Cultural Imperialism
The influence of Western culture on the world scene
A Scholarly View of Western Influence Abroad
With critics of U.S. foreign policy frequently citing the United States' neo-imperialistic tendencies in recent decades, those interested in a nuanced take on the subject would do well to read John Tomlinson's book, Cultural Imperialism. In this complex and systematic analysis of a term whose definition remains ambiguous, Tomlinson challenges scholars to critically examine the discourse of cultural imperialism in an attempt to clarify both its rhetorical use and the attention it often receives.
What is Cultural Imperialism?
Arguing early on that a term’s use in popular and scholarly discourse signifies both its power and its ‘actual’ definition, Tomlinson claims that “the concept of cultural imperialism is one which must be assembled out of its discourse” [1]. This sets the tone for the relentless critical scrutiny of the rest of the work, with the author carefully assembling a system of arguments which ultimately cast a shadow of doubt on the legitimacy of defining aspects of U.S. and Western foreign interventions (cultural, economic, and ideological, for example) as ‘cultural imperialism’.
Cultural Imperialism Remains Ambiguous
As Tomlinson is quick to note, the very notion he is attempting to challenge, ‘cultural imperialism,’ must be given an artificial coherence for argument’s sake. Separating his argument into a critique of the definition of culture, which he views as “the context within which people give meanings to their actions and experiences, and make sense of their lives”[2], and a later critique of the term imperialism, Tomlinson, steadily unravels layers of semantic complexity. Taking a Foucaultian stance on the issue of authorship, he views cultural imperialism as a series of interwoven discourses rather than a coherent thesis, and even though in addressing a large body of secondary literature he offers a broad overview of the state of the field, he concedes that his book in no way represents a definitive critique: “I produces a discourse implicated in the processes of dominance which I wish to describe” [3].
The State of Scholarship on Cultural Imperialism
It is worth noting that Tomlinson’s use of Foucault’s notions of discourse as power is a theme central to Cultural Imperialism, as Tomlinson argues throughout that perspective plays a crucial role in determining the effects of cultural interactions. Demonstrating that the overwhelming majority of scholarship on cultural imperialism (and most historical fields studied in the West) is both written in English and not widely distributed on a global level, he reframes the implicitly Western-centric views held by many users of the term.
Measuring Cultural Influence Abroad
Tomlinson also points to the difficulty in conducting tests to measure audience response, citing various experiments in which group dynamics and the imposition of researchers in the background cast doubt on their accuracy of determining cultural reception, while reinforcing his views that from a non-Western perspective, many of the items of Western capitalist culture (TV, appliances, pharmaceuticals) could be perceived as beneficial to those living in poverty.
Modernity's Spread in the Developing World
Central to both the latter portion of the book and subtly hinted at in the earlier chapters is Tomlinson’s argument that scholars should focus their attention away from nation-culture and instead on modernity, which he defines as “the cultural direction of global development” [4] Arguing that spatial conceptions of cultural influence (i.e. regional encroachment, etc.), including the popular subject of Americanization, are a product of modernity itself, he claims that cultural imperialism is best understood as “the spread of cultural modernity itself” [5]. As culture is not static, his argument is sound, especially in the ways in which he describes modernity’s need to replace the displaced traditions of pre-industrial antiquity with socially constructed, largely symbolic notion of culture.
An Existential Crisis brought on by Modernity
This existential crisis brought on by modernity forms a major part of the final chapters of the book, with Tomlinson drawing on a range of critical theorists and even philosophers, including Jean-Paul Sartre, yet settling on a partially unresolved notion that we must ultimately determine our fate. This was one of the weaker arguments of the book in that it tends to downplay the enormous factors limiting our agency, factors the author himself outlined only pages before the book’s conclusion. That said, the author is careful not to undermine the legitimacy of claims that the West is both a dominant economic force in the world and that this has had a detrimental impact on both the environment and those exploited by capitalism.
Imagined Cultures
As Tomlinson views culture as ‘socially imagined’, he concedes that the limitations imposed by Western development on a region’s autonomy could potentially be construed as cultural imperialism, yet the crucial argument of his bookis that this exploitation is vastly different than the simplified version contained within the ‘cultural imperialism thesis,’ which views culture as a homogenous construction, conflates ‘cultural’ with ‘socio-economic,’ and downplays the autonomy of local residents. He concludes, “Culture is never ‘fate’ but always, ultimately, decision” [6].
Sources:
[1] John Tomlinson, Cultural Imperialism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), 3.
[2] Ibid., 7.
[3] Ibid.,12.
[4] Ibid., 27.
[5] Ibid.,89.
[6] Ibid.,161.
Cultural Imperialism
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