HYBRIDISATION OF CULTURES
Defined in sociological dictionaries as ‘the process by which a cultural element blends into another culture by modifying the element to fit cultural norms’, the implication of cultural hybridisation played an important role in Stuart Hall’s early assessment of the potential outcomes of globalisation. Already at the end of the 1980s, Hall argued that globalising processes were contradictory. They certainly contained corporate influences conducive to homogenisation of culture, but they could also provoke local cultural resistance, moving in a completely opposite direction. In linear conceptions, homogenisation of culture would lead to an ever-more uniform culture, while the cultural resistance of local communities would reaffirm local traditions and their cultural expressions. However, what Hall saw as the most likely outcome of the globalising processes was hybridisation of cultures, which would result in new identities composed of both local and global influences. His conclusion was that cultural changes brought about by globalisation would certainly not be unilinear and homogenising, not least because this new form of interdependence operates in a non-linear way.
More than three decades later, it is safe to say that hybridisation of cultures led to a new perspective on how national cultures are viewed and experienced by individuals. The threat of homogenisation is still perceived as important, as evidenced by ever-growing initiatives to preserve cultural diversity, and cultural resistance has found new forms of expression in the political discourse. Based on this, a conclusion can be drawn that reactions to globalising processes outlined by Hall are still active, with hybridisation of culture happening even where it is rhetorically rejected.
What is more, it could be said that hybridisation of cultures, as the process by which cultures around the world adopt aspects of homogenised global culture while at the same time clinging to some aspects of their traditional or local cultures, has become a new framework through which issues relating to culture, identity and power should be studied. (MP, ITK)