英语专业精读小论文----cultural_conflict_and_globalization.doc

Cultural Conflicts and Globalization Cultures are like underground rivers that run through our lives and relationships, giving us messages that shape our perceptions, attributions, judgments, and ideas of self and other. Though cultures are powerful, they are often unconscious, influencing conflict and globalization in imperceptible ways. Cultures are embedded in every conflict because conflicts arise in human relationships. Cultures affect the ways we name, frame, blame, and attempt to tame conflicts. Culture is always a factor in conflict, whether it plays a central role or influences it subtly and gently. For any conflict that touches us where it matters, where we make meaning and hold our identities, there is always a cultural component. Intractable conflicts like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the India-Pakistan conflict over Kashmir are not only about territorial, boundary, and sovereignty issues, but also about acknowledgement, representation, and legitimization of different identities and ways of living, being, and making meaning. Conflicts between teenagers and parents are shaped by generational culture, and conflicts between spouses or partners are influenced by gender culture. In organizations, conflicts arising from different disciplinary cultures escalate tensions between co-workers, creating strained or inaccurate communication and stressed relationships. Sometimes culture permeates conflict pushing forth with intensity, other times quietly snaking along, hardly announcing its presence until surprised people nearly stumble on it. Culture is inextricable from conflict, though it does not cause it. When differences surface in families, organizations, or communities, culture is always present, shaping perceptions, attitudes, behaviors, and outcomes. Given cultures important role in conflicts, what should be done to keep it in mind and include it in response plans? Cultures may act like temperamental children: complicated, elusive, and difficult to predict. In my opinion, being familiar with culture is a key tool for disentangling and managing multilayered, cultural conflicts. We should be aware of their natures, how they work, and ways they intertwine with our relationships in times of conflict and harmony. Also, we should be aware of several dimensions of culture, including communication, ways of naming, framing, and taming conflict, approaches to meaning making, identities and roles. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to conflict resolution, since culture is always a factor. However, Cultural globalization is the rapid traversing of ideas, attitudes and values across national borders. This sharing of ideas generally leads to an interconnectedness and interaction between peoples of diverse cultures and ways of life. Cultural globalization is developing gradually by the growth of cross-cultural contacts, advent of new categories of consciousness and identities which embodies cultural diffusion, the desire to increase ones standard of living through enjoying foreign products and ideas, adopting new technology and practices. Spreading of cultural globalization，better individual access to cultural diversity. Some consider such imported culture a danger, since it may supplant the local culture, causing reduction in diversity or even assimilation. Others consider cultural globalization to promote peace and understanding between peoples. A third position gaining popularity is the notion that cultural globalization is a new form of monoculture in which no distinctions exist and everyone just shift between various lifestyles in terms of music, cloth and other aspects once more firmly attached to a single culture. Globalization requires more than physically linking the world. For it to continue apace there must also be a set of shared cultural understanding. Part of the process of globalization is the need to develop a culture that, in some broad way, can transcend diverse economic, ethnic, political, racial, and religious background. The process of producing a global culture will not occur without difficulty and conflict, especially for developing nations. The core values of western societies embodied in a culture that places its primary concern on the rights of the individual. Many cultures in developing countries are based on a concept of protecting the livelihood of ethnic, racial, religious groups, or those who share a common language, not individuals. This conflict can be noted in different concepts of epistemology, morality, and social values. With globalization, people have more opportunities to cooperate and exchange. Many people believe that globalization benefits the development of their native culture since people can experience culture from different nations during the international cooperation and international exchange. While conceding globalization is to some extent beneficial to culture, however, I think it has more negative effects on culture, which are as follows. In the first place, native language which is the most important part of culture has been threatened by English which is regarded as the worldwide medium of communication due to globalization. In China, the good English proficiency has become a necessary qualification when an institution or a company recruits a new staff in order to meet the need of globalization. In the second place, some traditional views which are important parts of native culture have been influenced by western culture because of globalization. For instance, for the young generations, the attitude to sexual behavior before marriage has changed. It is reported that there are more than 40% young people who think the sexual behavior before marriage is acceptable. Finally, globalization hinders the development of some native cultural industries. A good example is from film industry. People would choose the overseas films rather than the films made in China. This is harmful to domestic film industry. Another example is that a traditional opera, Peking opera, is being forgotten by young generations since they are attracted by western opera and pop music. From what has been discussed above, I can come to a conclusion that cultural globalization is