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Chapter Summaries
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PART ONE: INTERPRETATIONS
PART TWO: DIVISIONS
PART THREE: EXPERIENCES
PART FOUR: DYNAMICS AND CHALLENGES
In this chapter set out some of the key starting points for sociologists, some milestones in the development of sociology, the changing contexts of the discipline, the construction of national sociologies that inhibited transnational outlooks, and finally the origins of global sociology. The key starting points include first, the origins of the discipline in Positivist Enlightenment thought whilst not forgetting the need to include an interpretative element. Second, because we are dealing with human nature and social conduct, sociology needs to use an historical and comparative perspective. Third, a search for sociological knowledge must remain free from ideological claims, while sociologists should not be constrained to provide evidence-based critiques of the existing political, social, economic and moral order. In the last part of the chapter the beginning of global sociology is mapped out, by looking at how, in the wake of the Second World War, a new balance of political forces led to a reawakening of comparative and international themes in sociology. Hence it is argued that global changes demand that we extend our state-centric theories, define new research agendas and develop an agreed comparative method. In short, the interdependence of the local, national and global demands a global outlook. The authors argue that we can use the starting points identified above to develop a global sociology. They advocate that we should move alongside and beyond a sociological state-centric analysis by showing how some aspects of global social change impact on and are influenced by changes at local, national or regional levels.
In this chapter the meanings of ‘globalization’ and ‘globality’ are discussed: Are globalization and globality new phenomena in the world and, if so, to what extent and in what senses? It will become clear that globalization has developed from immanent forces like modernity and capitalist industrialization. Nevertheless, this does not mean that globalization is beyond the control of human agencies. In this chapter a crucial distinction is made between the process of globalization, comprising a series of objective, external elements that are profoundly changing our world, and globality as a subjective and reflexive awareness of these changes. Six processes of globalization are identified as inseparable and synchronous: the changing concepts of space and time; the increasing volume of cultural interactions; the commonality of problems facing all the world’s inhabitants; the growing interconnections and interdependencies; the growth of a network of increasingly powerful transnational actors and organizations; and the synchronization of all the dimensions involved in globalization. Globality is mapped out as encompassing four inter-related aspects which suggest that individuals, groups and movements have the capacities for critical self-examination and can use the opportunities provided by these changes to advance the common cause of humanity. These features of globality are specified as: the ability to think about ourselves collectively while identifying with all humanity; the end to one-way flows and the growth of multicultural awareness; the empowerment of self-aware social actors and the broadening of identities. In practice this means that ordinary people everywhere have an unprecedented potential to grasp the levers of change. In conclusion the authors argue that in the light of this, the project of modernity centred on the nation-state may now need to be drastically rethought and renegotiated.
When did humankind first become capable of understanding itself collectively? The authors address this question by examining four successive phases of modernity and global integration. Firstly the development of forms of proto-globalization among a number of civilizations is considered, and specifically the function of the Christian Latin Church as a powerful and unifying trans-European body. Here the authors highlight that these civilizations were universalizing in the sense that they aspired to reach all people, but that they never attained the influence that globalization and globality have achieved in today’s world.
Secondly the emergence of capitalist modernity in Europe is discussed as characterised by significant changes such as the emergence of the nation state, the development of science and the rise of a body of universal secular thought – ‘the Enlightenment’. Following on from this intellectual Revolution, the authors consider how it impacted on key thinkers’ understanding of production, and their theorization of the relation between rationality and the spread of modernity. Thirdly, the colonial and racial domination effected by European powers in various parts of the world from the 16 th century onwards is examined, whilst paying attention to how it resulted in far-flung parts of the world being drawn into a relationship with the global economy. Lastly, the transformations in the world economy since the Second World War are considered with specific regard to the rise of the USA as a global economic power and political leadership. The chapter closes by highlighting that a paradox has become apparent at the heart of globalization: On the one hand, the worldwide spread of certain very powerful universalizing trends – for example in education, health, industry, market exchange, urban life –and on the other a more complex, polycentric world of competing powers, each with its own version of modernity and particular cultural legacy.
