Globalization, Schmobalization

In recent years, books or articles on globalization often begin with apologies. It is as though continuing to find globalization interesting or relevant is similar to an addiction or, perhaps worse, that it represents a vested interest in a once trendy phenomenon that is well past its use-by date. These apologies make the reader suspicious that the author is trying to squeeze out one more publication from a labour of love. A colleague recently told me – and it must be confessed that I have squeezed out a few publications on the topic – that ‘globalization is over and that it has always been over-rated’. This criticism of globalization was not a judgement about increases or decreases in political, economic or cultural connections, rather it was a condemnation of the concept itself. ‘Globalization,’ he said, ‘has gone the way of post-modernism, whatever they both were or meant.’ Another colleague likes to tell me that the concept is so general as to be theoretically vacuous; so all-encompassing as to be meaningless. Although slightly jovial, such views are common, and important critiques of this most dominant of contemporary concepts. My response is that no apologies are really necessary because globalization continues to be a convenient term to describe a set of processes and ideas about the world and its constituent parts. Generality, contestation and complexity do not render a concept worthless – think of the terms power, politics, policy, the state, interdependence, empire, hegemony, or even international relations, just to name a few key terms in political science. Should we question the utility of these terms just because we cannot agree on what they mean and what they encompass? The processes and ideas that the term globalization describes will continue to be important and have an impact on our lives. Like other key concepts and issue areas of the social sciences, we will continue to debate its meaning, significance and utility. Indeed, if we were to abandon the term we would need to think of another to encompass what globalization, in its many and contested meanings, describes. The debate over globalization – as a concept and a process – is not over, nor should it be. This does not mean that challenges and even reversals to aspects of globalization – especially economic and political connections – are not possible. There are storm clouds on the horizon and policy makers and business people will need to address the sustainability of economic globalization if they are to maintain the social support required for continuing economic integration, which is, overall, the driving force of globalization.Full Tex