Countries With Two Very Different Cultures Cultural Studies Essay

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India and Germany seem like two very different countries with two very different cultures. Not many people would think of them as having a lot in common. For me this was true as well until I had the opportunity to go to India on a half year student exchange in summer 2011.

In the beginning I found myself in a huge pile of chaos not being able to orientate but after some time to get aquianted with some of the new circumstances such as sanitary problems or continuious rain I started to make social contacts. The people I met were mostly young urban adults living in a world which was not so much different from the one I knew.

Despite my expectations it was very easy for me to connect with my fellow students and other young urban adults. They were very interested in what stories I had to tell and eager to tell me stories of their lives.

While exchanging our very own stories and ideas I felt a large base of common grounds. After some more interesting dialogues it appeared to me that we were not only having the same interests and ideas about life but we also consumed the same media and were influenced by the same global structures. They were showing me some of their favorite movies and I showed them some of mine and it was rarely one within these movies which was not liked by both of us. The Indians showed me movies which were very much different than the steoretypical type of 'Bollywood' cinema which we tend to know in Europe. They had the same topics and stories like the urban movies I was watching back home. The only significant differences to me were the cast and location being Indian.

This was very interesting for me and contrary to what I expected it to be like. How could people from such a different and distant culture be interested in the same things as I were? How could they live a live which was comparable to mine? These were two of the major questions which popped up in my head and never left me .

These questions continued to occuppy my mind even after my return to Europe and during my placement at the film production company 'Life Entertainment'.My placement supervisor and CEO of Life Entertainment Stephan Ottenbruch and me shared our opinions on how similar the contents of Indian and German urban cinema were. I was eager to find out more about these circumstances and Life Entertainment was starting to specialize on the development of indo-german script writing. As I had to finish of my graduation with a thesis and Stephan Ottenbruch and me had a strong interest to explore the global processes and common grounds of young adults the idea for this thesis was born.

Management summary

This research is thematized around narrative interests of young urban adults from India and Germany and the scoio-economic factors surrounding and impacting them in their daily lives. The purpose of this research is to get Insight in the contemporary global socio-economic factors and the narrative preferrences of Indian and German young urban adults. Furthermore this paper is thought to analyze similarities and differences in the particular interests and preferrences of the above mentioned demographic. All this information is important and valuable for the independent audio-visual production company 'Life Entertainment '. Life Entertainment is currently in a process of repositioning and openening new markets for itself in order to maintain profits an innovate their business.

This report indicates that young urban Indian and German adults are exposed to many globally acting socio-economic factors and prcoesses and therefore build a form of subculture which to some extend has overlapping interests in narrative concepts and its specific content.

In the first chapter of this paper 'Life Entertainment' is described including its serviceses and products as well as the markets in which 'Life Entertainment is operating. It is a small independent production company situated in Germany which develops and produces fictional and non fictional content for the German TV , cinema and the Indian Hindi movie market..

In chapter two this report aims to outline and describe the most important socio-economic global factors of the contemporary era. It emphasizes on the terms culture, cultural hybridity, gloabalisation, global flows, global cities, the global mass media and the global network of communication. These socio-economic factors are taking place globally and influence the daily lives of young urban adults in India and Germany. All of these factors have an impact on how a young urban adults is living and identifiying himself and therefore on what he is interested in and how strongly he demands this. The main outcome of this chapter is that we are currently in a rapidly changing contemporary era of global processes where the local and its culture is, especially in urban enviroments, no longer defined by the boundaries of place but by boundaries of the imagination of the individual.

Chapter 3 is thought to specifically analyze the narrative interests and preferrences of young urban Indian and German adults and seeks to emphasise their common grounds . It outlines the contemporary urban cinema as a genre which will resonates to both of the demographics researched. Therefore synopsises and possible individual elements for a narrative were put into a questionnaire which was sent to young urban Indian and German adults. The questionnaire is segmented in two parts. The first part describes four snyposises and asks for the liking or disliking of each respondent. Two of these synopsises are taken from german and two from indian productions. One of each synopsis from the specific country is thought to resonate to the audinece wheras the other is thought not to.

The second part is indicating the specific interest in having elements of the in the first part researched synopsises inccoperated into a possible new indo-german narrative. The main outcome of this quantitative research is that neither the Indian nor the German young urban adults compared by nationality have significant differences in what they like and dislike. The main differnce is found in their intensity of liking or disliking.

It shows that there is no significant difference in what both of the audience want to have inccoperated into a narrative but how strongly. It clearly shows that the Indian and German subculture of young urban adults has a specific pool of common interests in synopsises and elements.

Company Profile

Life Entertainment GmbH specializes in developing and producing feature films, entertainment formats and TV series for the German and the international market. Both fictional and non-fictional programs are part of the company's portfolio. Life Entertainment's main objective is supporting newcomers and developing new and innovative formats beyond the media business' self-set restrictions of fiction and non-fiction.

Moreover, Life Entertainment, together with MAMI (Mumbai Academy of Moving Images), supports the 'Indo-German Initiative' by organizing the 'Indo-German Script Development Workshop' that brings together some of the best screen writers, directors and producers from Germany and India to exchange ideas and discuss the possibilities of Indo-German co-productions. After a very successful first workshop in October 2011 in Mumbai, India, another workshop was held in February 2012, this time in Berlin, Germany, and had 100 submissions from promising screenwriters who wanted to participate with their project. Nine out of those 100 were selected by a jury to be further developed over the course of several months and with the help of screenwriting experts.

Founded by Stephan Ottenbruch and Alexander Thies, the company combines more than 30 years of experience in film and TV production, and 16 years of experience in the private TV business in Germany as well as event production, marketing and distribution.

