Globalization and identity/locality formation: beyond the 'homo-hetero' debate

Abstract

This short article tries to problematize a commonplace discourse in the sociology of globalization, viz., the problem of identity or locality formation. After briefly traversing the two major camps in the field—the “homogenizers’” and the “heterogenizers’”--it finally seeks a way out of this predicament, which it assumes to be virtually untenable. It rather attempts to demonstrate the validity of the insight of those recent scholars who emphasized that “the local” and “the global” are neither strictly distinct nor necessarily contradictory. The term “glocalization” can best stand for such reasoning. This is briefly exemplified by the nature and incidence of one ubiquitous phenomenon in our world: nationalism.