SEPTEMBER FOUNDATION COURSE 2013

Globalisation Has Led to the Loss of Cultural Identity in Britain. Discuss.

KIM, MINJI
0080203304
21/11/2013
Globalisation has led to the loss of cultural identity in Britain. Discuss. 'Everything changes, nothing remains without change'. It is said by Buddha and seems certainly true today. As the means of transportation and communication have been significantly improved, the world has been changed. Nowadays, a country's economy, finance, trade and commerce have been more integrated with other countries and the world is being as one unit. Since the artificial barrier of merchandise which is indigenous to most country has been removed, for example, Free Trade Agreement and World Trade Organization, the tendency has become more combined as a sort of massive single market (Madeley, 2009). As a result, these international processes handling connection between nations are called a 'globalisation'. However, on the other hand, globalisation is considered that it will inevitably create the loss of cultural identity because of its boundaryless characteristic. The focus and concern of the loss of cultural identity illustrates that it is not simply cultural problem but also social. So, it is important to investigate this idea that some countries are losing their cultural identity, because those countries need to respond to keeping their identity. This essay investigates firstly what makes a country characteristic, then focuses on the situation of Britain losing cultural identity, and finally assesses the extent to which certain elements are constituting Britain.

Firstly, cultural identifiers have to be inquired because those factors might be different depend on the result of various conditions, which can be locations, nationality, history, religious belief and food. British culture is highly reputed for its own inimitable attribute which is composed of both British original and international culture. For instance, insular geographical features, variety of nationality, historical Royal family, different forms of Christianity, British cuisine and else can be the attribute of British culture. Secondly, the reason why British cultural background is diverse can also be explained by an insular geographical feature. According to Oakland (2011, p. 3), as people started to settle down in Britain form about 600 BC-AD 1066, there was a continual invasion from mainland Europe, such as the Roman conquest, the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons, the Danes, the Normans and amongst others. During the time of constant war, surrender and peace with enemy, British ethnic group became consisting different people for example the Celts, the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, the Danes and the Normans. Therefore, all different identity and origins were mixed and it has now turned to very complex and unique British people's personality and culture. Finally, the point of view of British ethnicity needs to be reviewed. White British people are still constituting majority of ethnic group. It was identified that 87% of ethnic group were taken possession by White people in 2011 (Oakland, 2011). So this statistics are interpreted that there has been a balanced proportion of minority ethnicity. Also, Jack Straw, previous Home Secretary, emphasized that African, Chinese, Indian have been living without any problems in Britain. In other words, British cultural identity is not lost by globalisation. This variety of population is rather a power making Britain strong than a political and public concern.

With regards to national characteristic, we now turn to the issue of Britain losing its cultural identity. Those positive opinion to globalisation might be opposed because there are still drawbacks of globalisation in Britain. The objections are mainly related to immigration. Oakland (2011) argued that over the past twenty years, immigration has been risen to notably high levels in illustration of a third of population of London