Organizational structure

Life Entertainment





management assistant


external script writers

The company's core workers are Stephan Ottenbruch as well as management assistant Stefanie Stuendel, a drama-advisor, a cinematographer ,an accountant and a changing amount of 1 or 2 interns. The drama advisor is in charge of developing and coordinating narrative projects and directing small scale shoots. He is working in close contact with the CEO, the cinematographer and external writers. The cinematographer is in charge of coordinating planned shoots and works together with the drama-advisor. The managment assistant is in charge of organisational work and coordination of processes down the production line. The accountant is working independently from the team and prepares the monthly cash flow statements and balance sheets. The interns are working in close contact with the drama-advisor , the cinematographer , the management assistant and the CEO. They are incooperated in most of the projects and given the opportunity to take initiative and responsible tasks.

The company's market

Life entertainment is operating in three different markets. They are producing and developing fictional and non-fictional concepts for the German TV and movie as well as for the Indian movie market.

The German TV Market

The German TV market is split in three major segments . The public broadcasting segment, the privat cable and sattelite segment and the private pay-tv market. Life entartinment is developing and procuding formats for the private cable and sattelite as well as for the private pay-tv market.

The private cable and sattelite market is highly oligopolistic and dominated by two major horizontally and vertically integrated media groups. The 'ProSiebenSat1' group and the 'RTL' group. The private pay-tv market is dominated by the Rupert Murdoch financed 'SKY' company and the sattelite company 'Astra'.Both of them struggle to be profitable and are majorly focussed on broadcasting the german soccer league as well as other sport events. In both market segments relevant for Life Entertainment it is very hard to compete . The markets are highly saturated and in a state of decline. The finaicnial crisis and the vertical and hoirzantal integration of the major companies has led to a highly competative and unprofitable market situation for small production houses such as Life Entertainment. Sophisticated content of produced concepts is declining and large cuts on production budgets are made. Simoultaneously the audience habits are changing towards multi media consumption. New concepts including 'branded entertainment' and 'multi platform' outputs are demanded . Life Entertainment is currently in the process of transforming its traditional TV production approach to a more contemporary and innovative multi platform design. by incooperating social media and web platforms to their concepts. Hence they are currently in the process of respositioning themselves in the market.

Market structure German movie market

The german movie market is highly dominated by the influence of the US studios . Out of 484 releases in 2007 only 174 productions made in Germany were shwon in cinemas. On average only every 10 th movie made in Germany enters the official German cinema charts. Only a few major production companies (e.g. Kinowelt, Constantin Film, Senator Film ) can maintain themselves in a highly oligopolic structure. 80 % of about 1500 German production companies are producing 1 movie maximum per year which causes a highly fragmented economy. These productions are mostly only focussed rather on the television distribution and not on cinema releases.

After a downfall in the years 2010 , 2011 the amount of cinema viewers has rose to a new high in the first half of 2012. The sum of vistiors in the first half of 2012 counted up to 12, 8 million which is 0,4 million higher than in the second half of 2011.

In the Top 10 list of visitors per movie for the first half of 2012 only two non-US productions could manifest themselves. On position 1 with a count of 8.5 million vistors the french production 'Intouchables'could dominate The best and only german production (' Türkisch für Anfänger') made it up to place 3 with 2.33 million . All other movies were US productions.

The German movie market is characterized through high federal and departmental subsidies. The federal funding Institution is called FFA. They act according to the federal law of film funding and allow funds through the system of reference points and project based funding. Reference points mean that earlier successful prdocutions are given a certain amount of reference points which serve as a kind of credibility status to get new funds. The maximum amount of funding is 2 million euro .

Project based funding means they allocate their funds according to certain criteria on projects in different stages of production. This can mean in the stage of pre-production such as script writing or actual production for instance. Most of the funding given based on a project is a kind of credit which has to be paid back to a certain extend or completely in case of commercial success. The amount of money available for project based funding differs from 250.000 up to 1 million euro per Movie.

The film funding on departmental level is only allocated project based. Their major criteria for a fund is that the local departmental film economy has to profit from the allocated money and therefore demands that a certain amount of production is taking place within their departmental boundaries.

Some of these departments are grouped together in a funding conglomerate and others are acting stand-alone. In total there are 10 different funding authorities. In 2009 the total funding volume they could allocate was 144.119.586 million euro. This is more than the federal funding authority has to allocate.

Accordingly the German movie market is highly subsidized and could not survive without . There is rarely any private investor and the amount of money for production budgets is relativly low so an impact on the global market can financially not be accomplished. Thus the market grows an declines with the amount of money allocated to the different funding authorities through the goverment. As the only way to finance a movie is to apply for these fundings it is also a highly competetive market and has limited profit opportunities. In this market Life Entertainment is changing its traditional approach and specializes on the development of indo-german coproductions. Thus they are in the process of differentiation and repositioning.

The Indian Hindi movie market.

Contrary to the German TV or movie market the Indian Hindi movie market is growing tremendously. It is driven through private capital and investments from USA and Indian movie companies. In 2011 the growth rate to the past year has been around 11,5 percent and is subject to grow even more. Cable and sattelite rights margins grew up to 21,6 percent. Until the year of 2016 the market is prognosed to steadily grow from a current estimated worth of 100 billion rupees up to 150.3 billion. It used to be very conservative and highly closed off the global economy as the domestic market generated more than enough profits. But through emerging new filmmmakers and more global strategies within the market it opened istelf to the world and for coproductions around the globe. These developments were noticed by Life Entertainment and therefore they are currently in the process of entering the market and positioning themselves as the first company acting in the field of indo-german coproductions..

Working activities

My tasks during the working period were merely of organizational nature. I was assigned to help with the realization of the "indo-german" Script development workshop 2012 in Berlin and the execution of the" indo-german Initiative" summit 2012 in Berlin which was held before the opening of the Berlinale 2012 and welcomed numerous Indian and German movie experts. Additionally I was responsible for restructuring and preparing pitches for a new 360 degree, multiplatform, branded entertainment format called 'Go For Gold'. I had direct contact to possible clients and sponsors and was responsible for coordinating the communication.

