First Modernization Second Modernization structure-oriented thinking
process-oriented thinking
autonomy attempt
integration into networks
control
own internal dynamic
concreteness
vagueness
either …. or
as well …. as
coherent identities
cohesive identities
closeness
openness
delimitation
diffusion
circularity
ramification
Homogeneity in principle ensures a climate of trust, and without this
condition the human interaction was and is still unthinkable. But in terms of
current economic globalization we can’t talk about such stability anymore.
Moving in different cultural spaces and dealing with a variety of value
systems make cultural homogeneity no more a self-evident condition. By
integration in different contexts, in the most cases from different geographical
areas, an individual is compelled to develop multiple identities; he is
subjected to a process of hybridization, creolization [2].
The oscillation between identity and alterity is on the one hand
recognition of differences, and on the other hand the searching within these
differences of general normative benchmarks, of some “consensual islands”
that ensure a balance in the interaction. The alternation between
homogenizing globalization, based on the Western capitalism, and the
particularization trends advocating for local and regional cultures is the
characteristic of current social and economic phenomena.
Amid the economic structures of any kind they may be, ranging from
industrial, commercial, advertising, banking or financial to staff management,
the concepts “transculturally” and “transversally” have the most powerful
relevance. On the one hand, the dynamic economic area does not give enough
time to develop an intercultural dialogue, where it is fundamental to
understand what is different and not just perception and adaptation to a new,
one and on the other hand, activity of individuals from different cultures and
mentalities, in a well-defined organizational framework, with rules, norms,
conventions and even specific cultural traditions, cannot be held as long as
there is not accepted an overlap of various cultural elements, vertically from
the mother organization in subsidiaries and horizontally between members of
the organization. Such a context justifies the fact that the individual can not
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belong only “to a single cultural circle” and transculturally is a possible
middle
way
between
global
homogenization
and
regional/local