In an increasingly globalized world, debate on the exact nature of globalization continues, with further questions about the extent to which it can be equated with westernization. However, while globalization certainly involves the expansion of modern cultural patterns beyond their western origins, it is doubtful that the adoption of such patterns by other cultures necessarily amounts to westernization.
While this can certainly be the case, there are reasons to think that each culture can develop its own specific response, drawing on its own cultural resources and formulating its own cultural synthesis. To the extent that fashion can be taken as a sign of cultural modernity, in this seminar we intend to explore the different ways in which Chinese, Muslim and Indian cultures articulate meaningful responses -coherent with their own cultural traditions – to the challenges posed by modernity.