Problem Analyses

For being able to enter the Indian Hindi movie market and positioning itself in a differentiated way Life Entertainment has a huge interest in finding out the current global processes and structures having an impact on young urban adults. As mentioned in the preface Stephan Ottenbruch and I had a concensus on the fact that the new urban cinema emerging in the Hindi market is not very much different from what is successful in Germany at the moment. For being able to enter the Hindi market and more importantly creating a new market segment of ' indo-german' cooperations an academic work on the contemporary global socio -economic factors and the connected impact on the narrative preferance of young Indian and German urban adults is of high value.

Problem definition

As stated in the problem analyses Life Entertainment wants to gain insight in the contemporary global socio-economic factors impacting on young urban adults and the common grounds of narrative preferrences and interests amongst young Indian and German urban adults

Research Questions

Accordingly two main research questions emerge :

What are the current global socio-economic factors which young urban adults are exposed to?

What are young urban German and Indian adult's common narrative interests and preferrences ?


To answer the first question an intensive desk reserach and literature review on the current contemporary socio-economic factors and the most frequently and important authors has to be done. Socio-economic-factors are perceived through our daily life and surroundings. They are factors through which we construct our identity and therefore also shape the view on the world around us. Additionally my experiences in my half year exchange and information which I perceived through communication and interaction with young Indian urban adults can be used. Primarily though I will focus on existing literature and theories in order to explain and understand the different factors and answer the question with high scientific relevance.

To answer the second question I regard a quantitative study as the most applicable design. The question evolves around common interests and preferrences of large demographic groups. In this case the group of young Indian and German adults. For being able to get a outcome which shows relevant tendencies in prefference and interest of narrative concpets I designed a questionnaire divided in two segments. The first segment is made of 4 different synopsises taken from different German and Indian movies. Two of these synopsises are taken from urban cinema and incooperate different elements which young urban adults are exposed to amplified through the socio-economic factors which were researched in question 1. The other two selected synopsises are taken from traditional German and Indian movies which do not incooperate characteristics of urban modern cinema. These Synopsises act as a counterpart in order to clearly prove that a more traditional narrative is not as much liked or even disliked by both audiences. The respondents are asked to indicate their liking of all 4 synopsises. This is done by giving them a 5 point scale ranging from ' I don't like it at all' to ' I like it very much'.

Segment 2 of the questionnaire is featuring specific elements extracted from the first synopsises and is thought to give a precise indication of common interests and preferrence. It is specifically asking for the respondents preferrence of having certain elements incooperated into an indo-german narrative or not. This will allow a direct and independent research on all of the elements. Again the respondents are asked to indicate their preferrence on a 5 point scale ranging from ' Not at all ' to 'Very strongly'.

Through this approach it will be possible to clearly indicate the specific liking and preferrence of young Indian and German urban adults and most importantly which elements and narrative concepts resonate to both audiences.

The sampling method used for this questionnaire is snowball sampling. The questionnaire was edited online and sent to a small amount of young urban Indian and German adults who where told to send it on to contacts in their groups of friends. Through this method it was possible to get a usable sample of 222 participants with an almost identical percentage of Indian and German participants. The outcomes were transferred into a SPSS datasheet and analyzed and split by nationality. This makes it possible to clearly see possible differences or common grounds of both nationalities concerning the synopsises and the specific elements researched.


The limitation of this research is firstly defined through the existing literature and theories on global socio-ecnomic factors having an impact on our contemporary world. It is ment to give an overview on how and what is happening momentarilly. It describes a very dynamic and rapidly changing topic and can therefore only be seen as actual in the point of time of this study.

Secondly the outcomes of the Survey are only ment to give a direction of where to go and a starting pool of narrative concepts and interests of young Indian and German urban adults . It is very clearly only a picture of a certain point in time and of a certain generation of young Indian and German adults. It can therefore not be seen as a timeless and constant surveillance of common preferrences and interests but as a starting pool on which to expand and adapt.

Chapter 2

The global socio-economic factors impacting on young urban adults

The ongoing interconnectness and crossinvolvements of geographically distant places caused by globalization have numerous and varied consequences on young urban adults. Next to the economic aspects there are ecologic , cultural,politcial and social dimensions to this development. In cause of migrationprocesses, the worldwide communication systems and economic dependable interactions which cause a high mobility rate and exchange relations, transcultural connections gain steadily more importance in the daily life of young urban adults.

The following chapter is thought to give the theoretical backgroundknowledge in order to understand the essential elements in the lives of the cultures and people which exist in this interconnected world.

First the development of the anthroprological term of culture and the concept of hybridization of cultures will be examined. Subsequently the different dimensions and characteristica of globalization and the cooncepts of' global cultural flows' and 'global cities' will be described. Afterwards the impacts of media and communication systems on the society and their relation to the global and the local will be shown.

The concept of culture

The concept of culture has been undergoing change through time. In contrast to the early days cultures are nowadays understood as dynamic,changeable and influenced by many supraregional and transnational influences. The modern understanding of culture is displayed in the concept of hybridity.

The changes in the concept of culture

From the 17. century on the word "culture' which stems form the latin word 'cultura' and was used in connection with agriculture and cultivation was metaphorically transferred to the description of the human culture ( Bernard/Spencer 1996;136). The concept of culture as comprising term for the complete human utterances of life can be found in the works of Samuel von Pufendorf for instance. He develops the term of culture as contrast to nature and as the distinguishing fact of humans and animals. About hundered years later the term of culture was further developed by Gottfried Herder in 'Ideas for the Philosophy of History of Humanity' (1784-91). Culture was seen as the definite attribute of a homogenetic public and defined through the clear seperation from other publics. (ct.Welsch 1995: 39). In the works of Herder the term culture is used in plural contrary to earlier concepts and the terms public nation and culture are used interchangably. With the second half of the 18 th century the term culture was used in plural and humankind as a whole was differentiated into several cultures. Hence in the 19 th and the beginning of the 20 th century a veriety of overlapping but potentially different meanings of culture evolved. (ct. Barnard/Spencer 1996: 136).

