Paper short abstract:

This paper is to demonstrate that in order to observe and examine contemporary socio-cultural phenomena in this globalized world more dynamically and effectively, we need to focus on the simultaneity of and mutual interaction between globalization and localization, known as “glocalization.”

Paper long abstract:

This paper is to demonstrate that in order to observe and examine contemporary socio-cultural phenomena in this globalized world more dynamically and effectively, we need to focus on the simultaneity of and mutual interaction between globalization and localization, known as "glocalization."

From the very beginning of the popularization of "globalization" around the early 1990s, it was well-recognized that globalization would always develop in tandem with and through interaction with localization. Hence, the telescoping Japanglish word/concept of "glocalization" was introduced into sociology and anthropology to emphasize the tension and mutual interaction between global and local factors.

However, when we argue about globalization, we focus on the one-way interaction from global to local factors. Some consider globalization as a homogenization process, and criticize it for causing the demise or disappearance of local factors. Others consider globalization as a diversification process and appreciate it for creolizing and reconstructing local factors, but both sides have rarely talked about "reverse globalization" or the globalization process from the periphery to the center.

In order to shed light on the hitherto not fully examined socio-cultural dynamics within myriad contact zones between the global and the local, the center and the periphery, and the outside and the inside, I would like to demonstrate that "glocal studies" based on the concept of glocalization are needed. Using the framework of glocal studies, we can also focus on movements that symmetrize socio-cultural power imbalances between the center (mostly Euro-American global cities) and the periphery (typically non-Euro-American local towns and villages).