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Dochakuka in Ukrainian style

15.05.2017
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What dochakuka is. In short, dochakuka is "the ability to live on one's own land", the Japanese practice of "dochaku" is the adaptation of farming innovations to local conditions. Dochakuka as a principle goes to the heart of the explanation of the process of glocalization – it is still the same adaptation of global phenomena to local features. Roland Robertson in the collection "Global Modernity" in detail analyzes both this phenomenon, and its nuances.

Glocality in Ukraine. Glocalization, came in from marketing (where it solved a purely hands-on task, how to sell products of transnational corporations in a local markets), has penetrated in almost all spheres of life. Not only is there "Sendvich po-pansʹky z bekonom" (Sandwich in the owners style with bacon) in McDonalds; but also an increase in Ukrainian-language content on the Internet (possibly as an alternative to the Runet); as much as the drafting of an alternative vocabulary for users of social networks (for instance, selfie is equal to Ukrainian samchik); as so as fashionable Taras Shevchenko who has been styled to look like Elvis or in the contrast style by Andy Warhol; as so the stormy popularity of vyshivankas (Ethnic embroidery decorating clothes) in recent times; as so an increase in the number of business centers; and the fashion for "kozats'kí oseledtsí" (A man's short hairstyle with a long strand of hair, was popular among medieval Ukrainian warriors); finally, the hipsters fashion for "smartness" - just some examples of the Ukrainian glocality.

Certainly, such a national trait as unrestrainity / not to seeing the measure – contributes local color to glocality. The dark side of glocalization makes us witnesses of wearing short trousers with cuffed in temperature of 10 degree below zero, or our authorities allow building / rebuilding in historic centers, ignoring the ability to save a unique image of the old city and get into the list of UNESCO World Heritage, or more – decorative dogs are dressed up into the vyshivanka.

These everyday life moments as good as examples. Nevertheless, glocalization also works on more subtle cultural levels. For example, the German culturologist and specialist in the field of cultural memory and memorial culture Aleida Assmann, points out such a worldwide trend as the crisis of the future and the reinvention of the past. The researcher states that if not so long ago the European temporal regime of culture has been directed to the future, now the future as she puts it "has lost its attractiveness and has ceased to be a point of attraction for our desires, goals and projects". Politicians, cultural and social figures turn to the past; they see potential of the past and involve its plots for various agendas.

Do not you notice that is going on with the Ukrainian past? Decommunization and renaming, knocking down and destructing, oblivion and rewriting – today these actions describe the Ukrainian strategies of working with their memory. Perhaps this is a reaction to memory trauma, but creating new memories in conditions when witnesses of memorable events are still alive can result in conflicts. Aleida Assmann believes that "the past does not end once and for ever – it is open for reconstruction and reevaluations, requires new attention and recognition, acceptance and responsibility". Trauma requires working out.

At present, Ukrainian society receives a new type of experience and can develop. It is very important not to be swallowed by whirlpool of changes or rewriting the past. Otherwise, there is a real danger forget who we are and dissolving into the global. History and memory are very crucial factors for the national process of glocalization.

 

See more:

Stolen future of Ukraine?

Hybrid Borders in the XXI Century

 
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