The establishment of a wholistic concept of culture emerged in the beginning of the american ethnology by Franz Boas (1858-1942) who used the concept of Herder as a base and Edward B. Tylor (1832-1917). But Tylor differentiated the term culture from the modern anthroprological use because he was referring to it in the singular form and equal to civilization. He used the term culture to signify that all societies are part of a continously evolutionary process and to differentiate between 'civilized' and 'uncivilized' societies. Boa is creating a connection between Herders plural view of culture and the modern anthroprology. According to Boah cultures have to be seen as a whole, all with different specifics and their own history. Culture was used contrary to the predominantly rassistic and evolutionary theories as pluralistic and relativistic (see Barnard/Spencer 1996: 37f). According to Boas an anthroprologic term of culture developed in which every culture is made understandable out of their very own concepts. Every part of culture from language, art and enviroment to value systems and norms was an element of the whole.

Through this conception scepticism on the comparability of cultures evolved. The differences of cultures were explained from characteristics of the local histories or key symbols. This was the foundation for cultural relativism which was enhanced and further developed by Boas scholars.

Because a strong cultural relativsm using a very fixed and closed concept of culture could be instrumentalised for the means of racism constructive alternatives were demanded and the anthroprological concept of culture was completely reformed.(ct. Gingrich 2003: 8ff).

A new concept of culture apart from strong cultural relativsm is implying heterogenity and crossinvolvements and can not define culture as isolated and homogenetic. Transnational and supraregional influences are involved as well as the process of 'hybridization' and multidimensional cultural codes which means one person or group can have many different cultural identities.(ct. Gingrich 2003:12f).Applied on the life of a young urban Indian or German adult this can mean that inside the group of his family he acts according to conventional and traditional values but outside this group, in the group of his friends and co-workers his cultural identity changes to unconventional and different interests and values. Accordingly an urban Indian young adult can have a strong desire to experiment with sexuality and drugs within the group of his friends but at home with his family he will supress this interest and act according to the cultural code of his family's tradition which means no sexual actions before marriage and absoluteley no experimenting with drugs.

Accordingly cultures are no closely limited instances defined through the differences to other cultures but a product of exchange of ideas, goods and people as well as results of migration processes. Thus all cultures originated through an assimilation or hybridization of different cultural codes and evolve through combination and restructurement. In cause of the through gloablisation evolved mobility and revolution of the information technology this process has gained fundamental importance.

A noumerous amount of new hybrids and assimilated cultural codes is the result (ct. Röbke/Wagner 2003: 31f). Wolfgang Welsch mentiones that modern concepts of cultures are no longer equal to the old fashioned ideas of national cultures. Through the concept of transculturality the importance of national borders is declining and new connections are established. The relation of cultures is characterized by crossinvolvement , interconectedness and common grounds. (ct. Welsch 1995: 39ff)

Hybrid cultures

According to Homi K. Bhabba (1994) who established the concept of cultural hybrids through the postcolonial theory the identities of the colonising and the colonized embody a hybridity and an inner ambivalidity. The colonized have adopted aspects of the colonizing through which a 'third space', an assimilated construction which does not entail two original identities developed. These Hybrids are not the shere summ of its parts but contain completely new codes.

Nestor Garcia Canclini uses the term of hybridity as well. In the 2005 published preface 'Hybrid Cultures in Globalized times' of his book 'Hybrid Cultures'. Hybridity is used to describe processes of interethnical contact , decolonisation, globalizing processes, travelling as well as artistical,literal and mass communicational fusions. Hybridity can develop planned or accidently through migration, tourism and economic or communicative exchange. Often hybritidy also emerges through individual or collective creativity.

Especially the urban cities are places where hybridity through multiculturalism and multilinguism is causing conflicts but more importantly is the dominant reason for cultural creativity. Garcia is emphasizing on modern intercultural hybrids which are amongst others generated by the industries of culture. The flow of communication facilitates the aquisition of various elements of different cultures however this does not guarantee that they are indiscriminately accepted.(ct. Canclini 2005:xxxvif). For example the aquisition of african food through the white does not mean that there is no racism or discrimination against africans.

Keeping in mind that cultures have always been changing and influenced each other the worldwide connections and exchange processes are steadily rising in the modern age of globalization and communciation . This leads to the next paragraph and very important socio-economic factor of the contemporary global world.


Globalization is most comonly seen as a concept which describes worldwide connections in recent history of mankind. In the field of Cultural and social anthroprology thus it is accepted that different aspects of globalization have made connections from earlier times on. Globalisation has therefore started since the age of colonization. Eric Wolf (1994) mentiones that Europe already had an advantage to Asia and Africa before 1942. The existence of completely isolated local communities has been very rare anyway as overseas trade, writing , religion and processes of migration have caused worldwide crossinvovlements. From 1942 onwards the first phase of globalization under european influences emerged. Through military actions missionary work and settlement an asymmetric world divided in centre and perepherie has been created (ct. Gingrich 2003:22). Thus the contemporaray phase of globalization is by no means the first.

It is though significantly different than the earlier phases. The contemporary phase is characterized through ongoing integration of goods , people, ideas ,cultures and a worldwide linkage of production distribution and communication processes as well as new media and technological innovation.

