Global Culture or Culture Clash

Abstract

Theories about the impact of the information revolution on the developing world stress the inevitability of democratization and economic privatization. This article tests some of these predictions in light of ethnographic practice using Kuwait as a case study. By studying the development of an active Internet culture in Kuwait and the persistence of traditional political and economic practices, this article provides evidence of the ways in which countries chart unique paths toward the 21st century and subsequently respond to forces of globalization. The author concludes that local cultural frameworks play an important and underrecognized role in the kinds of practices that are enabled by networked communications and adaptations to the global economy.