Globalism

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Globalism is not synonymous with globalization. In Cohen and Kennedy's (2000) Global Sociology, the distinction rests in globalization viewed as a "process" of "objective external elements" that are changing our world, as compared to globalism defined "as a subjective awareness of these changes" (p. 38). Globalism is reflected in "values which take the real world of 5 billion people as the object of concern . . . everyone living as world citizens . . . with a common interest in collective action to solve global problems" (p. 34). Also important here is our "consciousness of the (problem of) the world as a single space" (p. 34). This suggests a certain "we are the world" sensibility.

However, Ulrich Beck (2000) reminds us that, "along with affirmative globalism, there is also a 'negative' globalism," one rooted in an unquestioned acceptance of the inevitability of the "dominance of the world [capitalist, neo-liberal] market" (Held & McGrew, p. 101). Unquestioningly accepting the inevitability of global capitalist domination is doubly dangerous:

- First, this view "reduc[es] the multidemensionality ofglobalization to a single, economic dimension," placing "ecology, culture, politics, civil society" "under the sway of the world-market system" (p. 100).
- Second, a belief in this putative inevitability obviates political debate. For Beck, "the central task of politics, which is to define the basic legal, social, and ecological conditions under which economic activity first becomes socially possible and legitimate, drops out of view or is suppressed" if the inevitability of global capitalism is not challenged (p. 100-101).

What the "affirmative" and "negative" globalisms share is a subjectivity, a consciousness. In short, globalism helps us understand the answer to the question, "How have we internalized the changes associated with globalization so that they are now incorporated into our emotions and our ways of thinking about everyday life?" (p. 35).

References:

- Beck, U. (2000). What is globalization. In Held & McGrew (eds.), The global transformations reader: An introduction to the globalization debate (pp. 99-103). Cambridge: Polity.

 

Contributed by Jason Sparks