Lecture Five.

Globalisation and the compression of time and space.

Focus of lecture-concept of globalisation. increased economic, political and cultural 'integration' engendered by technological, political and cultural

developments. impact of the forces of globalisation on human

subjectivity and identity. Are identities in the contemporary world radically

different to those of our predecessors? There are positive aspects of globalisation but it has a

'dark underbelly’. Key theorists -La Touche and Mc Grew, Arun

Appadurai, Marshall McLuhan, Anthony Giddens, Lash and Urry, Zygmunt Bauman, and Roland Robertson.

Introduction Globalisation responsible for many changes

we are currently experiencing. Processes of globalisation -motor that

drives economic, political and cultural changes we term post-modern.

Not a totally new concept and experience - a process that.

In many ways, started to occur with the first stirrings of modern societies

A crucial idea in modern sociology

Two essential concepts tied up with notions of globalisation:

Movement of goods, capital, people across nation-state boundaries, incorporating some sense of the world as a single place.

Cultural Hybridisation, new hybridised/ syncretic cultural forms, and a contingent sense of the world as a single, global society.

Post-Industrial Society Postmodern, globalised societies often referred to as

post-industrial Daniel Bell, (1974) Kerr al (1960) Francis Fukayama

(The End of History? 1989). Economic, political, cultural - convergence. Societies increasingly share common features democratic, capitalist -cultural homogeneity

(compare with postmodern theories of culture etc). theory of convergence. Motor of convergence- globalisation

Post-Capitalism Two basic ideas here.1 Post-modern societies -different forms of

economic organisation to modern period. Retains the basic features of modern Capitalism – profit, private ownership of property etc -But shift from production to consumption.

2. Post-capitalism -a broader economic picture of global forms of economic organisation.

Questions.

Is the the ‘End of History? (Fukuyama?)

Can you link this to Lyotards questions about the end of Meta-narratives?

For Fukuyama- no viable metanarratives that will replace the capitalist paradigm.

Giddens on Globalisation and Late-Modernity. Giddens an optimist. Globalisation an equalising process - 'reverse

colonialism'. Globalisation- a set of processes. Affects individuals - identities, subjectivities and

material conditions of life. Modernisation spawned Globalisation. So no new era or epoch in human history as

Postmodernists suggest Globalisation and Postmodernity- a continuation of

trends set in motion by the processes of modernity

Four main 'institutional complexes of modernity'.

Basis of modernisation process. Administrative power; Military power; Capitalism Industrialism.

Administrative power Development of the secular nation-state Rational and bureaucratic forms of

administration Law and order. Surveillance of populations made possible. Links to sharing of knowledge and

technology.

Can you link this to Foucault ?

Capitalism and industrialism

New forms of production Factory and industrial

production. New forms of economic

calculation Decline in non-waged labour

and agriculture.

Militarism

Based upon technology and professional armies

industrialisation of warfare Militaristic expansion of modern

states. Increasing uses of military alliance

in warfare.

Time-space distanciation.

a) The historical movement from traditional societies to modern ones.

b) The part played by globalisation in speeding up the processes that were set in motion by the modernisation process.

Traditional Societies 1

'Traditional' or ‘pre-modern’ societies -social relations -embedded in time and space.

Time -embedded in a local context. Identity ascribed at birth and more or less

fixed . Majority of the population living in small

local village communities sense of space, geographical and social

narrow and fixed

Traditional Societies 2 sense of time and space embedded in local communities. 'traditional' notions of time- local and narrowly defined. reduces the sense of social and cultural distance

between communities. Time in the modern era stretches across the world. Produces feeling that the world is shrinking. Distances shrink as communities calibrate their sense of

time with other communities on the other side of the globe.

Processes of modernisation lift out the individuals and communities from narrow definitions of time, space and status.

Modernisation dis-embeds the feudal individual from his/her fixed identity in time and space.

For Giddens modernisation and modernity based upon a process whereby a fixed and narrow idea of 'space'

as 'place' is gradually eroded by an increasingly

dominant concept of universal 'time'.

Two types of dis-embedding mechanisms:

1 Symbolic Tokens 2 Expert Systems.

Symbolic Tokens Peasant households in traditional societies

largely produced own means of subsistence. Tithe was often paid in kind- goods ,animals ,

labour. Money was of limited value Economic exchange -local and particularistic Modernisationreplaced local exchange with

universal exchange of money. Exchange of money establishes social relations

across time and space. Globalisation a speeding up of this process.

Expert Systems arise as a result of the scientific revolutions increase in technical knowledge increase in specialisation. Claim to 'universal' and scientific forms of knowledge. Establish social relations across vast expanses of time and

space. social distance is created between professionals and their

clients. Eg. modern medical model -based upon the universal claims of

science. dominates across the globe local perspectives become devalued. Modern societies reliant on Expert Systems. Trust increasingly the key to the relationship between the

individual and Expert Systems. Trust the social glue which holds modern societies together. Where trust is undermined individuals experience ontological

insecurity and a sense of insecurity with regard to their social reality.

