Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A stimulating appraisal of a crucial contemporary theme, this comprehensive analysis of globalizaton offers a distinctively cultural perspective on the social theory of the contemporary world.
This perspective considers the world as a whole, going beyond conventional distinctions between the global and the local and between the universal and the particular. Its cultural approach emphasizes the political and economic significance of shifting conceptions of, and forms of participation in, an increasingly compressed world. At the same time the book shows why culture has become a globally contested issue - why, for example, competing conceptions of world order′ have political and economic consequences.
Synopsis
'Robertson's approach is multidimensional, complex, well-grounded in sociological theory, and centred on culture...the theme of globalization is developed in relation to the cultural turn, world-systems theory, the civilizing process, modernity and postmodernity, nostalgia politics and fundamentalism..... his contribution is original, probes deeply and is highly stimulating.' - Political Studies
Synopsis
The global society. Today everyone from scholars to politicians is debating the nature and makeup of a global society. But what is actually meant by a global society? Does such a global society actually exist? In Globalization, Roland Robertson argues that the real nature of globalization is obscured while peripheral concerns, such as minute economic analyses, are overstated. Robertson presents an alternative view that incorporates the economic and cultural aspects of the global scene, and in the process connects general social structures to historical developments in the modern world. Offering a distinctively cultural focus on the social theory of the contemporary world, Globalization makes a major contribution to the current debate for graduate students and professors of sociology, social theory, and cultural studies. "A professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, Roland Robertson is, as this book proves, the foremost sociologist engaged in the study of globalization. . . . Although empirical data crop up only occasionally, this book offers a sweeping yet detailed survey of the ways in which sociologists have dealt with the subject. Indeed, Robertson shows in a brief history of his discipline, sociology has been a key element in the effort to come to grips with what he calls "globality"; sociologists have crucially helped to shape global awareness. . . . All told, this is a difficult book, but one worthy of careful reading as a stimulant for raising global awareness" --Journal of World History "Globalization deals with an important subject. Its inherent comprehensive approach would be of interest not only to macrosociologists but also to those studying postmodernity, gender, ethnicity, and identity." --Contemporary Sociology "Roland Robertson has been writing about these topics for some years and has a grasp of the huge and multifaceted literature that is as sure as it is impressive. . . . this volume manages to work very well as a whole and provides a good introduction to many of the questions that underlie the phenomenon of globalization while standing as a sustained and stimulating interpretive essay in its own right. . . . the book is an impressive and highly readable essay and deserves to be widely read." --International Affairs "Robertson's approach to globalizatin is multidimensional, complex, well-grounded in sociological theory, and centered on culture--so often the stepchild in other approaches. . . . Robertson fruitfully contrasts his approach to that of Wallerstein, Elias, and Giddens. . . . His contribution is in several respects original, probes deeply, and is highly stimulating." --Political Studies Association
Table of Contents
Globalization as a problem -- The cultural turn --Mapping the global condition -- World-systems theory, culture and images of world order -- Japanese globality and Japanese religion -- The universalism-particularism issue -- 'Civiliztion,' civility and the civilizing process -- Globalization theory and civilization analysis -- Globality, modernity and the issue of postmodernity --Globalization and the nostalgic paradigm -- 'The search for fundamentals' in global perspective --Concluding reflections.