Globalizing cultures: a challenge for contemporary cultural sociology

Abstract

The present article underlines strikes the necessity of social realism in contemporary cultural sociology. It introduces the concept of “transcultural hybridization” as the most adequate analytical and interdisciplinary instrument for explaining a whole series of sociocultural phenomena as they have emerged from the process of globalization and the postmodern condition. Based at one and the same time on the cognitive and ethical conditions of a “reflexive modernity” and on the analytical value of concepts such as “acculturation,” “transculturality,” and “multiculturality,” it is argued that the introduction of the concept of “transcultural hybridization” necessarily entails a revision of all the categories that have to date been used to explain the socio-cultural dynamics in the era of globalization.  

Keywords

• Globalization,transcultural hybridization,multiculturality,cultural sociology

References

1. Alexander JC, Thompson K. (2008) A Contemporary introduction to sociology: culture and society in transition. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.