Globalisation has become a burning topic of our times. The internet bookshop lists over 1,500 books on the subject with more titles being added every day. An enormous body of literature is available on all aspects of globalisation.
Scholars are divided over the definitions of globalisation, its effects and where we are heading. According to one school, globalisation heralds a new era in the history of mankind. It intersects countries, brings economic prosperity and creates one world where mankind's misery will be solved. A new world, according to this school, is being created.
But for scholars such as Armand Mattelart and Herbert Schiller, globalisation is another avatar of US cultural imperialism characterised by the proliferation of capitalist ideology and creation of new markets for American products, resulting in the consolidation of US hegemony.
And how is this accomplished? Through what Tanner Minister calls American soft power or US cultural imperialism. For long, US has used its media and communication channels as vehicles to establish its cultural supremacy across the world. The protagonist of this theory, Schiller, vividly describes how the US media, ably assisted by the US establishment, have struggled to alter the global communication system to promote US economic and political interests. Schiller argues that as a first step, the US has established a technological infrastructure conducive to US political and economic control. On the terrain of ideology and culture, US media reinforce "… in their imagery and messages, the beliefs and perspectives that create and reinforce their audience' attachments to the way things are in the system overall."
What is the effect of cultural imperialism? Sociologists and anthropologists are divided over the issue. Some scholars are of the view that the consumers of American media products may internalise the meanings evident in those products as real and better at the cost of their own indigenous cultural values and beliefs, or what is known as the archaic hypodermic model theory in communication.
Critics of the diffusion of American culture disagree with this. They maintain that culture cannot be changed merely on the basis of exposing a group to a foreign media. Rather, it has to be consistent with the existing values of the group or improve vastly the existing social system. At the most, critics believe that exposure to US media may alter cultural meanings superficially to suit the former's requirements. They maintain that the effects are mainly peripheral as they reinforce already held views and habits or what is better known in communication studies has having limited effects.
The book under review, Globalization on the Ground: Media and Transformation of Culture, Class and Gender by Steve Derme, professor of sociology at State University of New York, Geneseo, maintains that social transformation depends on many variables such as class, gender, and social structure. Derme has used several methodological approaches, including ethnography, observation and interview. The location of the study is Dehradun.
Derme visited this north Indian hill station in 1991 when the Indian government headed by Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao initiated first generation economic reforms amidst much resistance. Derme's second visit was in 2001 when globalisation had become an accepted phenomenon and writers and scholars in its favour were marvelling at the transformation of India owing to neoliberal policies. Thomas L. Friedman, columnist and author of The World is Flat, celebrated the levelling effects of globalisation after visiting a few cities and software companies.
Derme proposes a different thesis to prove that "… ordinary Indians are positioned within the transformed economy in ways that have not increased opportunities. While the position of the affluent has improved, the rest of the class structure remains largely same."
Derme argues that when it comes to family, gender roles largely remain intact. The author takes marriage as a yardstick of change and arrives at the conclusion that things remain the same. Traditional values, he maintains, have not yielded to meanings and narratives offered by the media. To prove his point, he heavily depends on films. Although over the years, Hollywood has steadily increased its reach and influence, it has failed to bring any change in the globalised world.
Derme convincingly argues that institutional arrangements are crucial in shaping the response to globalisation and it can also vastly affect those who are economically and socially positioned for change. He calls this section of people as the transnational middle class. But the ordinary middle class has remained where it was in pre-1991 India. There is a chasm between elite Indian middle class and the ordinary middle class.
Interestingly, the author argues that the elite middle class will resist the meanings and beliefs which go against accepted conventions. When it comes to families and cosmopolitanism, the author holds the view that "Films ease men's anxieties about cosmopolitanism by suggesting that even cosmopolitan Indian women are committed to the family arrangements towards which male viewers are especially attracted." Derme's writing on the dynamics of media reception confirms the old theory that "social locations shape media reception." Another important aspect of the book is its attempt to demolish the flow model of Arjun Appadurai that globalisation has contributed to people becoming aware of a wider set of "possible lives."
The author visited Dehradun in 2001 and interviewed men aged 18-26 along with one participant observation. He argues that though change has taken place, it is not as mammoth as pro-globalisation scholars make it out to be.
"The imaginative possibilities introduced by cultural globalisation have not changed ordinary middle class Indian men's orientation to consumerism, marriage and family. Ordinary middle class men watch global media celebrations of consumerism, but their economic opportunity have not changed in ways that support thorough going consumer orientation. They watch the global media celebrating individualism but do not fully embrace individualism because it is inconsistent with their need for family support in the early years of adulthood. They watch media celebrations of cosmopolitanism, but because their lives remain restricted to local employment markets and local circles, their identity remains firmly Indian," is the main thesis proposed by Derme.
Staying in a hill station such as Dehradun and interviewing and depending on a small sample size severely restricts the applicability of Derme's conclusions about globalisation in India. Foraying into rural India or drawing samples from different regions would have, undoubtedly, altered Derme's conclusions. His statement that Indians watch more Hollywood movies than anything else is not true. Studies have shown that Indians prefer Hindi films to Hollywood ones and regional cinema to Hindi movies. This apart, there are some embarrassing factual errors. For instance, he writes that Pramila Nesargi is a BJP member of parliament. In fact, she has never been elected to the Parliament.
Derme has said nothing new about globalisation. On the contrary, other accounts exist that capture the complex effects of globalisation in a more nuanced and context-specific manner. However, Derme's contribution lies in providing a theoretical framework from a sociological perspective to analyse globalisation.
Prof.B.A.Sridhara, teaches Communication at Department of Communication, Bangalore University. His areas of specialisation include Communication Theories, Development Communication, Film Communication. His Ph.d thesis is on 'Globalisation and its impact on media policy in India'.
Book Reviews 
Globalisation has become a burning topic of our times. The internet bookshop lists over 1,500 books on the subject with more titles being added every day. An enormous body of literature is available on all aspects of globalisation. 
The book under review, Globalization on the Ground: Media and Transformation of Culture, Class and Gender by Steve Derme, professor of sociology at State University of New York, Geneseo, maintains that social transformation depends on many variables such as class, gender, and social structure. Derme has used several methodological approaches, including ethnography, observation and interview. The location of the study is Dehradun. 
