GLOBALISATION AS HYBRIDISATION

Abstract

Globalisation is usually interpreted as a process of homogenisation, but considering that there are multiple globalisation processes at work this is hardly adequate. Globalisation is also often tied up with modernity, which in effect equates globalisation with Westernisation, which is historically shallow and analytically narrow. This paper argues instead for viewing globalisation as hybridisation: structural hybridisation, or the emergence of new, mixed forms of cooperation, and cultural hybridisation, or the development of translocal mélange cultures. Theorising hybridity and reflecting on the politics of hybridity shows the varieties of hybridity, from mimicry to counter-hegemony. The other side of hybridity is transcultural convergence. Two distinct concepts of culture are in use: territorial and translocal, inward and outward-looking - which produce divergent views on cultural relations and globalisation. Hybridisation refers to the closed concept of culture and to its opening up, in the process ushering in post-hybridity. This is an argument for post-inter/national sociology of hybrid times, spaces and formations.