ABSTRACT
Most writing on globalization takes the shape of grand sweeping discourses. This book grounds globalization theories in a detailed empirical analysis. It provides a comprehensive empirical study of what until now have been big narratives of huge global phenomena by focusing on a neglected aspect of globalization: the ways in which global processes produce changes by affecting the values and perceptions of individuals. It may seem surprising for a global study to announce that the object of observation is the individual. Why not go straight to the level of the world system? The central argument of the present book is that individual global experience has become part of daily life and has influenced worldviews for an increasingly large number of people in the context of East Asia. Global exposure for many is comprised of forgotten habits, implicitly embedded in thinking, language-use, and even personal identity. It is in some ways like Billig’s (1995) so-called ‘banal nationalism.’ Billig’s idea is that nationalism constitutes ideological habits that enable the established nations to reproduce themselves. Banal nationalism does not only happen on the periphery or outer regions of states and is not limited to separatists or guerrilla figures but, instead, involves daily practices through which the nation flags itself in the life of the citizenry. Routine, familiar forms of nationalism, presented in symbols, deixis (‘little words’ such as ‘we,’ ‘our,’ ‘here,’ ‘the nation,’ etc.), and stories continually and mindlessly remind citizens of their national identities.
