Globalization: Cliché or Explanation of Global Change?
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Transcript of Globalization: Cliché or Explanation of Global Change?
Globalization: Cliché or Explanation of Global Change?
• What is globalization?/How should it be conceptualized?
• Does contemporary globalization represent a novel condition?
• Is globalization associated with the demise, the resurgence or the transformation of state power?
• In what other locations/scales does power/sovereignty reside?
• Does contemporary globalization impose new limits to politics?
• How can globalization be civilized and democratized?
Jihad v. McWorld
Benjamin Barber
Elements of McWorld
Elements of Jihad
Elements of Tradition (v. Modernity)• Religion/ Non-material
Values• Local/National Identity• National/Local
Mobilization• Communal Loyalty• Emphasis on Unique
History• Defense of Territory• Landscape Preservation
(esp. symbolic)
• Materialism/Material Values
• Amorphous Identity• Economic/Cultural
Imports• Individual Ambitions• Universal Experience
• Connections with nongroup members
• Imported Elements
The Clash of Civilizations?Samuel Huntington
Huntington’s Civilizations
Clash of Civilizations Major Thesis
Huntington’s Proposals
Amartya Sen Critique
• Morally offensive and destructive– Simplified: Culture is much more than religion-
we are multi-dimensional.– Classification supercedes the possibility that we
chose our own identities– Stereotyping is morally gross– Classification is divisive
Amartya Sen Critique of Huntington
• Politically Destructive: – If we chose our own identifications we can
make political associations based on different identities
• Pakistan/Bangladesh
• Poverty
– We also might chose to make ethical, not identity based associations
Amartya Sen Critique of Huntington
• Ignores diversity of traditions within “civilizations”– Muslims and other traditions in India
• “Western” appropriation of tolerance ignore diversity of this cultural trait
• Ignores major global interactions in science, technology, mathematics and literature over past millenia
Amartya Sen Critique of Huntington
Amartya Sen Critique of Huntington
• Far reaching effects:– Gives exaggerated commanding voice to religious
leaders
– Causes self-identification of non-western world as “the other” at the expense of freedom to chose among many identities
– Focuses on what divides v. what unites; fuels alienation
– Interferes with positive work of identifying solutions to inqualities without losing technological and economic opportunities
Doreen Massey Lecture
http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/media/geographie/Hettner1998.html