Is consumer ethnocentrism possible in a globalised world? - consumer dilemmas in the Silesian Voivodeship

Abstract

We have been observing a process of shaping a new type of society for the last several dozen years whose frameworks are determined by globalisation. This term is used in a very broad way, including almost all spheres of social life. Together with extending the scope of globalisation in a practical dimension, numerous scientific concepts emerge, trying to give reality a theoretical basis. Nowadays, globalisation appears in the context of technology, the sphere of finance, governing and legal regulations, strategic activities, perception and consciousness. Regardless of new propositions to globalise more and more areas of the world, the core of globalisation includes three elements: economics, politics and culture. Therefore, moving within framework of economic and cultural globalisation is a return to roots; we must remember that such a context appeared in the first attempts to define globalisation (Waters 1995, 2).1 Economic and cultural globalisation have, of course, different dimensions (e.g. the globalisation of markets, ownership of capital, lifestyles or cultural identity); however, what is key in the context of the subject of this thesis, is the globalisation of consumption. The attempts to diagnose the essence of this phenomenon are doomed to fail. Globalisation of consumption has the same number of supporters and opponents.