Rethinking Global Culture: A Thematic Analysis of Arjun Appadurai’s Globalism
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Abstract
This paper examines the theoretical contributions of Arjun Appadurai to the study of cultural globalism through four of his major works: The Social Life of Things (1986), Modernity at Large (1996), Fear of Small Numbers (2006), and The Future as Cultural Fact (2013). Appadurai’s innovative concepts, such as “scapes”, “imagination as a social practice” and “ethics of possibility”, have reframed how we understand cultural flows, identity, and globalisation in the 21st century. By reviewing existing scholarship and applying thematic analysis, this study synthesises key insights from his works and explores their relevance in contemporary debates on global culture, nationalism, and future-oriented thinking. This paper contributes to cultural sociology by emphasising the continued importance of Appadurai’s ideas for understanding the disjunctures and potentials of global modernity.
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non–Commercial No Derivatives License which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of the Publisher must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
