Global Culture in Practice: A Look at Children and Adolescents in Denmark, France and Israel

This article discusses a preliminary exploration of how globalization becomes embedded into the lives of children and adolescents in three very different countries: Denmark, France and Israel. Analysis of qualitative data collected from the three countries as part of a major cross-cultural study suggests five interrelated practices of globalization: (1) the role of television as both a default medium and as a source of favourite contents; (2) the preferences for transnational fiction; (3) the media's catering to the utopias of a shared world; (4) the hybrid characters of children's cultures; and (5) intergenerational struggles related to globalization. The findings suggest that for children and adolescents globalization involves the linking of their own locales to the wider world while, at the same time, localization incorporates trends of globalization. The article points to two parallel processes: one of young childrens's adoption of a global perspective on social life, and the second of the hybrid coexistence of multi-cultures in their lives.