In this chapter, the authors consider the changing nature of work in the global age and the ways in which these transformations impact on us. The chapter starts by providing a brief overview of the issues of capitalist accumulation and reproduction. The authors then consider the so-called golden age of mid-twentieth century ‘Fordist’ prosperity and examine its rise, its main structural features, the national and global basis for its success and its impact on work and social life. Then the explanations for its partial decline, which accelerated during the economic crisis of the 1970s are examined in detail. Here, the authors outline some of the coincidental transformations that were gathering pace at the same time such as the growth of information technology and computerization, the quickening pace of the switch of jobs into services rather than industry, the rise of industrial competition from newly industrializing countries and the huge flow of women into part- and full-time employment. Finally, the authors consider the growing worldwide realities of job insecurity and the casualization of employment, which have become increasingly evident since the late 1970s and which some observers have labelled as the era of ‘post-Fordism’. They conclude that although the label ‘globalization’ tends to be blamed for many of these problems, increased globalization also needs to be seen partly as a consequence of the widespread adoption of free market economic policies.
It is argued that as world capitalism becomes more complex and extensive its dependence on a supportive mode of regulation at global (and national) levels, forged by far-seeing and cooperative governments, would seem to be more relevant today than ever before.
In this chapter sociology’s contribution to the study of nationalism, the nation-state and the idea of citizenship is examined in the changing context of globalization.
The power and role of nation-states in a global era is assessed including the claim that the era of the nation-state may now be ending. Broadly speaking, the authors argue that, despite the global changes undermining the exclusive primacy of the nation-state system, securing recognition as a nation-state is still an urgent goal for many currently stateless people. Sociology’s contribution to conceptualizing the links between society and the nation-state is also examined, whilst admitting that its study of global relations has sofar been limited. The chapter’s starting point is classical sociologists’ understanding of social change, but then the authors move on to consider the debate from a variety of perspectives including the realist standpoint, and the contributions made by the feminist re-assessment of the state and nationalism. Throughout the chapter both sides of the debate concerning the supposed decline of the nation-state in the face of globalizing tendencies are explored and the authors end by drawing upon the recent case put forward by Held and Archibugi (1995) who argue that the world needs something they call ‘cosmopolitan democracy’. Finally the authors conclude that the debate about the nation-state versus globalization have become rather dated and simplistic and that nation-state power issues seem full of contradictions in the emerging global order.
This chapter deals with the ways sociologists, past and present, have developed arguments to understand how structured forms of inequality such as gender, ‘race’ and class shape our lives and crosscut each other in various complex ways: sometimes reinforcing and at other times weakening each other’s impact. Other sources of inequality such as religious affiliation, disability, civic status or age which have also operated to create social inequalities are given some consideration. The authors advocate that, because of the complexity of social reality, rather than considering each factor separately we need to pull all these differentiating principles together, however difficult this is theoretically and analytically. The global nature of inequalities is also emphasized not simply in the sense that in its varying forms it is found in virtually all societies, but also because wide and growing inequalities are clearly manifest at the regional and world levels. In this context the authors explore the emergence of a new transnational capitalist class as a useful hypothesis which needs developing further. The authors also stress that we have moved on from bipolar models of reality, in favour of multiply located and expressed forms of identity and organization. Therefore new models exploring the connections between forms of inequality will also have to embrace fluidity, multi-positioning and contradictory locations.
In this chapter the economic and social role of transnational corporations (TNCs) in globalization are explored. In order to assess their effects, the authors advocate assessing their activities holistically. After investigating the origins and characteristics of TNCs, the authors assess the TNCs’ power and determining role in globalization. With regard to this the authors critique Hirst and Thompson’s (1996) analysis and drawing on Lash and Urry (1994) argue that it is necessary to distinguish between two rather different aspects of economic life – the cultural, symbolic and knowledge-based component and the more material or physical one. The authors then contribute to the lively debate about whether TNCs have superseded the nation-state system both in their political independence and their global economic reach by outlining how they can cause serious disruption to national economic and social plans: for example TNCs can influence tastes and consumption patterns in a negative way and often have disproportional marketing power. An in-depth case study of tobacco production follows and later the role of supermarkets in the global supply chain is considered. The authors conclude by looking at how TNCs can exercise power with/out responsibility and both sides of the argument are examined: In their social role, some argue that TNCs do both good and harm, or do more good than harm. The new interest of the TNCs in corporate social responsibility has also resulted in many schemes to improve the welfare of their employees and the communities in which they work. However there is evidence that corporate social responsibility is by no means characteristic of all TNCs, and consumer groups are having some success in holding the TNCs to account.