In his book ' what is Globalization?' (1997) Ulrich Beck asks for a universal term of gloablization integrating the concepts of economic political and cultural aspects. He is dividing the contemporaray phase (second modernity) into 'Globalism' 'Globility' and 'Globalization'. He defines 'Globalism' as the world markets suppressing or replacing political actions which means the ideology of world market leadership or Neoliberalism (Beck 1997: 26). Globility in contrast is seen as the existence of a 'world society' which characterizes our time.Hence there are no segregated or closed spaces anymore as different groups are in constant cultural, economical and political contact. Anything happening in the world is always a process concerning the whole and no longer only definite places. This can be seen for instance in the transnational coverage of global media or the existence of global crisises. ' Globalization' is defined as the concept of transnational actors and networks deminishing the autonomic status of national states. It is a process which causes emerging transational social connections and spaces, the enhancement of local cultures and the emerging of completely new cultures.

The contemporaray phase of globalisation is differentiated to the earlier ones through several characteristics. Not only multinational companies (e.g. Coca Cola , General Electric) and other institutions (e.g. UN , UNO, NATO . UNICEF) cross the borders of national states but also our daily lives. Work , community and capital is no longer dependent on a certain place. A rather modern characteristic is also the self-recognition of these transnational processes. A significant difference between the first and the second phase of modernity is the irreversibility of the emerged 'Globality'. Hence we have a contemporary co-existence of different dimensions of ecological, political, societal and cultural Globalization which need to be investigated individually and regarding their interdependent characteristics (ct. Beck 1997: 26ff). Next to globalised centres of wealth Globalization is leading to stable regions of poverty. This is related to today's industrial nations but also to parts of former colonies where a new form of polarisation and stratification of worldwide population into globalized rich and poor is to be noticed. Beck also states that some groups and areas profit and win through globalization and others are cut off main inventions of globalization processes and are therefore 'losers of globalization' (ct.Beck 1997:104).

Global Flows

Arjun Appadurai developed the concept of cultural flows to describe the contemporary world which is merely characterized by objects in movement. The term 'flows' is not only used in Anthropology but also transdiciplinary to describe the multi dimensions of Globalisation and the mobility of capital, work, goods, information and pictures. The concept of 'global flows' allows an analyses of the dynamics in mainstream society and major territorial units (ct. Hannerz 200:4). Appudarai describes our world as a place of 'flows' in which he describes the global mobility of ideas, ideaologies, people, goods, images, news, technologies and techniques. He points out the existence of structures organisations and other stable social forms but sees them only as an instrument to handle the mobile objects. He takes the example of the national state which is merely characterized by transnational politics and the mobility of technique and expertise. Thus the various flows of objects, persons, images and discourses are not simoultaneously of same lenght, convergency and spaciously consistent (ct. Appadurai 200:5). They are in a relation to disjuncture:

' By this I mean that the paths or vectors taken by these kinds of things have different speeds, axes points of origin and termination, and varied relationships to institutional structures in different regions,nations or societies'

(Appadurai 2005)

It is these kind of disjunctures which produce fundamental friction in the different local cultures as for instance the flows of media which create demands that cannot be met locally.Young urban adults worldwide for instance dream of the same carribbean beaches or the same beach parties communicated through the flow of MTV . These happenings are rarely realistic though and can if anything only be realised in a very limited region of the world.

Hence the new global cultural structure can not be seen as centre-perepherie models but as a overlapping ,disjunctive order. The complexity of the contemporary world is put in relation to some fundamental disjunctions in economy , culture and politics. To be able to analyse these disjunctures Appadurai suggests to view the relations of cultural flows in five dimensions : 1) Ethnoscapes 2)Technoscapes 3) Financescapes 4) Mediascapes and 5 ) Ideoscapes.

Through the suffix 'scape' he points out the irregeluar nature of these dimensions which refer to such fundamentally different concepts as the international capital and international dresscodes. Hence these dimensions are strongly perpspective constructions which are influenced by historical, linguistic and political belongings as well as the condition of different actors ( national states , multinational companies, diaspora communities, social movements, neighbourhoods, villages, families and individuals). By using these scapes 'imagined worlds' of various differently situated persons or groups are built. As of today many people live in these kind of 'imagined worlds' and no longer in 'imagined communities' (ct. Anderson 1983) and can even question the 'imagined worlds' around them (Appadurai 1996: 32f).

Significant for this work is merely the definition of the 'mediascapes' which relate to the different media (e.g. Newspapers, television and film). These forms of media produce and distribute information which is accessable for global private and public interests. An important role within these scapes have different factors like the modality of produced images ( documentation vs. entertainment), the audience (local, national or transnational) and the incentives of the ones possessing and controlling these forms of media. These mediascapes transport a big and complex repertoire of images, stories and identities of individuals and groups to a global audience. Simoultaneously mixing up consumer goods , news and politics (ct. Appadurai 1996 34 f).

Through the complexity of these forms of media the constraints of reality and fiction become indistinct:

' The lines between the realistic and the fictional landscapes are blurred, so that the further away these audiences are from the direct experiences of metropolitian life, the more likely they are to construct imagined worlds that are chimercial, aesthetic, even fantastic objects, particulary if assessed by the criteria of some other perspective, some other imagined world. Mediascapes whether produced by private or state interests, tend to be image-centered, narrative based accounts of strips of reality, and what they offer to those who experience and transform them is a series of elements( such as characters, plots, and textual forms) out of which scripts can be formed of imagined lives, their own as well as those of others living in other places'

(Appadurai 1996:35).

The Global City

Goetz Wolf and John Friedmann shaped the concept of a ' World City' according to which cities were characterized that are headquarters of the global economy. These 'World Cities' are important because of their leading role in management , fincance and banking industry , as the base of international companies and as centres of global economy (ct. Friedmann/Wolff 1982).

