Then we'll sort of look a little bit more deeply and
think not just about artifacts, but about flows of information,
flows of ideas and we'll cut into those in several different ways.
And then finally, we'll wrap up by discussing people's identities and
how people themselves define their own identities,
as a way of getting a handle on how culturally globalized we are.
So let's start on the outmost ring of this onion,
let's start by looking at what percentage of the output of the cultural sector,
here we're talking films, TV programs, music, design, architecture,
et cetera, what percentage are actually accounted for by exports?
Based on some UNESCO data, it turns out that the share of
the output of the cultural sector as UNESCO defines it, that's accounted for
by exports, is only about 5%.
This is vastly less than people's intuitions about how
much of the output of the cultural sector is exported which often exceeds 30%.
Also notice that the actual level of exports of cultural products is way lower
than the level of trade as a percentage of world GDP overall which highlights
the fact that actually in many respects, products with cultural content have,
are more subject to barriers at national borders,
barriers associated with national differences, than products that are,
shall we say, poor commodi, pure commodities like say soya beans.
So at least when we look at the most visible aspect of cultural influence, what
percentage of the outputs of the cultural sector are exported around the world?
The answer falls very,
very far short of the levels that we would expect to see if there
really were a global cultural tsunami going on through this particular channel.
So that's the out most ring of the onion.
Let's now turn to thinking about information flows across borders and
what we can say about them.
Well in session one I
already showed you certain measures of informational globalization and
these are really measures of cross border contact in some sense.