In this chapter uneven development is discussed and the authors concentrate on the way in which four particular social groups are disadvantaged. The issue of whether it is in the interests of the rich and powerful to maintain a differential between rich and poor is considered as well as the argument that the powerful would benefit from the poor achieving some social mobility. Other related questions considered in this chapter include: Can social uplift be induced from the top – for example through the actions of benign politicians? Alternatively, will the only redress come from oppositional social and political movements emanating from the grass-roots level?
Two theories of uneven international development are also examined here: world system theory and the notion that a new international division of labour (NIDL) emerged in the 1970s. The authors then look at whether globalization itself is a force contributing to powerlessness and social marginally or, as its advocates argue, a force for the generation of wealth and the lifting out of more and more people from poverty. The case studies consider the fate and fortunes of four deprived social groups – famine victims, workers in the de-industrializing areas, peasants, and the urban poor.
Considering the work of World system theorists on the connection between social marginality and the process of economic globalization, the authors highlight one central insight namely that the spread of capitalist social relations can have a very negative impact on the agricultural populations and labour forces of many countries, regions and cities. This outcome is particularly likely when the adoption of neo-liberal economic practices is disengaged from the nature of society and the form of political governance. The authors close the chapter by stressing that significant differences between the global winners and global losers often turn on such basic survival issues and the current phase of global development is a long way from alleviating such deprivations.
This chapter focuses on how globalization and the deregulation of the economy increases opportunities for cross-border crime to blossom: global crime is estimated to be bringing in profits of around US$ 500 billion a year. Crime, drugs and terrorism are three of the most important, afflictions of global society that have eluded global control and remedy: this chapter gauges their extent and effects and whether there are ways of combating them. The authors discuss some of the causes for crime and how far this can be explained by global patterns. The authors also engage with the debate about the link between social inequality: while some argue that neo-liberal economic policies has enhanced criminal activity, there are also extreme advocates of the free market ideology who would argue that the drugs trade is simply an example of the so-called ‘law’ of supply and demand. The authors argue that all three issues discussed in this chapter – crime, drugs and terrorism – seem to testify to the need for a much more radical break with the international, regional and bilateral agreements of the post-1945 period. The control of cross-border crime cannot be left solely to bilateral agreements, while reducing the supply of drugs cannot occur until massive transfers of resources and alternative development initiatives are provided for people whose livelihoods depend on producing drugs. Finally, the range of activities defined as terror or terrorism require a much greater understanding and a more sophisticated response than unilateral interventions – even by the world’s superpower. It is argued that ineffective military intervention against terrorism may actually signify the relative decline of a hegemonic power and provoke further acts of terrorism. In the concluding part of the chapter the authors suggest that, the failure to control crime, drugs and terrorism points to the need at the very least for more effective bilateral agreements, stronger transnational agencies and, perhaps ultimately, something like a world government.
In this chapter how we measure population growth is explained and the issue of overpopulation is considered. Conditions and policies which might serve to reduce population growth are investigated in this context. As high levels of internal migration are often followed by increases in international migration, the chapter addresses two main questions: What new forms has international migration taken and what have been the reactions to this supposed ‘threat’? Is it possible to ‘manage’ migration in the global interest? To both popular opinion and concerned policy-makers population growth is one of the most pressing problems facing the world. This chapter provides some basic tools to help you distinguish evidence about population growth from prediction, projection and prejudice. Here some of the most important findings relevant to the population debate are summarized, showing, for example, that the growth rates in population are falling dramatically. The authors then discuss how surplus population is absorbed in the growing cities, by looking at the specific cases of Mexico and China while emphasizing that the urbanizing tendency is universal. Following on from this, they also discuss three particularly sensitive forms of migration - refugees, undocumented migrants and women migrants showing, in each case, some of the forces impelling continued movements. The conclusion is that the unpredictability and size of global migration flows have now been sufficient to create a global dialogue on whether there are ways and means of controlling and managing the volume and character of international migration. However, the authors argue, the apprehensions of resident populations have propelled more nation-states to retain a strong grip on immigration policies, leaving little room for international cooperation.
