Cultural globalization and the identity of place: the reconstruction of Amsterdam

This article discusses the effects of cultural globalization on urban identities, and concentrates on a case study of Amsterdam. The theoretical part of the paper defines cultural globalization and outlines its effects on localities, including the ways in which the images of localities are transformed in the process of global information exchange. It emphasizes the importance of rapidly growing flows of people, in particular in the form of mass tourism, in the deliberate and spontaneous re-identification and changing meaning of places. The empirical part of the paper juxtaposes the historically grown urban identity of Amsterdam since the sixteenth century with the city’s re-created identity of recent decades. It is argued that Amsterdam’s present-day image as a city with very liberal attitudes towards sex and drugs emerged under the influence of global mass tourism, and that it is not as authentic as is often suggested or believed. The discussion concentrates on past and present cultural traits of Amsterdam in the form of Calvinism, commercialism, morality and tolerance.