A couple of years later Friedmann released his ' Wolrd City Hypothesis' (ct. Friedmann 1986). Hence world cities are cities which differentiate themselves from other metropolitian areas through certain characteristics. These cities are seen as socio-economical systems which are merely defined through their location and not by their actors. They are hubs of bigger regional, national and international economies through which money, workers, information, goods and other economic important variables are moved. As a centre the influence of 'world Cities' radiates out to the periphery which is then also weaved into the global economy and its ' space of global accumulation'. They contain the areas of primary production, specific places of production and local densities of consumers and are organized through a network of 'World Cities'. These cities can be seen as a big urbanized region which is merely characterized by close interaction patterns and intensive economical and social relations than by political administrative borders.

The dominant culture within these urban regions is cosmopolitian because they are controlled by the social class of transnational capitalism. Most commonly the language of communication is english and consumer oriented. A big part of worlds population is cut off by this system though (ct. Friedmann 1995: 21ff).

Another definitionof these cities has been introduced through Saskia Sassen who describes them as 'Global Cities'. Since the 1960's changes in the structures of worldwide economics have been noticed. For instance the decline of the once powerful industrial centres in the US, UK or Japan and the rise of industrialisation in numerous 'third world' countries such as India for instance. Another factor was also the expansion of the finance industry to international structures. All of these factors have changed the relations of these cities to the global economy and manifested a new strategic role for these urban regions. Nowadays 'Global Cities' are operating in 4 different areas. They are highly concentrated areas of global economy and key features of the finance industry and specialized services. Additionally they embody spaces of production and innovation of production in leading industries and markets of the produced goods and and produced innnovations.

To understand the parrallel economic and social changes of big cities with different histories and cultures it is important to take the change of the world economy into account. The decentralization of production created a demand for advanced centres of control and management.. The expansion of the financial economy has caused a growth of noumerous smaller markets of finance though the controlling and managing forces have been concentrated in a few cities like Tokyo, London or New York. These cities are repsonsible for an unproportionally high amount of transactions which has been growing since the 1980's . The more globalized the world gets the more dense are the central functions in a few places, the 'Global Cities' (ct. Sassen 1991: 3ff).

'World Cities' and 'Global Cities' are not only playing keyroles as economical but also as cultural centres. According to Ulf Hannerz cities are nowadays significantly responsible for transforming and creating new cultural meanings. The relation of culture and place has to be adapted through the concept of 'cultural flows' in space. He argues that these are partly characterized through centre and periphery relations whereas the centre is formed by few 'world cities'. He identifies four transnational categories which have important influence on the development of transnational contemporaray 'world cities' and their chracteristics.

' What they have in common is the fact that they are in one way or other transnational; the people involved are phsysically present in the world cities for some larger or smaller parts of their lives, but they also have strong ties to some other place in the world'

(Hannerz 1996: 129).

The first category is defined through the transnational companies. The cities are centres of global economy , management, finance ,law, accounting, communication, information technology, logistics, science and higher education. In the areas of world cities people of high education with a corresponding vocation can be found and are seen as highly mobile individuals. The second category are the immigrants of 'third world' countries in places of the 'first world' ( e.g. the dominant culture of mexicans in Los Angeles and the inhabitants of New york with carribean background).

The third category consists of a relative small part of the poulation who thus have a significant influence on the world cities. It is them who are concerned with expressive culture. To this field of expressive culture various activities are counted. Such as art, fashion , design , photography, literature,cookery, music and movie production. Caused through these people many different trends and movements are evolving in world cities. The last category are the tourists who are not part of the poulation but are present in rising numbers.

The global cities are playing a key role in the expansion of cultural expressions which are originated from the 'third world countries' as they can stimulate a broad acknowlegement and vice versa. Which means for instance that once an immigrant culture is dominantly bringing criminality to a global city it is acknowledged and spread through the various flows of culture. And can be in return transformed to become a statement of lifestyle. This explains for instance the broad affinity towards 'being a gangster ' amongst not only lower class individuals but even ranging up to the high class individuals of a city. The transformation of pure criminality through the acknowledgement of global cities can therefore stimulate lifestyles of global subcultures.

Recapitulary world cities are not only influencing the economical gloabilsation but also the global cultural flow. They have a significant influence on hybridisation of cultures. Additionally their inhabitants are exposed to a noumerous flow of global cultures and different influences which in return make them construct an identity which is characterized by all sorts of global influences. Therefore the inhabitants of world cities are more likely to be interested in and exposed to the same ideas, goods, surroundings,and elements of daily life.

The global mass media

The electronic mass media and new communication technologies are equally important to understand the global social and economic changes. According to Arjun Appadurai the social relations in the contemporary age have been changed caused by media and effects of migration. They impact on the imagination as constitutive indicator of modern subjectivity. Electronic media is transforming the field of traditional and mass media as it is a resource for the construction of ' imagined selves and worlds'(ct. Appadurai 1996:2f). The electronic mass media is contributing to the self recognition of mankind:

' Through such effects as the telescoping of news and audio-video bytes , through the tension between the public spaces of cinema and the more exclusive spaces of video watching, through the immediacy of their absorption into public discourse, and through their tendency to be associated with glamour, cosmopolitanism and the new, electronic media ( whether associated with the news, politics, family-ife, or spectacular entertainment) tend to interrogate, subvert and transform other contextual literacies. (...) Always carrying the sense of distance between viewer and event , these media nevertheless compel the transformation of everyday discourse. At the same time they are resources for experiments with the self making in all sorts of societies, for all sorts of persons'

(Appadurai 1996:3).

The mass migration in connection with the mass media sum of pictures, literature and perceptions is the cause of irregularities, as audience and images are in constant circulation. Both (images and audience) are not able to be defined in target groups which are easily connected to local , national or regional spaces. This mobile relation between the mass media events and the migrating audience is seen as the core of globalisation and modernity. Migration has changed through mass media images and texts which often cross borders. They can influence the life in a different as well as in the native country and give motivation to either leave or comeback to the place of origin. Through mass media imagination becomes a collective practice and crosses national borders which causes the emerging of transnational societies (ct. Appadurai 1996: 4f).

