Global Studies

This companion features original essays on the complexity ofglobalization and its diverse and sometimes conflicting effects.Written by top scholars in the field, it offers a nuanced anddetailed examination of globalization that includes both positiveand critical evaluations. Introduces the major players, theories, and methodologies Explores the major areas of impact, including the environment,cities, outsourcing, consumerism, global media, politics, religion,and public health Addresses the foremost concerns of global inequality,corruption, international terrorism, war, and the future ofglobalization Wide-ranging and comprehensive, an excellent text forundergraduate and graduate students in a range of disciplines

The 'Encyclopedia of Globalization' provides a thorough understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of globalisation as well as the various historical and analytical interpretations of globalisation. It covers the wide range of areas affected by globalising trends.

The Global Turn is a guide for students and scholars across all areas of the social sciences and humanities who wish to embark on global-studies research projects. The authors demonstrate how the global can be studied from a local perspective and vice versa. They show how global processes manifest at multiple levels--transnational, regional, national, and local--all of which are interconnected and mutually constitutive. This book takes readers through the steps of thinking like a global scholar in theoretical, methodological, and practical terms, and it explains the implications of global perspectives for research design.

A systematically revised and updated new edition of a highly acclaimed text which was an immediate bestseller on courses around the world. The second edition takes a broader perspective giving increased coverage of other dimensions of globalization alongside its core focus on the rise of supraterritoriality which the author argues is globalization's most distinctive feature.

Theories of Globalization offers students and scholars a comprehensive and critical introduction to the concept of globalization. Barrie Axford expertly guides readers through the full range of perspectives on the topic, from international political economy to geography, global anthropology to cultural and communication studies. In so doing he draws out the common threads between competing theories, as well as pinpointing the problems that challenge our understanding of globalization. Key terms such as 'globalism' and 'globality' are carefully explained and central themes like capitalism, governance, culture and history explored in full. In assessing the contribution made by globalization theory, Axford's account also sheds new light on several crucial current issues. These range from the changing shape of democracy and citizen engagement with governance, to issues surrounding 'just war' and humane intervention, and problems relating to empire and post-colonialism. This wide-ranging and detailed new book will be essential reading for students and scholars of international politics, sociology and any area where the concept of globalization is discussed and disputed.

In this major theoretical statement, the author offers a new and provocative interpretation of institutional transformations associated with modernity. What is modernity? The author suggests, "As a first approximation, let us simply say the following: 'modernity' refers to modes of social life or organization which emerged in Europe from about the seventeenth century onwards and which subsequently became more or less worldwide in their influence." We do not as yet, the author argues, live in a post-modern world. The distinctive characteristics of our major social institutions in the closing years of the twentieth century suggest that, rather than entering into a period of post-modernity, we are moving into a period of "high modernity" in which the consequences of modernity are becoming more radicalized and universalized than before. A post-modern social universe may eventually come into being, but this as yet lies on the other side of the forms of social and cultural organization that currently dominate world history. In developing a fresh characterization of the nature of modernity, the author concentrates on the themes of security versus danger and o trust versus risk. Modernity is a double-edged phenomenon. The development of modern social institutions has created vastly greater opportunities for human beings to enjoy a secure and rewarding existence than in any type of pre-modern system. But modernity also has a somber side that has become very important in the present century, such as the frequently degrading nature of modern industrial work, the growth of totalitarianism, the threat of environmental destruction, and the alarming development of military power and weaponry. The book builds upon the author's previous theoretical writings and will be of great interest to those who have followed his work through the years. However, this book covers issues the author has not previously analyzed and extends the scope of his work into areas of pressing practical concern.

Public Culture, Spring 1990 2(2): 1-24
Journal article that is the basis of Appadurai's book, Modernity At Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization

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.

Theory, Culture & Society, June 1990; vol. 7, 2: pp. 15-30.
Journal article that is the basis for Robertson's book, Globalization : Social Theory and Global Culture

In World-Systems Analysis, Immanuel Wallerstein provides a concise and accessible introduction to the comprehensive approach that he pioneered thirty years ago to understanding the history and development of the modern world. Since Wallerstein first developed world-systems analysis, it has become a widely utilized methodology within the historical social sciences and a common point of reference in discussions of globalization. Now, for the first time in one volume, Wallerstein offers a succinct summary of world-systems analysis and a clear outline of the modern world-system, describing the structures of knowledge upon which it is based, its mechanisms, and its future. Wallerstein explains the defining characteristics of world-systems analysis: its emphasis on world-systems rather than nation-states, on the need to consider historical processes as they unfold over long periods of time, and on combining within a single analytical framework bodies of knowledge usually viewed as distinct from one another--such as history, political science, economics, and sociology. He describes the world-system as a social reality comprised of interconnected nations, firms, households, classes, and identity groups of all kinds. He identifies and highlights the significance of the key moments in the evolution of the modern world-system: the development of a capitalist world-economy in the sixteenth-century, the beginning of two centuries of liberal centrism in the French Revolution of 1789, and the undermining of that centrism in the global revolts of 1968. Intended for general readers, students, and experienced practitioners alike, this book presents a complete overview of world-systems analysis by its original architect.

Thoroughly revised and updated, "The Globalization Reader, Fourth Edition "offers a provocative assessment of globalization by reviewing the current debates and ongoing research on the topic, providing readers with the most comprehensive introduction to globalization available today. Fully revised and updated with new readings on global governance, world soccer, the recent global financial crisis, global health, American evangelicals, and tropical deforestation Includes coverage on economic globalization, the role of media and religion in cultural globalization, and the link between environmentalism and the globalization of social problems Features coverage that ranges across economic, political, cultural, and experiential dimensions of social change Offers a wide variety of perspectives on globalization and captures many of the fault lines in current debates Stimulates discussion by including provocative contemporary works and by structuring sections around arguments that serve as connecting themes