European inventory of
societal values of culture

Tomlinson - Globalization and Culture

Tomlinson, J. (1999). Globalization and Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press. ISBN: 978-0-7456-1338-3

This book can be seen as an extension of the previously dominant perception of globalisation as inevitably resulting in cultural imperialism. Tomlinson provides an accessible and balanced introduction to the complex and ambiguous lived experience of global modernity, in which he notes a general pattern of the dissolution between cultural experience and territorial location. He analyses the role of media and communications technologies in the process of deterritorialisation and discusses its consequences in relation to so-called first- and third-world societies. Globalisation is seen as a multidimensional process built on complex connectivities, and its cultural consequences are analysed as one of these dimensions from the perspective of combining social theory and cultural studies. Different parts of the book are devoted to discussions of globalisation and culture, the notions of global modernity and global culture, deterritorialisation as the cultural condition of globalisation, mediated communication and cultural experience, and the possibility of contemporary forms of cosmopolitanism.

John Tomlinson “Globalization and Culture”