With increased mobility and time–space compression old and new diseases are spreading more rapidly and often to regions where they had not previously existed. The diffusion of modernity and industrialization to more and more countries has meant that scientific knowledge, including that pertaining to medicine and health, has also become globalized. In this context the authors unravel the effects of globalization on health by exploring the following themes. Firstly, the cultural influences shaping lifestyle choices that relate closely to the ways we use and abuse our bodies are examined. Second, the ways in which time–space compression and increased mobility create new, but also alter or bring back old, epidemiologies of disease are considered. In the last three sections continuing world inequalities in the patterns and incidence of disease are considered by concentrating on how various globalizing influences currently affect the two-thirds of the world’s population living in developing countries: for example the effects of globalisation on health policy, and the North-South health paradox are investigated here. Some of the effects of globalization on health are highlighted in the conclusion, namely how it has contributed to the worldwide transformation of the incidence and patterns of disease and to the changing epidemiology of diseases because of the shift towards neo-liberal economic regimes since 1980. Another effect has been the growing influence of the western fantasized body – lean, sexually desirable and fit which is marketed as achievable through pursuing consumer lifestyle choices and buying consumer products. Here the authors highlight some contradictions for you to bear in mind within this debate.
This chapter concentrates on one major leisure activity, international tourism. First, the ways in which international tourism contributes to globalization are considered. Second, the authors examine how various sociologists have tried to understand the social construction of tourist behaviour. Third, the authors show that international tourism also contributes to the growth of globality – a more intense feeling of common membership of the human collectivity. The authors argue that it does this by exposing us directly to a multicultural world in which the boundaries between societies and between insiders and outsiders are becoming increasingly blurred.
The development of mass tourism requires those who wish to attract visitors to their sites of ‘play’ (Sheller and Urry 2004: 1) to rethink their own unique identities and then package and promote them as products to attract people from other cultures. These sites of play also bring together the local and the global and this is not without certain dangers. Using case studies such as an annual public ritual in the Basque province, Spain and the revival of Toraja culture in Indonesia the evolving debate among sociologists concerning the supposed harm that contact with global forces may have on the autonomy of traditional cultures is examined. Overlapping with this concern is a fourth theme. Tourism has compelled us all to become global performers, putting on presentations designed to project our own cultural heritage. This has led some sociologists to re-evaluate how we should understand what is meant by ‘culture’ and ‘tradition’. The authors conclude that tourism may destroy local cultures or revive them. As tourists and their hosts become aware of these capacities they become actors in the tourist transaction, sometimes turning their own cultures into a pantomime, sometimes recognizing the risible irony in so doing.
In this chapter the authors explore the globalization of consumption and consider its implications for how we now experience social and cultural life. The central theme is on the impact of what Sklair (2002: chapter 7) calls ‘the culture-ideology of consumerism’ evidenced by many in the rich countries, but especially by those living in the developing countries. The adoption of this ideology has led some observers to fear that continued Western and more especially US domination of many industries, along with advertising and the mass media, are giving rise to a new kind of imperialism, one based not on political but on cultural control. This same process is also said to be creating an increasingly homogeneous world in which Western lifestyles and brand goods are in danger of obliterating countless, unique local cultures. After briefly considering the meaning of consumerism, the authors discuss two contrasting theoretical positions (the critical pessimistic scenario and the optimistic scenario) concerning the nature of contemporary consumer culture. They lay particular emphasis on the more positive scenario, arguing that we are often not consumer dopes, but generally interpret and express the meanings implanted in goods by advertising in ways that reflect our personal lifestyle needs and participation in various social groups.
In the third section of the chapter the authors emphasize that although there is some evidence that Western or American consumer goods, and the values they carry, are spreading rapidly to the developing world, transnational cultural flows are not one-way. Neither are they totally swamping local cultural forms. In the last section of the chapter concepts such as Creolization and Indigenization are used to explore how the local normally finds ways to capture, alter and mix external influences with indigenous ones or reinvents itself with the aid of new resources brought by the global.
The media foster globalization just as they are themselves changed by stepping up to a global scale. Here the authors provide a definition and characterization of the media and also examine issues of ownership and content in relation to the growth of the electronic media. They also discuss how the acceptance of the telephone as a mass consumer good and the arrival of linked computer networks has generated what has been described as an information society: here the profound economic and social effects of these developments are considered. The question of whether the new possibilities for interactive communication have promoted fresh democratic possibilities at local, national and global levels is also considered in this context. The last section of the chapter examines to what extent the media are distorting and misrepresenting the lives and aspirations of women and ethnic minorities. The authors conclude by emphasizing the ubiquitous nature and overwhelming presence of some media, whilst also stressing the democratic possibilities offered by forms of new media which challenge powerful corporate interests. Rejecting the ‘hypodermic needle’ model, the authors contend that as consumers we ignore much, challenge some and often reconstitute the message of the broadcasters according to our own shared values and cultures.