As Benedict Anderson (1982) showed, the invention of printing in connection with capitalism caused that people which have never seen themselves personally, to define themselves as part of one nation. As the electronic media has spread across transnational borders this process got amplified and is no longer only happening in national dimensions.Through mass media as film or video created collective experiences can cause the emerging of societies across national borders (ct. Appadurai 1996: 8f) This can for instance mean that caused by the mobility of film German and Indian young urban adults can define themselves as part of the same global society and have the same collective experience while watching it.

Nowadays the world is an interactive system of worldwide crossinvolvements. Earlier the contact between groups of people was bound by geographic , ecologic and active resistance. Cultural relations between far away places were connected to the flow of goods and the travelling across long distances and caused by problems of time, space and technology only with huge efforts and high costs. (ct. Appadurai 1996: 27f).In the last decades the development of technology has caused a completely new situation of neighbourhood between far away places which is simultaneously characterized by placelessness.

The contemporary world is characterized by rootlessness, alienation and a psychological distance between groups and individuals and contrary by electronical affinity. More than an irreversible 'McDonaldization' of the world are global flows of people and things causing desire and fear. If a new cultural system emerges it is characterized by irony and resistance. A central irony of global flows especially in the entertainment sector is that European chronologies are suspended and an interchangability of periods and attitudes emerges. The USA is no longer mastermind of a world system of images and imaginations but a hub for the construction of complex imaginary landscapes (Appadurai 1996:29f).

According to Appadurai in the current phase of globalisation the imagination has gained more meaning and power and the mass media is presenting the audience a steadily variying repertoire of ' possible lives'. Back in the days the phantasy and imagination was bound to certain practices of persons, areas, points in time and places. Through the last decades their meaning has changed through the deterritorilization of persons, ideas and imaginations. Phantasy has emerged to a scocial practice as the own life is constantly compared to other possibilities (ct. Appadurai 1998: 21f). This new keyrole of imagination in society has caused worldwide changes in culture.

' The world we live in today is characterized by a new role for the imaginattion in social life. To grasp this new role, we need to bring together the old idea of images, especially mechanically produced images (in the Frankfurt school sense), the idea of the imagined community (in Anderson sense), and the French idea of the imaginary (imaginaire) as a constructed landscape of collective aspirations, which is no more less real than the collective representations of Emile Durkheim, now mediated through the complex prism of modern media. The image , the imagined, the imaginary - these are all terms that direct us to something critical and new in global cultural processes: the imagination as a social practice' (Appadurai 1996: 31).

The mass-medial spread imganations and ideas are contributing to a new power of imagination in society. Accordingly a new ethongraphy is needed which is less localized and investigates the influence of specific images of life through media (ct. Appadurai 1998: 23f).

Recapitulating is to be said that the global mass media is transforming modern society and gives people form distant places and cultures the possibility to feel the sense of community through the construction and communicaton of images and stories. A young adult in India can nowadays have the same interest like a young adult in Germany and vice versa. They can feel the sense of belonging to the same subgroup or culture and therefore have the same interests and desires. Even if they do not feel belonging to the same subgroups or cultures the mass-medial effect causes a more open and global way of understanding the problems and pleasures of a very distant individual. It gives the possibility to understand rather than being reluctant through strangeness, empowered through the practice of imagination.

The global network of communication

Manuel Castells created the theory of an information society to describe the transformation of society through technological revolution. As a further development of idustrialism this concept can be described as 'post-industrialism' The post-industrialism is characterized by a technology of production of knowledge a certain form of information processing and a symbolic way of communicating.

Whilst the industrialism is focussed on creating economic growth the post-industrialism is focussed on the technological development and accumulation of knowledge.The paradigm of information technology was shaped, steered and accelerated through the capitalistic reordering since the 1980's . the merging society of this process of change is thus capitalistic as well as informational. Hence Castel calls the newly emerged system ' informational capitalism'. All societeis are influenced by capitalism and information and many societes are already informational even if they have reacted differently to it. (ct. Castells 2001: 13ff). The informational societies are characterized through the central processes of production of knowledge, economy, political and military power and media being transformed by the paradigm of information and being connected to the global network of wealth, power and symbols (ct. Castells 2001:21.). One of the most important characteristics of an informational society is the basic network structure according to which Castells defines them as network-societies.(Castells 2001: 22). In the contemoprary age of information technology the functions and processes are increasingly organized in global networks which connect hubs and individuals from all over the planet but exclude huge segments of societies, regions and even whole countries. Networks consist of various interconnected hubs. They are open structures which expand and simoultaneously integrate new hubs as long as they can communicate within the network. This means they share the same codes, values or aims. A network-society is a very dynamic, open system characterized through renewal without loss of balance. The newtorks are of central influence in capitalistic economy,culture, political system and organisation of society and impact on ruling power relationship. Thus the economy is centrally built around networks of capital, management and information and capitalism is structured around a network of global financial flows (ct. Castells 2001: 528ff).

Also the new technologies of communication are organized in networks. Constantly growing interactive computer networks cause new ways of communication and influence our lives, but are also formed from within them. Cultural practices circulate in shape of images, tones and texts in digital communication networks and are modified according to the individual imagination and pre-condition (ct. Castells 2001:2). By using the contemporary communication technology the integration of various textual, oral and audiovisual communication habits are integrated into an interactive network. This new possibility of interaction across a global network changes the condition of communication fundamentally (ct. Castells 2001:376). Hence the network society has a strong impact on culture.

