Summary: Does Globalization Thwart Cultural Diversity?

The seminar was introduced by Milan Brahmbhatt (PRMEP). It is a common claim of opponents of economic globalization that it will degrade the quality and diversity of world culture. Yet there were at least a couple of reasons to examine these claims in a critical spirit. First, even if for the sake of argument one accepts them to be valid, they are sometimes used to justify illiberal policy actions that are disturbing in their own right. Presumably people around the world are well able to decide for themselves whether or not to eat hamburgers. Yet some critics (from both the political 'right' and 'left') feel justified in physically attacking American fast food restaurants and so preventing people from exercising this choice. Could cultural anti-globalism be used to justify such violent authoritarianism, or, more generally, to curtail individual freedoms? But, second, these arguments appear to be wildly at odds with obvious historical and present facts. Some of the greatest flowerings of human culture - Periclean Athens, Renaissance Italy - happened in and were fostered by vibrant urban commercial cultures that were absorbed in international trade. In our own day, it is well worth pondering the amazing breadth and depth of titles on philosophy, the arts and sciences on the shelves of any Borders or Barnes & Noble book superstore, which are purely commercial ventures, or the remarkable worldwide community of book lovers that has voluntarily gathered to exchange opinions about books at the website of Amazon.com, another purely commercial operation. To better understand the relation between globalization, commerce and culture, however, one needed to go beyond anecdotes and to more systematically study the mechanisms, incentives and forces that may be in play. Perhaps no one was better qualified to do this than Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at George Mason University and the author of several outstanding studies on the subject. ("Minerva's Owl: The Sources of Creative Global Culture", Princeton, forthcoming; "What Price Fame?", Harvard, 2000; and "In Praise of Commercial Culture", Harvard, 1998. Links provided to Amazon.com review pages.)

Tyler Cowen began by noting that he would discuss culture in the limited sense of painting, music, movies and other outputs of the creative industries, rather than in the broader sense of a way of life. The theme of his talk was to critically examine the charge commonly made by critics of economic globalization, that it will lead to a leveling and degradation of culture, to a diminution of cultural diversity. He would make the counter -argument that globalization is good for some, though not perhaps for all, types of diversity. In other words, a good starting point in this discussion is to recognize that cultural diversity itself is of several types. The following types could be distinguished: (1) Cultural diversity within societies, i.e. the richness of the menu of choices available to people in a country. (2) Diversity across societies. The concern that societies are becoming more alike is a principal focus of anti-globalist critics. Cowen's argument, however, is that trade of cultural products and influences will increase cultural diversity within societies, even while it may reduce it across them: societies will become more alike in offering the same rich menu of choices to their people. Concern about the actual choices available to people within society reflected the individualist mindset and priorities, concern about the differences or similarities of entire societies taken as units a collectivist mindset and priorities. (3) Diversity across time. Most cultures are in constant change, but critics are commonly opposed to this diversity in time, displaying a preference for stasis. (4) Operative or practical diversity, which refers to how far you can take practical advantage of the objective diversity that exists in the world. There was much diversity in the world in 1450, but Aztec and Chinese culture had no access to each other, so operative diversity was low. Modern trade and communications provide societies with vastly more effective access to objective diversity.

Cowen's analysis proceeds from the basic gains from trade model. When individuals trade they do so to expand their menu of choices, and on average we should expect societies to do the same. Some reasons for cultural enrichment from trade: (1) New technologies and materials. Many 'third world' cultures have flourished with access to new technologies. For example, the boon of industrially produced metal knives for Inuit and other sculpting and carving traditions; the absorption of pattern models from all over the world in 19th century Navaho weaving; the central role of the electric guitar in modern African music, and so on. (2) The stimulus of a larger global market for greater specialization and niche production. The Persian carpet industry was moribund in the middle of the 19th century, but was revitalized by the export trade. High quality Haitian Naive art attracts little interest in its own country, but survives on the basis of foreign purchases. (3) Inspiration from foreign arts. The phenomenal musical creativity of the United States over the last 100 years, one of its most notable contributions to world culture, draws deeply on African musical inspirations - an example, too, of how cultural exports from poor countries or regions can be highly competitive in rich country cultural markets. In recent decades American artists like James Brown have, in turn, been a great influence on the vibrant modern day African musical scene, as have other New World traditions from Cuba and elsewhere.

Cowen then outlined several exceptions or problems with the gains from trade approach to cultural exchange. (1) Societal ethos. Some small societies may require isolation to maintain their ethos. Would the small Inuit community retain its character if transplanted to the middle of Toronto? Probably not. But trade can also help maintain societal ethos. The Inuit are better able to maintain their isolated life because they can export their products to the rest of the world. On net we don't know if trade harms or fosters societal ethos. (2) Cost Disease. Traditional skills like hand weaving may fall out of use because of the adoption of less costly technologies. (3) Excess Clustering, where one country's industry dominates the world market. The only significant case in culture today is the Hollywood movie industry, which takes around 80% of the European market. Cowen argued that the relative weakness of the European movie industry could be related to specific domestic factors, for example, the low number of young people (prime movie-goers) in Europe, for demographic reasons; and low incentives to compete in export markets because of heavy subsidies. There is little inevitable about this outcome though: in the 1930s French movies out competed Hollywood in world markets, without benefit of subsidy or protection - perhaps because of that lack. (4) Quality of consumer tastes. i.e. foreign buyers may corrupt standards of taste.

A common thread in Cowen's analysis is his argument that growth and trade will tend to foster both homogenization and greater niche diversity at the same time, more copious production of both 'high brow' and 'low brow' culture, more 'lowest common denominator' and more artistic products of the highest standard. A canonical example is the side by side expansion of both giant fast-food restaurant chains and of masses of sophisticated niche restaurants representing national and sub-national regional cuisine from all over the world. Too often the cultural criticisms of globalization amount to the taking of a very narrow or one-sided view of a multifaceted process.

The seminar drew a good sized audience from both PREM and the Social Development Network, making for an excellent Q&A discussion, and a stimulating interaction of approaches to culture from different directions - economics, anthropology etc. There was agreement that more such interdisciplinary discussion was in order. The first chapters of Tyler Cowen's three books on the economics of culture are available at his Webpage. He can be reached at tcowen@gmu.edu.