Globalization and Regionalism: Complimentary or Antagonistic Paradigms

Abstract

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