Abstract:

Globalization is a concept used in entitling an economic process which began to appear especially in the 1960s, but has been intensely felt for the past 25-30 years. Globalization refers to not only an economic process, but also a social, political and cultural process. Western multinational companies which are the subjects of globalization offer Western products and services, as well as contextual features in the utilization of these products and services to non-Western countries in parallel with technological and communicational developments. Thus, perceiving, thinking and living features of the Western culture affect the culture of non-Western countries, which leads to the development of firstly hybridization and then assimilation into the Western culture and homogenization in national cultures. As a consequence, unitary states become economically, politically and culturally dependent on the West. This dependence provides the West a source of raw materials and an opportunity of marketing. Consumption culture which dominates the West is also imposed on non-Western countries in various ways. This culture is a process which is offered to the world especially by the USA and developed Western countries, imposed with technological, economical, political and cultural oppressions and simply aims to “standardize” people from different cultures, lifestyles and geographies. Predicting “Americanization” in terms of perceiving, thinking and acting; consumption culture is a cultural process which spreads via today’s mass media (radio, tv, internet) such as news, documentaries, tv series, advertisements and social media and hypnotizes people to consume with its subconscious-related effects. The process aims to homogenize individuals in thinking, acting and consuming. Cultural homogenization is only one aspect of globalization and it signifies reducing the cultural diversity by means of not only using material products, but also extending and spreading a wide cultural series such as beliefs, thoughts, values, attitudes and behaviors. Our study will center upon homogenization which is tried to be formed by globalization through increasing the consumption on the national culture and explore the cultural diversity of national cultures and the differences between homogenization and multiculturalism.

Keywords: