notes by Whitney Howarth on the keynote speech at the
New England Regional World History Association (NERWHA) Colloquium
Saturday, April 10, 2011
Salem State University, MA
First I'd like to thank Dr. Dane Morrison (History Dept.) and Dean Jude Nixon, of Salem State University's College of Arts and Sciences, for graciously welcoming the members of NERWHA to their campus yesterday. The lunch was ample & delicious; the space was perfect for our highly energized full-day meeting! We couldn't have been more comfortable.
Now on to some notes I took on Dr. Northrup's talk. I just want to share some of the highlights and the excellent book titles that the professor recommended to those of us interested in further reading on the topic... Please note, these are my personal notes from the lecture and I ask Dr. Northrup to forgive me if I incorrectly summarized his main points or mis-state any key arguments. I hope he'll feel free to comment and respond here. I've tried to remain as true to his points as I might without editorializing them too much (hence the use of short sentence and bullets throughout!). I took notes by hand and am certain I left out a great many valid points. Thank you Dr. Northrup for your presentation.
Brief Speaker Bio: Northrup's reflections on culture that is becoming global and the intensity of interactions globally are based on over 30 years of teaching and researching in the field. This well established scholar was made famous for his work on the Atlantic Slave trade, but he has also co-authored a widely used world history textbook and other scholarship on the African diaspora, indentured labor, imperialism, pre-colonial economic development in Nigeria and labor in Zaire.
Since 1989 he has taught in the African Studies program at Boston college and he has been teaching a class on The History of Globalization (1000 years ago to present) for over a decade.
Northrup starts by offering a note on periodization: since about 1000 years ago we've been observing evidence of intense globalization and unification across cultures. Before 1000 years ago cultures seemed to be getting more diverse/different, not less.
- Christianity and Islam have experienced the greatest expansion in last century -- and with this, he states, we may see the adoption of such major world religions as a great articulation of common humanity. Indeed there are far fewer religions today than 2000 years ago.
- The spread of large empires contributes to a larger cultural 'frame' globally
- We teach ancient empires as benign (Hellenization was a good thing?) but are more critical of modern empire ('bad') because we've adopted the anti-imperial rhetoric
- Forced globalization? -- conquest is one thing, the culture processes are another
- Ex.: spread of religion, political philosophies, global cultural institutions in common may be desired by the people -- shared vocabulary and viewpoints
Modern Cultural Globalization
- Importance of secular terms to define modernity
- Secularism, born of the Euro Enlightenment, adopted in more regions of globe
- Example: Human Rights Movements, concept of Universal rights
- 1st Geneva Convention: 1864! Followed by 1906,1929,1948 (Univ. Declaration)
Recommended Book: The Last Utopia: Human Rights in World History by Samuel Moyn Click here for Amazon.com page for this title
A video of Moyn discussing his excellent work:
Themes to consider: Science, Education, English language, Westernization, homogenization.
1) Science: In a general world history course, we mention science when we discuss the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century and maybe even the biological/evolutionary debates in the 18th/19th century but we don't do very much with science in the 20th century.
- There is ONE global science in the 20th century
- All science subscribes to one global audience (professional publications) and one lang.= English
Recommended book:
Daniel Hedrick's When Information Came of Age: Technologies of Knowledge In the Age of Reason and Revolution (1700-1850) Click HERE for Amazon page for this book
2) Education: There evolves a single higher education system with a shared, standardized, and transferable (more-or-less) curriculum.
- increased # of higher education institutions and therefore # of students
- students are more mobile, especially traveling abroad (for longer periods, more of them)
- this creates a need for/desire for a more global system of education institutions
Recommended Reading: Philip G. Altbach "Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking An Academic Revolution" (UNESCO 2009) Click HERE for book
 |
| Altbach, Director of the Center for International Education, Boston College (USA) |
3) Emergence of English as THE global language:
- Science publications world-wide, 90% in English
- Higher Education courses, world-wide, are increasingly in English
- International language of Business no longer French, it is English
- Post-colonial literature (Naipul, Rushdie, Achebe) are largely in English (best in English?)
- Internet comes into being as USSR falls, shift to Internet and prominence of English on the Web
- Pop culture shaped globally by English speaking media
4) Westernization: Is all this globalization just Westernization? If so, is it BAD?
- What if we don't emphasize the negative points, what if we acknowledge the global progress?
- Less critical attention to whose language it is, emphasize the efficiency globally of English as unifier
- Less critical on the origins of the university system (global standard) and accept quality of system
5) Homogenization: Clearly this happens! Language are lost, cultures adapt/change/get lost.
- Generally, fewer cultural differences today than before 1000 years ago.
- There are limits to the power of homogeneity. We are not identical, we will always have diversity.
- But we also have enough in common to function (increasingly) as a single system.
- Differences aren't obstacles -- but commonality provides opportunities for increased intelligibility.
- More people have chosen to be a part of the trend towards globalization rather than resisted it
The Question and Answer period following the lecture was vibrant and included comments from audience members such as:
A) What's lost? What are the dangers of teaching empire as progress -- as benign and unifying? Is this a triumphalist story of globalization?
B) While we shouldn't revert to colonizer (villain)/colonized (victim) ideological duality, are we over-emphasizing the benefits of unity, commonality, standardization, and human harmony if we tell this story without critically analyzing the mechanisms of power here?
C) What about the resistance of the indigenous to globalization?
One member in the audience recommended we read: The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia Click link here for Amazon description.
D) Global fundamentalist movements should be seen as a response to Globalization and what some perceive as an attack on local culture, belief systems and power networks. This is an important part of this story.
E) We should also put the Internet on the list of ways in which Globalization of culture is happening.
F) Let's not be too quick, however, to declare "English won!" in the global language contest. Increasingly, Chinese students and citizens are expressing themselves on the internet in their own languages, alphabets, grammar!
G) Is language neutral? Language is linked to who controls the schools, the publication industry, the professional organizations, and the funds for science - hence, it is linked to power systems. Can we say people 'chose' English? or 'choose' globalization? What is the viable alternative for people without power?
Dr. Northrup reminds us what he tells all his students in his History of Globalization course:
"The powerful are not all powerful, and
the less powerful are not powerless."
Thank you for a provocative and thoughtful presentation!
