How can Appadurai' theory be applied?

While Appadurai work has influenced other theorists is seemed vital to understand how his theory on globalisation relates to the media today. As a group we discussed this concept and explored an interview with Arjen Mulder in 2002, where Appadurai relates his theory to the modern world today.

Within the interview Mulder questions Appadurai on call centres in Bombay. It seems Bombay is the primarily place for building and developing call centres as it is far more cost effective compared to other countries. It has also been noticed that within the call centres employees often adopt American accents when speaking on the telephone as it has been proved to be preferred to that of an Indian accent, suggesting the impact of the ‘scapes’ and globalisation. Appadurai suggests that this is a way of India to gain ‘global membership’, in which new ‘imagined communities’ are set up, those in India and of America.

Appadurai continues, using an example of Domino Pizza employees in Bombay as an example of globalisation and ‘Ideoscapes’. The company expects its employees to adopt a ‘retail social drama’ through the ideologies of the Domino Company, helping form a ‘global unified image’ (Appadurai 2002). However Appadurai suggests in what seems ‘out-of-body globalised performances’ (Appadurai 2002)it is important to remember this is still a small fragment in that person’s life along with other ‘partial identities’, therefore it is not considered strange or ‘surreal’ (Appadurai 2001).

Overall, it seems Appadurai’ theory can be applied to many aspects in today’s media and contributes largely to understanding our culture and flows in-between.

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References:

·         Appadurai, A. 1996. Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization.

·         The right to participate in the work of the imagination, interviewed by Arjen Mulder 2002: http://www.arjunappadurai.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/transurbanism.pdf