People who are involved in sporting activities – whether as amateurs, professionals, individuals or teams – demonstrate certain universal characteristics. Thus, like music, dance and art it has a potentially internationalizing quality that enables it to cross the borders between cultures and nations; sports are readily globalized. In this chapter what happens to partisan affiliations when globalization exposes the local to alternative attractions is explored. Context is provided through a discussion of the origins of sport in a global and nationhood context, and then goes on to discuss how particularistic and local identities may come under threat in an age of sportization. The next section explores some of the conflicts surrounding the sporting body and how it can be a site of both oppression and protest. The last two sections of the chapter deal respectively with the Americanization and televisualization of global sport highlighting that there exists a tug-of-war between the corporate giants, including media corporations, driven to transform sport into a vast arena for profit on, and the sports organizations, struggling to promote wider support for their particular game. The conclusion is a discussion of the range of advantages and disadvantages of the modernization and globalization of sport practices for sports lovers. The authors also argue that despite strong globalizing trends, sport continues to enable some nations to strengthen patriotic sentiments.
In this chapter what sociologists have contributed to the study of religion is reviewed, including why religion has claimed so powerful a place in contemporary life, how the global claims of religion are advanced and whether the practice of religion provides a threat to social cohesion or one means of attaining that condition. The chapter starts by explaining how ‘the building blocks’ of religious sentiment and behaviour emerge from understanding rituals, totems and taboos. The authors then move on to consider the ties between religion, capitalism and secularism and investigates the debates around the likelihood of religion declining as the secular, rational, scientific ways of the Enlightenment took hold. However, they also emphasize that sociologists realized that religion had a powerful and necessary role as a form of social cement. The next section of the chapter deals with the revival of religion and indicates some reasons as to why new religious movements appear successful and appealing even when they have been associated with unusual practices and failed prophecies. The last part of the chapter is concerned with the resurgence of militant forms of Islam. The authors argue that part of the response to the uncertainties of the global, postmodern world seems to have been a reaffirmation of earlier, usually invented, traditions and have created the most frontal assault on the liberal, pluralist, democratic values promoted by many. The authors close the chapter by advocating careful appreciation of the diversity within Islam and co-operation with the many Muslims who are in favour of peaceful dialogue.
Given their importance, urban forms of settlement and the ways people lived in them became the terrains of study by some of the world’s most eminent sociologists. In this chapter four types of cities are identified (Ancient, Colonial, Industrial and Global) as way of an introduction to urban sociology. The authors then consider colonial and industrial cities, discussing in the second case the Chicago School of sociology, which developed a distinctive method of understanding the ‘ecological patterning’ and spatial distribution of urban groups. Then the authors focus on the evolution and analysis of global cities, specifically how Los Angeles has evolved to serve the Asia-Pacific, while post-apartheid Johannesburg has found its place as the continent’s cosmopolis.
The authors also highlights that global cities are not only important phenomena in their own right; they are where certain distinctive patterns of employment emerge – in particular the move from manufacturing to services. For example they discuss how employment often becomes ‘feminized’ as old male-dominated skills are discarded and new labour markets are formed. In the last part of the chapter the ways in which established racial minorities are often marginalized and turned into a so-called ‘underclass’ in the contemporary US are considered from a range of theoretical perspectives. The authors conclude that the persistence of deprivation in the midst of successful immigrant entrepreneurship often fuels urban discontent expressed in the form of riots and demonstrations.
This chapter starts with a discussion of various attempts to theorize the general nature of social movements, especially as they evolved from the 1960s, and provide some concrete examples. The authors examine why and in what ways some social movements have become increasingly transnational in orientation and how in this capacity they are increasingly contributing to the formation of a global civil society. Here the authors refer to some recent examples like the anti-debt campaign called Jubilee 2000, the global justice movement against poverty and inequality, and the worldwide resistance to the Iraq war of 2003. The authors also consider three other themes closely related to questions about global civil society – the relationship between global social movements and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs); the growing importance of the human rights discourse; and the question of whether the highly nationalist responses to the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on 11 September 2001 have affected the evolution of global civil society. Specifically in the last section of the chapter, the global justice movement is interpreted as a recent important case study that brings together these ongoing struggles. The authors end the chapter by stressing that civil society actors’ understanding of the nature and activities of global social movements have given sociologists the tools with which to examine how global society is emerging from below.
