The Unifying Aspects of Cultures

SECTION:

Frontier Metamorphoses: Americanization and Otherness

Chris Warhurst (Scottish Centre for Employment Research, University of Strathclyde)
Soft Power: The Force Behind the Cavalry of the New American Frontier?

This paper examines Americanisation. It acknowledges that the US does at times resort to 'hard power' to achieve its influence, most usually through military exercise. More pervasive US influence, however, depends on the exercise of 'soft power' through presence and ideas. Drawing on a previous framework employed by the author and colleagues to critique globalisation, the paper explores this influential US soft power through three dimensions: cultural, political and economic. It argues that although the cultural dimension is most obvious as a manifestation of Americanisation, it is the economic dimension - principally through firms -supported by the political dimension - through the different levels of government - that is the driver of this Americanisation. The argument is illustrated by use of primary and secondary empirical research material by the author and others.

THE UNIFYING ASPECTS OF CULTURES