Globalization

Globalization, as discussed in Monday’s lecture, is a process of increasing interconnectedness among nations, cultures, and people. Through the advances and spread of technologies we are able to share in other ways of life as well as adapt and change due to that exposure. A smaller scale example of such an adaptation would be in glocalization, a branch of hybridization that takes an idea or formula that proved to be successful in one place and adopt it in another.

A prime example of glocalization from this year alone would be the newly released Let Me In. The 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In, a dark story about a bullied 12-year-old boy that befriends a vampire girl in Stockholm, Sweden, received a vast amount of critical praise, and the rights to the novel that inspired it were quickly bought up by Hollywood studios, hoping to cash in on the current zeitgeist of vampire mania. However elements of this remake were changed to be more recognizable to American audiences. The setting was changed from Stockholm, Sweden to 1980s Los Alamos, New Mexico during the Reagan administration. Little details such as video game references, store and food brand names were altered or adopted to make the film more successful amongst American audiences.