Arguing for deep diversity in a globalising era

Theorizing globalization in all its contradictions and unevenness is still at a very formative stage. Too many theories are either characterized by reductive appropriations of the phenomenon or by studied vagueness. This article attempts to answer the question how can we set up a method for understanding such a variable set of processes associated with globalization(s) while still recognizing broad and changing dominant patterns of practice across world history. The article begins with the apparently simple issue of defining globalization, suggesting that definitional issues often hide a multitude of methodological questions. It then goes onto to develop a series of propositions about the nature of globalization and how we might move from detailed empirical studies of different social processes of extension across world space and time to an understanding of the changing nature of the spatiality and temporality itself. This is linked to an argument about the structures of power and subjection