GLOBALISATION

What is Globalisation and What Are the Key Theories Applied to the Phenomenon?

What is Globalisation and What Are the Key Theories Applied to the Phenomenon?

Introduction

Globalisation is an inconsistent concept, and definitions of it abound. However, most anthropologists agree that, experientially, Globalisation refers to a reorganization of time and space in which many movements of peoples, things, and ideas throughout much of the world have become increasingly faster and effortless. Spatially and temporally, cities and towns, individuals and groups, institutions and governments have become linked in ways that are fundamentally new in many regards, especially in terms of the potential speed of interactions among them(Waterman 2008, 11).

Discussion

The first concerns the “what”: Does Globalisation name a more-or-less singular and radical transformation that encompasses the globe, in which techno-economic advancements have fundamentally reorganized time-space, bringing people, places, things, and ideas from all corners of the world into closer contact with one another? Or, is Globalisation a misnomer, even a fad, a term too general to describe a vast array of situated processes and projects that are inconsistent and never entirely “global”?

A second discussion concerns the “when”: Is Globalisation new-do we currently live in the “global era”? Or, has the world long been shaped by human interaction spanning great distances? (Robinson 2001, 157)

These debates are not limited to two opposing sides. Some scholars feel that these very questions blunt meaningful analysis of the contemporary world and all of its nuances. By focusing largely on absolutes-that is, what is entirely singular versus wholly chaotic, what is radically new versus something predicated largely on the past-important questions are passed over. For example, what are the specific mechanisms of human interconnection and the particular histories in which they are embedded? (Juergensmeyer 2000, 12)

Anthropologists do agree, however, on how to best go about investigating Globalisation: through long-term, intensive fieldwork, either in a single locality or in several linked analytically together. This fieldwork is ethnographic; that is, it seeks an intimate understanding of the social and cultural dynamics of specific communities, as well as the broader social and political systems they negotiate. In a world of intensifying social relations, ethnography requires engagement in both empirical research and critical theory.

Anthropological attention to ethnographic detail is an important rejoinder to a vast Globalisation literature cantered on macro phenomena, such as the relations between large-scale political and economic bodies like nation states, political unions, trade organizations, and transnational corporations. Undoubtedly, these “translocal” entities are of great anthropological interest as well. Yet the discipline has taken as its goal the understanding of how specific subjects respond to and act within these large-scale processes, institutions, and discourses through culturally specific lenses (Inda & Rosaldo 2008, 54). Thus, anthropology's contribution to this literature lies in its assertion that social change, viewed in both distance-defying connections and inequitable disconnections within the world, can be compellingly grasped in the daily practices of individuals and the groups, institutions, and belief systems they inhabit.

It bears emphasis that a researcher cannot simply board a plane to “the ...