The Globalization Of Youth Culture Cultural Studies Essay

In their article ‘The Glocalization of Youth Culture: The Global Youth Segment as Structures of Common Difference’, Kjeldgaard and Askegaard provide an analysis of global youth cultural consumption based on an empirical study. In our modern life, global teens play an important part in the global culture, and the “teenage culture” on a global scale reflects a youthful lifestyle and affects the constitution of global culture (Kjeldgaard and Askegaard, 2006). Hence, Kjeldgaard and Askegaard’s research has a special significance for us to know more about the global youth cultural consumption. From the article the fact can be also found that the young value changes and leads the future trend and fashion. Through the analysis of the global youth segment which may have common difference, readers can have a clear understanding of youth culture.

In the article ‘The Production and Consumption of ‘Japanese Culture’ in The Global Culture Market’, the author demonstrates an explicit process of the production and consumption of ‘culture’, and presents the fact that ‘Japanese culture’ crosses national borders and has profoundly influenced the global culture. In the process of economic globalization, local culture crosses boundary and penetrates into other nations. This process can be called cultural globalization (Golstein-Gidoni, 2005). In this article, culture is presented in front of different people as a product, which is an approach for readers to understand the process of culture transfer in globalization. The author focuses on ‘Japanese culture’ as a global cultural production to explain the global culture market. Meanwhile, both of the two articles demonstrate the fact that in globalization, culture has significant impact on people’s contemporary way of life. The essay will comment the two articles from the following four aspects: the first one is about material culture and consumerism shaping people’s contemporary way of life; the second one is on cultural and social representations’ reproduction; the third one mainly analyzes the production and construction of identities through consumer society and global cultural industry; the last one discusses the social ramification of culture industry by addressing the relationship between the consumer and the marketplace.

2, Critical Review

Material culture and consumption have a close relationship in the modern world. Due to the special relationship, they affect and shape the modern lifestyle. In the first article, the author shows readers different cultures of young people by comparing the differences of young consumers in Denmark and Greenland. Yong people establish their own culture, and they pursue fashion and have their own values. Young culture affects the lifestyle of young people. Young people advocate fast-paced life and pursue their own lifestyles, because they are deeply affected by the young culture (Abrams, 1959). Although young cultures in the world have some differences, they also have some common grounds that have an impact on young people and shape the lifestyle of young people. In the second article, readers can know more about the Japanese culture’s influence on the contemporary way of life. Consumer culture is a culture of life after all. The Japanese lifestyle is different from other countries by the affect of ‘Japanese culture’. Every country has their own culture, which can distinguish them from the other people. Duo to the differences of culture, people may have different lifestyles.

Different social representations create different culture of their own, and different culture can also form different social representations. Young people form their own culture. 〝Cool〞 is popular with young people, and they regard the cool as a fashion. Nowadays, 〝Cool〞 culture has become the popular culture between young people. Culture shapes gender, tribal, and ethnic identities as a form of consumption. On the one hand, they have their own music tastes, clothing styles, and media habits, which distinguish them from the other people. On the other hand, young have become a social category, which has been closely related to the development of modernization. Young culture represents the young people, and young people develop the young culture. ‘Japanese culture’ crosses national borders, which leave a deep impression on the people of other countries (Featherstone, 1990). Because Japanese form a unique culture of their own country, ‘Japanese culture’ can differ from culture of other countries. Gravity and enthusiasm are often read in the ‘Japanese culture’, and they have become the special symbols of Japanese.

Consumer society and global cultural industry affect the identities of different people. People share the different culture and they have different consumption in their daily life. Consumer society supplies a positive and fast-paced environment for the young people, and young people have become a social category by the effect of consumer society and global cultural industry (Thomas, 1997). The model of young people gain cultural significance in the early of this century, and the young consumers are lack of responsibilities. As a result, the teenage identity become inevitable a symbol of leisure and hedonic consumption. In the context of cultural globalization, Japan has generated its own ‘Japanese culture’, which makes Japanese people different from people of other countries. ‘Japanese culture’ has given Japanese people special identities that belong to their own.

Since post-World War II, young people have been seen as a huge market segment and the new mass popular culture, so more and more social ramifications of culture industry are created by the market segmentation. Marketing industry begins to tap into young by the driving of this cultural viewpoint. As a result, some new sunrise industries enter the market and carry out the strategy of market segmentation. Culture industry can generate all kinds of social ramifications, and young culture is no exception. ‘Japanese culture’ develops into a special culture industry by the strategy of ‘exporting’ and ‘importing’ (Theodore, 1989). In the long process of development, representations of ‘Japanese culture’ are becoming more and more, such as Japanese art, martial arts, ink painting, tea ceremony, and some of them have become new industries by addressing the relationship between the consumer and the marketplace.

3, conclusion

From the two articles some key themes can be found that on the one hand, material culture and consumerism shape contemporary way of life, and culture has a lot to do with the lifestyle of people. On the other hand, material culture such as young culture and ‘Japanese culture’ can also produce different industries, which are all in the context of cultural globalization. Culture distinguishes people from other people. In the process of cultural globalization, people should resist the invasion of unhealthy culture and study excellent culture, in order to achieve their own development.