---
title: "Globalization and development within own culture"
subject: "Engineering Professional Practice"
chapter: 6
key: "semester_8/engineering_professional_practice:globalization-development-own-culture"
source: https://www.bctengineer.com/q/semester_8/engineering_professional_practice/globalization-development-own-culture
site: BCT Engineering
---

# Globalization and development within own culture

Engineering Professional Practice · Chapter 6: Contemporary Issues in Engineering

- Asked in: 2070 Bhadra, 10 marks
- Video: [Globalisation | Meaning, Causes, Dimensions | Negative & Positive Impact | Globalisation in India](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6CiMdp1c-Q) — Study Planet
- Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort) on 2026-10-14
- Page: https://www.bctengineer.com/q/semester_8/engineering_professional_practice/globalization-development-own-culture
- Whole chapter: https://www.bctengineer.com/md/semester_8/engineering_professional_practice/chapter-6

## Question

Globalization has been an eye open opportunity for developing country. It helps transfer technology and development process but also a culture that loosens confidence on nationality. How can people work for development within their own culture with others as guide? Explain.

## Short answer

Development should selectively adopt and adapt global technology to local conditions, combine local knowledge and materials, and insist on training to build capacity. Community participation, heritage protection and ethical safeguards ensure foreign guidance serves national roots. Japan and South Korea modernized this way, keeping their identity.

## Answer

Globalization opens a country to foreign technology, capital, markets and ideas, which are valuable for a developing country like Nepal. But if foreign ways are copied blindly, local identity, language, traditions and confidence in one's own nation can weaken. Development should therefore be achieved by using global knowledge as a guide, but building on one's own culture and conditions.

#### How people can work for development within their own culture

1. **Selective adoption.** Take only the technology and ideas that suit local needs, resources and values, and reject what harms society or environment. Japan, South Korea and China modernised in this way.
2. **Adapt the technology (appropriate technology).** Modify foreign designs to local climate, materials, skills and income. Examples are micro-hydro, biogas, improved cooking stoves, and low-cost earthquake-resistant buildings.
3. **Use local knowledge and materials.** Traditional skills such as Newari brick and timber construction, community irrigation systems (farmer-managed irrigation), forest user groups and suspension bridges show that indigenous practice is effective. Study them scientifically and improve them.
4. **Technology transfer with capacity building.** In foreign-assisted projects, insist on training of Nepali engineers and technicians, joint ventures and local participation, so that knowledge stays in the country.
5. **Education and research.** Strengthen local universities and research on local problems. Teach in the local language and respect national history, so that young people have confidence.
6. **Community participation.** Involve local people in planning and in decisions, so that projects fit their culture and are owned by them.
7. **Protect heritage and environment.** Follow heritage conservation laws, environmental standards and local customs in construction projects.
8. **Ethical and legal safeguards.** Follow national laws, the Nepal Engineering Council code of conduct and fair contracts. Avoid corruption, and treat foreign advisers as partners.
9. **Cross-cultural skills.** Engineers should learn from foreign experts, but keep their own judgement: foreigners are guides, not masters.

#### Overall approach

Nepal should aim at "global in knowledge, local in roots": learn from the world, test it against local needs, and apply it with self-reliance and national pride. Countries such as Japan and Bhutan (which values Gross National Happiness) show that economic progress and cultural identity can go together.

## Check yourself

The answer's key points as multiple-choice questions, with the correct option and why.

1. What does 'selective adoption' of foreign technology mean?
   A. Copying every foreign idea so the country catches up quickly
   B. Taking only technology and ideas that suit local needs, resources and values, and rejecting harmful ones
   C. Rejecting all foreign technology to protect culture
   D. Adopting technology only from one donor country
   Answer: B. Selective adoption means choosing what suits local needs and values and rejecting what harms society or environment, as Japan, South Korea and China did. (Key point: Selective adoption)

2. Which is an example of adapting foreign technology to local conditions (appropriate technology)?
   A. Importing a complete foreign building design unchanged
   B. Using micro-hydro, biogas and low-cost earthquake-resistant buildings suited to local climate, skills and income
   C. Replacing all local materials with imported ones
   D. Hiring only foreign engineers for design
   Answer: B. Appropriate technology modifies foreign designs to local climate, materials, skills and income, e.g. micro-hydro and biogas. (Key point: Appropriate technology)

3. In foreign-assisted projects, what should Nepal insist on so that knowledge stays in the country?
   A. Training of Nepali engineers, joint ventures and local participation
   B. Complete foreign control of operation
   C. Keeping project documents confidential from local staff
   D. Using only foreign labour to finish faster
   Answer: A. Technology transfer with capacity building means training local engineers and technicians and involving local partners. (Key point: Capacity building in technology transfer)

4. What does the approach 'global in knowledge, local in roots' mean?
   A. Learn only from local sources and ignore the world
   B. Follow foreign culture fully to be globally accepted
   C. Learn from the world, test it against local needs, and apply it with self-reliance and national pride
   D. Apply foreign solutions without testing, but keep local festivals
   Answer: C. The idea is to use global knowledge as a guide while building on one's own culture, with self-reliance and pride; foreigners are guides, not masters. (Key point: Overall approach: global in knowledge, local in roots)

## Related in Engineering Professional Practice

- [Bheri river suspension bridge collapse](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_8%2Fengineering_professional_practice%3Abheri-suspension-bridge-collapse) — Engineering Professional Practice, chapter 7
- [PPP model and its significance in Nepal](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_8%2Fengineering_professional_practice%3Appp-development-nepal) — Engineering Professional Practice, chapter 6, asked 2×
- [Building near river bank; stop construction?](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_8%2Fengineering_professional_practice%3Abuilding-on-river-bank-flood) — Engineering Professional Practice, chapter 7
- [Substandard sand offered with cost-saving share](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_8%2Fengineering_professional_practice%3Asubstandard-sand-aggregate-share) — Engineering Professional Practice, chapter 7

## Related in other subjects

- [Technology changing values, culture and tradition](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_7%2Ftechnology_environment_and_society%3Atech-changes-culture-tradition) — Technology, Environment and Society, chapter 1, asked 3×
- [Technology definition and change in culture](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_7%2Ftechnology_environment_and_society%3Adefine-tech-culture-traditions) — Technology, Environment and Society, chapter 1
- [Process of developing IS security plan](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_8%2Finformation_system%3Ais-security-plan) — Information System, chapter 2
- [Impact of technology, sustainable development](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_7%2Fenergy_environment_and_society%3Atechnology-impact-society-sustainable) — Energy Environment and Society, chapter 1