Abstract

Today we are faced with the unprecedented expansion, strengthening, and acceleration of global networks of capital, labor, population, information and technology covering various areas of politics, military, economy, and culture. Among all these, what changes in culture were brought about in the globalization process and how will its future be shaped? There are four areas where this impact is noticeable: citizenship, multiculturalism, democracy, and religion.

In terms of citizenship, cosmopolitanism stands out theoretically but it is not easy to expect a groundbreaking change to occur in the existing citizenship theory, unless the modern principle of sovereignty is completely given up. Nevertheless, a conflict emerged where the notion of nation-state is challenged and strengthened at the same time due to the new reality of a globalized world. Democratic solidarity and room for activities of democratic organization have surely expanded not only at the state or local level but also at the transnational level. Still, it does not directly mean that the modern institution of citizenship has been completely substituted but rather, there are the two practices of citizenship coexisting.

The future of multiculturalism is similar to that of citizenship. If it is too difficult for modern states to abandon the concept of nation state, it casts then certain limitations on the collective rights of new minority groups and this restricts multiculturalism so that it does not harm the identity or solidarity of a nation state. In general, the political values modern states pursue are based on liberalistic values. Therefore multiculturalism should be adopted not as an alternative to liberal values but as a supplement to them.

Globalization has revealed the inherent contradiction of democracy and presented specific issues that need to be dealt with in order to enhance the further development of democracy. The process of globalization has also pushed for the redefinition of “demos,” both at that national and international level, but a new principle replacing it is not likely to emerge so long as democracy maintains “self-domination” as its fundamental political value. Rather, the values embodied within democracy needs to be reassessed and the question of how these values could coexist considered.

Lastly about religion, it is notable that post-secularization is becoming increasingly violent due to globalization. While globalization contributes to cultural homogeneity, post-secularization is abandoning cultural links creating difficult challenges for religion especially compared to the other cultural issues. At least citizenship or multiculturalism somehow shows how re-religionization and post-secularization could be refined in the domestic political level. Still, in the international political level where post-secularization is becoming violent, a framework for theoretical analysis is required in order to resolve the problem.

The full text in Korean is available here