Cultures Merging: A Historical and Economic Critique of Culture
ISBN: 9781400827114
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Princeton University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Economics -- Sociological aspects; Culture -- Economic aspects; Social change -- Economic aspects;

Neither cultures nor their economies can be fully understood independent of each other, yet specialists in both fields persist in trying; Jones, a celebrated economic historian, examines how culture influences economics, and vice versa, in detailed but occasionally dry prose. The "merging" of the title refers to what happens when, for example, U.S. soap operas are exported, with rapturous reception, to Brazil. Jones sites studies that show that "transmitting ?soaps' was more powerful than a family program was likely to have been," leading to a cultural and economic trend towards American-style soap-opera lifestyles: bigger income and smaller families. Meanwhile, the rising profile of economically attractive fast food restaurants in East Asia has led to cultural changes "by importing an unfamiliar conception of manners ? East Asians are socialized to queue, keep the lavatories clean, and give up ? spitting in public. Westerners off the farm once had to learn these things too." While lay readers might wish for more of these clear-cut examples, students and economists will find the book thorough and thought-provoking. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Eric L. Jones is Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne; Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University; and Visiting Professor at Exeter University. He is the author of The European Miracle and numerous other books and articles on economic history, economic development, international affairs, and environmental history.

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