Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento 1 Globalization and Particularity Sociological consensus is that Enlightenment, Universalism, and the State combined

Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento 1

Globalization and Particularity

Sociological consensus is that Enlightenment, Universalism, and the State combined in a project of globalization (Americanization) that obliterated all traces of particularity. The managerial state can no longer appeal to an axiological consensus and must rely on increasing rules of rationality. This lack of legitimation provokes the hostility of the population, and increasing reliance on technocratic bureaucracy.


Nationalism and Globalization

Since the mid eighteen century the homogeneous nation state as a culturally homogenized and administered citizenry emerged as an ideology and as a set of policies that supported globalization. Other components of globalization (besides national societies) have been the system of international relations, the conceptions of individualism and of humankind.


Four Phases Germinal phase 15-mid 18> Conceptions of humankind and

Individual Incipient Phase. 1750 Until 1870. States and International

relations Take-off 1870-1920. Global forms of Commnications, Global

Movements (Nobel prize, World Time, League of Nations)WW1 Struggle for Hegemony 1920-1965. Holocaust and Atomic

Bomb discussions Uncertainty Phase. 1960-1990 Post-materialist values, moon

landing, inclusion of third world, End of Cold War. Human rights and interest in World Civil Society. (see Global Culture p.26).


Themes in the study of Globalization

Frankfurt School: Homogenization: as Americanization and Commodification.

Bell: Disjunction between Economy Culture and Politics.

Appadurai. Tension between homogenization and heterogenizations.

Ethnoscapes, Mediascapes, Technoscapes, Finanscapes, Ideoscapes.


Pluralization and Globalization Globalization ensues from similar processes of institutional

fragmentation everywhere. Berger: Through human history individuals lived in relatively

unified life words, The integrating order was religious. Modern life is very segmented. There is a sharp distinction between private and public life. But even each of these two spheres is very fragmented. Division of labour and technology have created totally incommunicable life worlds. (ex. layers and doctors in the public sphere, and differences between family and friends in the private). At the same time individuals must come in contact with one another. Pluralization is now enhanced by the media and modern life in cities, education.


Globalization and History Globalization is occurring in the economic, political and

cultural sphere. As Waters notes, it is hardly a new process, as it is at least contemporary with modernization, and some aspects of it have been proceeding since the sixteenth century (Waters 1995: 62).

Cultures have always been in contact through commerce, wars, occupations and religions.

Regional economic specialization and interdependence is also an historical globalising force.


What is New in Globalization?

Globalization is an acceleration of technological, economic, cultural, population interchanges between distant areas.

A set of recent developments have accelerated the pace of globalization, whilst at the same time a process of fragmentation is manifest in phenomena such as the disintegration of geopolitical blocs and some nation states.


The Economy In the economy, awareness of the globalising effect of

capitalism goes back far; Marx was aware of it and advocated international solidarity as a

solution to the homogenizing and, he though, impoverishing effects of the industrial economy.

Transnational corporations are now powerful and numerous enough to constitute a new and significant source of political power.

Centralised decision-making in multinational corporations. They operate globally and are not restricted by national identities and loyalties. Similarly, the media are now operating in an international market where ownership and consumption is often transnational.


Politics

In political terms, the unification of Western Europe has contributed to the formation of a common political opportunity structure. Geo-political factors also play a fundamental role. For instance, ecological threats such as acid rain is clearly a regional issue. Similarly, security concerns are regional as has been shown, for instance, by the concerted reactions to the deployment of Cruise missiles in the eighties in most European countries.


Culture Cultural globalisation means that ideas in different realms, the

staff of intellectual history, now ‘travel’ faster than ever before. They often originate from the centre of the world system and travel to the periphery.

Consider the success of different economic ideas such as the idea of cutting top income tax, or the idea of giving more independence to central banks, or the emphasis on privatising.

The reasons are varied. They range from the role of intellectual migrants, such as foreign religious community leaders, professionals and academics, to the role of the CIA in promoting certain art currents during the post-war period. But even this dynamics are not linear and predictable and one-directional (Appadurai in Featherstone 1990: 296).


Globalization and Social Movements It is the entire range of globalising influences which affects social

movements; Just like the economy, culture, media and people, social movements are also increasingly transnational. However, whilst a global similarity in social movements has taken place, only limited concerted strategies have been possible, although this limited co-ordination is much stronger than the amount that has occurred in the social movement sector in the early decades of this century.

Nationalism was a powerful current that hindered any internationalisation of labour movements - the stronger social movements of the last century. In addition, both 19th and 20th century capitalism, and the labour movements were too heavily influenced by the overwhelming shaping influence of the nation state to acknowledge trans-national influences. The development of the world system progressed as a gradual process and only recently it has been advanced enough to constitute a sociological reality.

Documents

Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento 1 Globalization and Particularity Sociological consensus is that Enlightenment, Universalism, and the State combined