Philippine E-Journals

Split-Level Americanization: A Case Study of Mcdonaldized Philippines

Isagani R. Cruz

Discipline: International Relations

 

Abstract:

On the surface, the Philippines is neo-colonized. Beneath the surface, Philippine Americanization is split-level (from Bulatao) and can be fully understood not through the residualdominant- emergent culture model, postcolonial theory, or the indigenization-subversion duality, but through counter hegemonic struggle (from Gramsci and Rizal). What we are witnessing in the Philippine case is a people constantly and unceasingly reimagining itself through the medium of media, reasserting its identity in the face of both the homogenizing power of external or global forces and the collaborating hegemony of internal or selfish elites, and redefining the nation on its own terms and in its own time.