Bauman on subjectivity.

The disembedding of time and space has profound consequences for human subjectivity.

This is an age of radical uncertainty with radical consequences for human morality.

Bauman's globalised world is not as harmonious a place as Giddens’.

Lash and Urry - The dark side of Globalisation. An emptying out of subjects and objects. Objects for Lash and Urry progressively emptied out of

meaning. This emptying out began to intensify when exchange

value was reduced simply to money value- when the 'gift' element of symbolic exchange in pre modern times was eroded.

Today sign value takes primacy- this is created through the advertising, media and the dissemination of commodities.

Value symbolic -but in a Baudrillardian sense. Symbolic aspect attached to objects is illusionary. Objects disembedded from original context and re-

embedded in a new unreal context. Baudrillardian simulacrum- a symbolic dimension- laden

with meaning but paradoxically emptied of it to the extreme.

A realm of falsity, deception and simulation.

An emptying out of subjects. Human subjects become disembedded also. deterritorialization, decontextualizion of the subject Individuals lose attachment to people and places in the

process of a disembedding of time and space. Postmodern, globalised relationships -ephemeral, fleeting

and diverse. More durable uniform relations in modern society We are detached from the processes of production and

from our fellow humans Time a disposable, pliable, manipulable thing Time no longer a concrete frame of reference that roots us

in a particular context or milieu. Multiple worlds, spaces and milieu that we can inhabit

simultaneously. Time and space a fragmented order that we are constantly

creating and recreating.

From Modernity to globalisation.

For Lash and Urry a dark, sinister new world order

For Giddens a more positive thing. Giddens divides modernity into Two

phases: early modernity and ‘high’ or ‘late’ modernity.

Late-modernity based upon globalization, social reflexivity and detraditionalisation.

Globalisation

A contradictory and uneven process. Pulls away from local communities and nation-states Pushes down on those same communities and nation-

states. supra-national political organisations weaken powers

of nation-states Local communities' beliefs and cultural values may be

globalised and universalised Individuals and groups may experience this

universalisation as a 'dilution' and 'corruption' of their cultural beliefs

Resististance to this process, sometimes with violence rise of fundamentalism, nationalism and terrorism

could be seen as a response to this

Giddens - "Globalisation...is not just

'out there' - to do with very large-scale influences. It is also an 'in here' phenomenon, directly bound up with the circumstances of local life." (Giddens1994: 80-1).

Roland Robertson - Globalisation is the: ‘universalisation of the particular and the particularisation of the universal’. The universal is the global and the particular is the local.

Reflexivity and Globalisation

Modernity and late modernity based upon human reflexivity.

Individuals have to make choices and decisions in a 'rational' and secular manner

All of our social activity needs to be revised in the light of new information

Increased notions of risk and uncertainty. Globalisation appears as a threat to certain social

groups and to their traditions and cultures. Resentment and resistance to processes of

globalization. Resistance to 'global culture'. Also hybrid cultural forms emerge ‘Glocalisation’.

De-traditionalisation

Reflexivity- individuals question the validity ideologies, opinions and belief-systems

Dissolution of traditional left- right politics

Questions. Is globalisation an equalising process? Cultural forms and forms of economic and

political organization are more standardised BUT some economic, cultural and political

forms privileged over others Question of why certain economic, political

and cultural models come to dominate over others?

Does Giddens address this?

The Irresistible Rise of the West 1. Latouche examines Western economic and cultural

expansionism. Traces the development of Western global domination. Certain type of social organisation have been imposed

on the world. This has come to be accepted as a common sense,

universally appropriate model for global development. Global society for Latouche, the harbinger of new forms

of domination and social, cultural, political and economic control.

Colonization of mind body and soul replaces physical and coercive power of the empire. Globalization, for Latouche, a new form of colonialism.

West dominates in a symbolic sense.

The Irresistible Rise of the West 2 Values of progress, technological scientificism and liberal

economic model- powerful mechanisms for the colonization of bodies and minds.

Technical superiority the ‘trump card of domination’ Modernism synonymous with 'technologism', Westernism

and industrialism. Also a normative dimension -'the whole of society must be

fired with.a desire for limitless accumulation’. Colonization, and Globalization two sides of the same coin. The domination of the rest by the West. Processes of C & G create a single world market, ‘drawing in

even the most primitive of communities and imprisoning all participants’

Destiny of diverse societies determined by world market. This modifies means of production but also transforms

whole social systems.

Conclusions and Questions Can societies be divided as Giddens

suggest into 'traditional', 'early modern' and 'late modern'. This model fails to account uneven development within and between societies

Giddens theory is one of a reasonably harmonious process. Emphasises integration, social order, unification, trust;

Bryan Turner The notion of self as reflexive has

a long history The early 17th century witnessed an

era of high levels of reflexivity. (Historians also point to the high degree of 'economic globalization' in this period.

Little evidence to support a secularisation thesis.