Globalization, Cities and Social Change: A Case Study of Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Abstract

This thesis generalizes a significant new knowledge on the nature of social impacts of globalization on city residents in Dhaka, the Capital of Bangladesh. The study tries to figure out how much social changes occur due to globalization with regards to values, attitudes, behaviors, life styles and ideas within the area of the city of Dhaka. The theories of globalization are explained thoroughly to analyze the social changes in this city. In this connection, many theories relating to city and trends of urbanization are explained to analyze the current situation of urban life in the city. The thesis is based on primary and secondary data collected through both of quantitative and qualitative research methods. The quantitative method has included social survey and the qualitative method has incorporated the tools of interview and participant observation in the project areas of Mohammadpur and Dhanmondi in Dhaka city. The study reveals that the advancement of information technology has brought out massive changes in all spheres of city life. In the process of globalization, the cultural heritage of Dhaka city is being influenced by the different elements of advanced cultures of the developed countries. The study also reveals that significant changes of economic condition and life styles of the people in Dhaka city have changed their standard of living. It is also observed that the process of globalization is pouching the western unformatted cultures into the city society and has been disturbing the balance in the formation of their social psychology. Some people are changing with forward looking to keep them up updated with the western culture while some others are defending their native cultures against the western motion. In a nutshell, this research argues that the process of globalization have impacts on social life in Dhaka city as well as follows a pattern of urbanization without government mechanism of policy formulation and plan of development.