The Response of National Cultures to Globalization and Its Effect on Individual Identity.

As the twentieth century comes to an end, and with it a millennium, there has been much heated reflection on the passing age and the period of transition. Among the many characteristic phenomena of modern times, globalization has attracted particularly much attention. The process of European integration may be traced back to ancient times (vide Roman imperialism or Carolingian universalism). Recently, however, globalization has expanded and it has accelerated considerably. The author of this paper focuses on the current, paradoxical coexistence of global tendencies toward integration on the one hand and very clearly manifested, diversifying (or even separalistic) national and nationalist tendencies on the other hand. The author analyzes these homogenizing tendencies at the level of media pop culture on the one hand and the increasing, even acute, awareness of diversity, including the diversity of national cultures, on the other hand. She does so within the framework of the symbolic culture concept. Contemporarily, tendencies toward globalization are suspended between the Scylla of uniformization and the Charybdis of diversity. Sociology, is particularly qualified to study these phenomena, at both local and universal levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]