Cultural Diffusion and Globalization

Geographers analyze how cultural traits spread across space using the framework of cultural diffusion, developed in particular by the Swedish geographer Torsten Hägerstrand. Contagious diffusion spreads a trait through direct, widespread contact between people, weakening with distance in a pattern known as distance decay. Hierarchical diffusion spreads a trait through a ranked order of places, typically moving first between large, well-connected cities before reaching smaller towns and rural areas, as is often observed with new fashions or technologies. Relocation diffusion, by contrast, occurs when migrants physically carry a cultural trait, whether a language, a religious practice, or a culinary tradition, from their place of origin to a new location, embedding it in an entirely new regional context.