Explaining Cultural Globalization: A Synthesis of Bourdieusian and Critical Realist Approaches as Applied to Kazakhstan

• In Event: 156 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. Cultural Approaches to Globalization

Abstract

My paper encapsulates the central argument of my forthcoming book, Worlds Apart: Globalization, Migration and Cultural Change in Kazakhstan (Cambridge University Press, 2016). Specifically, it explores the social process of cultural globalization by analyzing the attitudes and behaviors of young people from Kazakhstan who visit the US and then return home. The key questions it addresses are what “cultural remittances” these return migrants do (or do not) bring back with them and why, as well as how/why such innovations are socially embraced or rejected. Based on depth interviews with returnees as well as non-migrants, I explore attitudes toward functional knowledge, gender equality, and volunteer work. In addition, drawing from Critical Realism (especially Archer) and Practice Theory (especially Bourdieu), I investigate the interconnected meanings associated with such ideas and practices, as well as the underlying mechanisms that explain their absorption or rejection. In doing so I contribute to the theoretical literature on cultural globalization – in particular, the social-and-ideational dynamics through which globalization occurs.

Author

• Douglas Blum, Providence College