Will National Culture Survive Globalization?

Abstract

Throughout the modern period, the state has been an instrument of bringing the cultural and political boundaries in accordance with one another. The state’s claim of sovereignty ensures that cultural differences present themselves as national, i.e. as differences between the states, whereas the cultural differences within a state are regarded as insignificant. With globalization, the state loses its ability to maintain a homogeneous cultural space. It no longer has the power to neutralize the demand for difference coming from both cultural communities on the subnational level and from transnational structures. The fictitious nature of the claims of cultural sovereignty, however, does not eliminate the reality of such claims.