are underwhelmed by the lack thereof.

With seemingly increasing frequency, people are going to sites like TikTok , Reddit and X to complain about what they perceive to be a dwindling group of eligible people to meet on apps. Commonly, complaints are targeted toward these monthly premium fees, in contrast to the original free experience. Dating has always cost money, but there’s something uniquely galling about the way apps now function. Not only does it feel like the apps are the only way to meet someone, just getting in the door can also comes with a surcharge.

Perhaps dating apps once seemed too good to be true because they were. We never should have been exposed to what the apps originally provided: the sense that the dating pool is some unlimited, ever-increasing-in-quality well of people. Even if the apps are not systematically getting worse but rather you’ve just spent the last few years as a five thinking you should be paired with eights, the apps have nonetheless fundamentally skewed the dating world and our perception of it. We’ve distorted our understanding of how we’d organically pair up — and forgotten how to actually meet people in the process.

Our romantic lives are not products. They should not be subjected to monthly subscription fees, whether we’re the ones paying or we’re the ones people are paying for. Algorithmic torture may be happening everywhere, but the consequences of feeling like we are technologically restricted from finding the right partner are much heavier than, say, being duped into buying the wrong direct-to-consumer mattress. Dating apps treat people like commodities, and encourage us to treat others the same. We are not online shopping. We are looking for people we may potentially spend our lives with.

There is, however, some push toward a return to the real that could save us from this pattern. New in-person dating meet-up opportunities and the return of speed dating events suggests app fatigue is spreading. Maybe we’ll start meeting at bars again — rather than simply swiping through the apps while holding a drink.

Have you ditched dating apps for a new way to meet people, or are you still swiping left?

Opinion wants to hear your story.

Magdalene J. Taylor (@ magdajtaylor ) is a writer covering sex and culture. She writes the newsletter “ Many Such Cases .”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , X and Threads .