Процесът на глобализация в културата. Проблеми и подходи при анализа
The Globalization Process in Culture. Problems and Approaches of Analysis

Summary/Abstract: The article examines some of the basic challenges that the globalization process poses for culture, as well as the approaches to their study. The 'single-cause' approach, which relates globalization to the impact of one single factor, the extension of the market throughout the world, stresses the universalizing tendencies in the sphere of culture and perceives them as a threat to cultural variety, to freedom and democracy. The results of this approach are shown in two variants, the systemic-theoretical view and the communitarian view, while the author's critical appraisals are based on a changed theoretical perspective, where the emphasis is placed on the radically different meanings that the universal and the particular may have in the contexts of the system, of the community, or of the individual. The author emphasizes the impact of processes that erode traditional communities (individualization, denationalization, formation of "transnational social spaces", and "psychological neighborhoods") in respect to communitarian notions of culture. The article proposes the rejection of the single-cause approach and suggests using the principle of complementarity in analyzing the problems of globalization, particularly cultural globalization. Complementarity, not exclusion, would provide a more productive basis for analysis of the problems of universalization and particularization, standardization, and incommensurability. The author offers critical remarks regarding those scholars who, while rejecting the single-cause approach, also dismiss the use of contrasted couples of categories, and argue that syncretic processes must be expressed in terms of syncretic concepts: "globalization", "melange", hybrid formations", etc.

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