"...The common characteristic of the globalized culture is that it pursues the same “one size fits all” idea: the archetypical middle class family according to the American model in which consumerism is the norm. The result of this cultural process of homogenization is that a large section of the world's population dreams of living like Cosby & Co or like the characters in any other stereotype American soap opera. Traditional values have been overtaken by Coca Cola culture. The Michael Jackson style of music and culture is taking over and we don't have the values to cope with it...."
- Dilara Zahid
This journal article is interesting because it highlights the effects of globalization on upper class youth culture within Dhaka. The vast expanse of scholarly research into the deconstruction of globalization on locales within the Global South - or on the Global South as a whole - tends to focus on the populations that are the most vulnerable: the most impoverished, the displaced, extreme low-wage workers, sweatshop employees, abandoned/trafficked or forcibly employed children, sex workers, etc. This was the first opportunity I have had to read about the effects of globalization on the moderate to relatively wealthy. Although the findings were interesting (the piece read more subjectively than objectively - there was definitely a sense of personal outrage from the author), this journal piece seemed to be more of an indictment of the effects of capitalism as a whole on the subjects (upper class youth in Dhaka) rather than one of the offshoots (or consequences (or benefits, according to some,) of capitalism: globalization. I especially appreciated the concept of the "Coca Cola" culture. I think this is an accurately encapsulating assessment of the effect of capitalist industrialization on the Global North, at the very least, on the United States, specifically.
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