KOSMOPOLITANISME, NASIONALISME & FUNDAMENTALISME 1 RIZKA KHAIRANI 071012079

COSMOPOLITANISM AND GLOBALIZATION

Globalization is a process of integrating the global world. There are many sources of globalization but it is mostly factored from economical background which creates interdependence and integration between nation states. There are historical backgrounds from globalization , starting from the 15th century, where the extent of influence by the major powered countries were triggered by the invention of maps, compass and long distance travelling modes of transportation, mainly ships. Old Colonialism is then implemented and widespread, even though the motives were 3G: Gold, Gospel and Glory, there was no doubt that harsh implications were felt by the colonies. On the 17th and 18th centuries, as the Renaissance picked up its pace, the informational rate of the spread of information were catalyzed through journals , reliable postal services, scientific openness and coffee shop where educated individuals can share the information that each person have. In around the 1870s, when the Industrial Revolution picked up speed, modernity really peaked its head around the bend with the inventions of telegraph, railway, steamship, newspaper and passport. Cosmopolitanism on the other hand is a philosophical approach of accepting and living among different cultural background and different people but still keeping ones own culture. In the past, philosophers, such as the Stoics and Immanuel Kant, discussed cosmopolitanism as a normative ideal of allegiance to humanity-as-a-whole (Nussbaum 1996, 1997). The ensuing debate among social theorists, however, takes a different approach to cosmopolitanism. Unlike philosophers, social theorists conceptualize cosmopolitanism as an empirical phenomenon, specifically as an orientation of openness to foreign others and cultures, against a backdrop of globalization (Beck 2004; Hannerz 1990). In this day and age, is the emergence of global culture, the end of local culture? Can the idea of cosmopolitanism somehow participate in building a more peaceful and more tolerable world? Who are the winners and losers of globalization? Globalization transforms the world of ideas and culture and enriches the cultural experience and access to foreign cultures. But the stressed point is that, despite globalization we still live in diversity although there is no doubt there has been a significant decrease in the multiplicity of the culture itself. Today 200 countries hold over 5 000 ethnic groups speaking nearly 7 000 languages.

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Some people might perceive there is a substantial dominance of western culture in the world. Over 80% of sold CD are Anglo-Saxon, and around 85% of movies from US. There is no doubt that media plays a major role in the spread of Western culture thus one can safely say that in a way, globalization tends to magnify the influence of the Western world, but there is no generalization that globalization means westernization. Cultures like sushi, pecel and batik have also ridden the globalization vehicle to help spread its awareness. There has also been a revival of ethnic style and more local festivals. As will all phenomena, there will

always be pro and cons, globalization is no exception. For cultures that has an idea to spread its culture, globalization is one way for them to do it. In economical terms, the short term winners are manufacturers who produce exported goods to gain profits and the consumers who buy imported goods at a much more cheaper price. For instance, American manufacturers benefit to the extent that they can expand their market overseas, while American consumers benefit to the extent that they pay less for imported goods than for domestically produced goods. The short terms losers are the domestic producers whose prices must now compete with imported goods which are usually cheaper, and the consumers of exportable products who now have to pay more because of the additional international demand. When Chinese products are sold in America, the losers are domestic American producers because Chinese imports are cheaper than American products, while consumers in China also lose because they now have to pay more for textiles because of the rise in international demand. Globalization can also help highlight the global injustice in the world today, through the use of internet it is simple and easy to help bring awareness to a certain issue. Over 360 million people are suffering exclusion as a result of religious beliefs and 890 million people are experiencing cultural, economic or political exclusion. This disparity and this injustice can be clearly accessed in the virtual world. We can learn their traumas, their experience and what they want more clearly because of the globalization process better rather than if there were no information sharing in the world. Globalization tends to open to local cultures to a certain point and participates in the spread of one culture to another. Cosmopolitan is seed as a psychological disposition of being open to cultural others and willing to engage in dialogue with them and transform ones perspective and sense of the self. Globalization is a never ending process, one that we cannot avert, the only solution for the down sides of globalization is no either shield yourself or open

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yourself but still out a limit it. In the personal opinion of the writer, it is best for cultures to take advantage of globalization but still be able to live in a salad bowl and not a mixing pot.

Reference: Beck, Ulrich and Natan Sznaider. 2006. Unpacking cosmopolitanism for the social sciences: a research agenda. The British Journal of Sociology 57:1-23. Nussbaum, Martha. 1996. Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism. Pp. 2-17 in For Love of Country: Debating the Limits of Patriotism, edited by J. Cohen. Boston: Beacon Press.