Shifting Practices, Shifting Selves: Negotiations of Local and Global Cultures Among Adolescents in Northern Thailand.

Around the world, adolescents increasingly grow up as members of local and global cultures. Little is known, however, about how precisely adolescents in rapidly globalizing societies blend local and global cultures. Interviews with 40 (16- to 19-year old) Thai adolescents, evenly divided between rural and urban communities, were analyzed alongside participant observation data for the interplay between local and global linguistic and dietary practices. Results revealed that urban adolescents inhabited differentiated selves, alternating between local and global practices based on interactional partner. The activation of each assisted them in navigating-and in some cases, reshaping-hierarchies encountered in everyday relationships. Findings contribute to the developmental science of globalization and point to the utility of interrogating cultural practices as sites of self-negotiation in rapidly changing cultural contexts.