Globalisation and culture

Ages 13 to 17 Read alone · about 40 minutes

Read together

Globalisation is the growing connection of economies, ideas and cultures across the world. Trade, travel and the internet speed it up.

It brings choices and shared ideas, and it can also erase local ways and widen gaps.

Do it

1. Check where five things in your home were made. Mark them on a map.
2. List foreign influences in your daily life, such as food, music, words or apps, and local ones that may be fading.
3. Interview a grandparent about a tradition that has changed.
4. Decide one way to keep a local tradition alive.

Talk about it

• Who gains and who loses from globalisation?
• Which traditions are worth keeping?

For the grown-up

Economists and cultural scholars disagree about globalisation's net effects. Christianity itself has spread across cultures and taken local forms, such as the Filipino Simbang Gabi, which can illustrate this. Help teens think critically about both the benefits and costs.

Mark as done

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Where this comes from

• Stiglitz, J. E., Globalization and Its Discontents (W. W. Norton, 2002)
• Sanneh, L., Whose Religion Is Christianity? The Gospel beyond the West (Eerdmans, 2003)
• World Trade Organization, World Trade Statistical Review

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.