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The AllWorldCultures Project:

National Cultures vs Global Culture?

 

Explore the intersections of national and global cultures and identities through talks, debates, and workshops. Organized by Professor Andreas Pickel as part of his research program on cosmopolitanism and nationalism, this is an open invitation to Trent students with some personal experience and a strong interest in transnational and global issues to share and discuss their views. Whether you are an international student, a Canadian student with international experience, or someone who finds these issues intriguing, join the conversation.

 

Originally an international student myself, later an immigrant and finally a citizen of Canada, cosmopolitan ideals and multicultural principles have strongly resonated with my own "transnational" experience. But I've also become aware of the fact that good will and a universalist vision for the future of humankind are not enough to get people from different cultures to communicate with each other effectively, let alone to create a better world. Most of us grow up in a particular national culture and language, and when we leave our country of birth behind  (as about 200 million people alive today have done), we arrive in another country with its own culture and language. We have to learn this new culture and learn to use a second language. We may think of ourselves as global citizens, but we are always at the same time members of national cultures.

 

Anglo-Canadians, as well as others fortunate enough to have English as their native tongue, are often unaware of the significance of language and the deep cultural conceptions it carries with it. Franco-Canadians and Canadian aboriginals, on the other hand, know their significance quite well. English is and for the foreseeable will remain the lingua franca or world language. But it will not replace the cultures and languages of other non-Anglophone nations. I believe that here lies a central problem we have to face as cosmopolitans: how do we deal with our cultural and linguistic differences in a meaningful rather than superficial way as we are trying at the same time to move towards a world culture?