Globalization and Regionalism: Complimentary or Antagonistic Paradigms
Date
2012Author
Kenneth, Birabi A.
Barnabas, Nawangwe
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Globalization widely denotes internationalization of economies, tastes, goods and services through
international exchange, economic, developmental and governmental systems. Meanwhile, regionalism is
a progressive phenomenon characterized by main concepts of cultural production and identity and
relations of geographical zoning or locality, in a sub-conscious attempt to reposition humanistic
development most ideal for each given locality of region. Developing countries must pay a lot of vigilance
in making right choices about either of the two phenomena concerning best practices for improving the
socio-cultural and economic welfare of their people. Architecture and urbanism being some of the major
corporate sectors for human development, preliminary observation depicts that many Sub-Saharan
countries are at risk in towing the paradigm of globalization for their development. Therefore, this paper
endeavours to bring forward the pros and cons of globalization and regionalism from the perspective of
architecture and urbanism in East Africa. The main thrust of the paper is to come up with the best value
paradigm between globalization and regionalism, that offers best developmental practices pertinent to
East Africa’s propensity to mitigate against the current global crisis of poverty, scarcity of finite resources
and global warming, in relation to the urgency of propagating oncoming architectural ensembles best
suited to the region’s own socio-cultural, aesthetic, economic and functional needs and identity