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There used to be more regional diversity, though. Things had distinctive characteristics that could easily be associated with the culture that produced them. A
by bluetomcat 2y ago
There used to be more regional diversity, though. Things had distinctive characteristics that could easily be associated with the culture that produced them. A German car looked restrained and taut and had no cupholders. A French car looked kinda unusual and Avant-garde. Now everyone is driving the same blobby thing with several cupholders decided after a customer survey among Americans driving through McDonalds.
The concept of "McDonaldization" (coined in 1993) sums it best: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonaldization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonaldization
- Cthulhu_ 2y agoMcDonaldization = globalization? The world is smaller now than it was in the 80's, and even then there were trends in design and fashion that spread across the world.
- bluetomcat 2y agoThey are not quite the same idea. In a globalised but diverse economy, a Japanese buys a Swiss watch and a Swiss buys a Japanese air conditioner. McDonaldization refers to the incessant urge of Western societies to over-rationalise every aspect of the economic and cultural life, resulting in bland uniformity. It is a progression of Max Weber's ideas on bureaucracy and rationalisation.
- Spivak 2y agoI think globalized but diverse was always kind of a pipe dream because along with things you're trading across the globe you're also spreading information back and forth. And as the article points out, human preference is roughly the same in aggregate across the globe, so we all loosely converge on a local maximum of "the best" rinse, repeat, and you suddenly get homogenization.