Most connections of the virtual societies are equally specialized and diverse to the physical networks. Internet user are connecting on the basis of common values and interests. The online memberships are equally varying as the intersts of the users which causes memberships in many different online societies. Though virtual networks have a lot in common with physical networks they follow different communication and interaction patterns. They are interpersonal social networks which are not characterized by strong social relations but mostly through weaker relations, highly diversifieyd and specialized but thus cause mutual support. Distances can be overcome with very low costs and the fast spreading mass-media is connected to personal communication (ct. Castells 2001:408ff). But there are regional differences regarding the spread of internet and access to it. These factors are not only different in many countries but also within countries and influenced by scoial status, gender, age, place of residence and income (ct. Castells 2001:379). The possibility of digital communication is therefore restricted to certain countries and social classes.

The acces to audiovisual news, eductaion and entertainment through the same media (Internet) is causing an assimilation of contents though they come from different sources. Various different cultural forms of expression are mingled together causing less differentiation between audiovisual and printed media, popular culture, entertainment and information (ct. Castells 2001:423ff). The belonging to the digital networks is nowadays a fundamental requirement for spreading personal messages.

The information-society is connecting functions on a global basis. But simoultaneously spaces of segregation exist which makes the networks function in close relation to relations of power.

Saskia Sassen refers to the digital gap caused by segregation from these kind of networks. In global metropolitan areas resources, infrastructure and fundamental functions of the digital networks concentrate whereas rural areas are segregated and cut off. This leads especially in countries with a very high contrast of metropolitan and rural areas (India, China, Nigeria) to a diversification of society. The inernet gives the possibility to locally rooted youth to participate in a global cultural space and deal with global youth culture or global cinema. In return youth which is segregated and cut off these metropolitian areas is excluded and forced to stay within their local space.

Common preferrences and interests in narrative concepts

Through the extensive and detailed exploration of the socio-economic factors culture, cultural hybrids, globalisation, global flows, global cities, global mass-media and the global network of communication it is very obvious that a contemporary interconnectedness of global processes and socio-economic factors is causing people from very different places to identify with each other and to connect into different subcultures and subgroups. This theory can therefore be applied to Indian and German young urban adults who are influenced by all of these concepts. They are born into globalisation and hybrid cultures and live in a world of steadily rising interconnectedness and exchange of cultural ideas, images and texts . They are open to identify with and connect to each other. As all of the above described concepts have to be regarded a lot of young adults especially in India can not be seen as belonging to this group. Young adults living in rural areas are cut off at least one but in most cases several factors and can therefore not be taken into account for this study.

However to bring the theoretical hybridization of cultures and the influences of globalisation into a practical and useful pool of common ideas of narrative concepts a quantitative study is needed. This study is designed to filter out the particular common grounds and interests of the above described demographic and aims to build a pool which can be used for concepts of indo-german cooperations in the state of narrative invention . It is thought to give a starting pool of common symbols interests , ideas and narratives which can be expanded through ongoing research and development. As described in the chapter before these common factors are highly dynamic and rapidly changing in the contemporary era of globalisation. Therefore the outcome of this study can only be seen as a momentual picture which has to be adapted and retested through time. It displays the common grounds and interests of a very certain generation of young urban adults in a certain point of time. These interests and common grounds can change rapidly or slowly with the ongoing change of our world and its societies. Nevertheless it covers the particular common grounds of a generation which is most likely to keep them as a basic concept of interests ideas and values for a time span of several years and sometimes even their whole lives which will guarantee that the outcome is useful and can be incooperated to concepts for indo-german coproduction narratives.

Taking the previous chapter into account the modern urban cinema of India can therefore in its content of values and symbols not much differ form the modern urban cinema in Germany and should, broken down to its very basic narrative concepts resonate to both audience groups. An urban young adult in India and in Germany with acces and exposure to all of the previous outlined socio economic factors is very likely to have the same interests and preferrences of narrative concepts. And can also identify with the same elements.

The questionnaire

As in the methodology part described the approach to identify the common narrative prefernces and interests of Indian and German young urban adults is of qunatitative nature and realized through a questionnaire divided in two segments. The structure can be reread in the methodology part so I will at this point only elaborate the content of the questionnaire. As outlined before young urban adults are most likely to be interested in urban stories and elements of urban life.

Firstly an overview on the 4 selected Synopsises :

Synopsis 1

Sent to a boarding school in London, for being rude, Dev, leaves his childhood-sweetheart, Paro, behind.Years later he returns to his hometown and meets Paro again. She has blossomed into a true beauty, but Dev humiliates her, and prefers the company of Rasika. Events soon spiral out of control for him, after he starts taking drugs; patronizing a prostitute; and eventually is arrested by the Police.

This synopsis is taken from the urban remake of a very traditional Hindi move by Director Anurag Kashyap. It features many elements of the lifes of young urban adults. It is selected to be the Indian example of an universal urban narrative .

Synopsis 2

Rahul has just lost his wife, Tina, due to childbirth. His daughter, Anjali and his mother is all he is left with. Tina has left eight letters for her daughter to read on every birthday. The eighth one is the most important. Anjali reads the letter and gets information about her mother's best friend. There is an important task that Tina has asked her daughter to carry out. It's up to Anjali to do it.

This synopsis is taken from a traditional Hindi movie and not featuring many of the elements a young urban adult is exposed to.However it is not completely traditional and can therefore be seen as an intermediate concept.

Synopsis 3

16 year old princess Elisabeth, follows her mother and sister Helene to the Austrian court in Ischl, where the engagement between Helene and the young emperor Franz Josef will be announced. But he meets Elisabeth when she's out fishing and falls in love with her. Elisabeth loves Franz Josef but a marriage with him comes with a downside, his arrogant and headstrong mother.

This synopsis is taken from a very traditional and old german movie and does not feature a lot of elements of young urban lives. It is therefore thought to score very low.

Synopsis 4