In this chapter the authors chart the course of some struggles by the women’s movement to improve their situation, giving special emphasis to those that have assumed a global dimension. They start by giving an overview of women in the global order, focusing on the factors which constrained and helped the growth of a worldwide movement. In the context of globalisation, the chapter considers women’s resistance to violence through two case studies of respectively state and domestic violence. The next section examines how women have organised in the face of three common problems: religious fundamentalism, accelerating economic globalization and neo-liberal ideology. In the last part of the chapter the new concept of a ‘global care chain’ and how it has given impetus to a number of new lines of enquiry is examined. The authors conclude that the expansion of the women’s movement has been propelled by the compulsion to respond to vast and sometimes threatening forces for change and that the resources associated with globalization offer women particularly exciting opportunities to benefit from shared experiences. Finally the authors stress that women’s struggles have made important contributions to the growth of an emergent global society from below.
In this chapter the authors ask how valid the various claims and goals of Environmentalism as a global social movement are. Throughout they explore the sometimes contradictory forms of protest in which the environmental or green movement is engaged, considering the reasons why its actions have become increasingly transnational. The chapter begins with a brief discussion of our complex relationship with nature and the role it has played in creating environmental problems. In the second section the suggestion that the green movement is more likely than other social movement to succeed in its attempt to unite people irrespective of their national affiliations is considered. The authors then consider the support for environmentalism that has come from the top–down actions spearheaded by powerful elite groups, states and international organizations, including the risks and benefits these collaborations might entail. The final section of the chapter focuses on how the Environmental movement has been successful in activating transnational grassroots support for more radical agendas. The authors conclude that NGOs and global social movements must avoid becoming compromised by elite interests and expand their grassroots support wherever possible. However, mass support activists also need to collaborate with governments, IGOs and businesses wherever possible because of their potential role in fostering the conditions for environmental improvement is often paramount.
This chapter is concerned with social inclusion – with how social ties are generated and sustained at different levels. The authors are specifically interested in the possibilities of creating communities at a global level and using the criterion of ‘level of appeal’ proposes to loosely classify ‘communities’ under three headings: ‘localism’, ‘ nationalism’ and ‘transnationalism and multi-level identity’. The chapter opens by considering the resurgence of localism and the fact that people when confronted by the pace of globalization often need ethnicity more not less. The next section deals with the ways in which local and ethnic identities were marginalized in two dominant interpretations of social change (modernization theory and Marxism). Following on from this the authors establish four ways through which localism arises and ethnic subjectivities can be formed. In the next section they look at nationalism as another reaction to global change, and identify several remaining limitations to the national project. A discussion of multiculturalism and ‘the melting pot’ follows through a case study of the USA as the best known example of an attempt to create a nation from people of diverse cultural backgrounds. In the last section of the chapter the most innovative forms of response to global change are explored, at the translocal and transnational level. Here expressions such as cosmopolitanism, diasporic identities and multi-level religious identities are explained. The authors conclude that nationalist appeals are also paralleled by appeals to locality, religion or ethnicity and that transnationalism has begun to supersede nationalism.
This concluding chapter focuses on the future of globalization and links together emerging themes from previous chapters. The authors consider the claim that globalization is nothing new and discusses some recent measures of globalization which suggest that social globalization is occurring faster than political and economic globalization. In the next section of the chapter four types of moral and political responses to globalization are explored and the fact that individuals, groups, movements, institutions and governments can help to actively shape the nature and characteristics of globalization and globality is stressed. The authors then seek to answer the question of whether there is some underlying logic or central insight that explains why social exclusion arises: they put forward the hypothesis that social exclusion is more likely to occur when the adoption of neo-liberal economic practices is disengaged from social policy and forms of political governance. Here they argue that we are witnessing a countermovement to neo-liberalism that has a variety of supporters and activists and operates on local, national and global scales. In the next section they argue that at the cultural level, globalization will not so much lead to a condition of bland sameness but rather to the creolization of the world where flows and movements of ideas, images, capital and people will generate new cultures and new hybridities. Finally, the elements identified as constituting the building blocks of globality and the emergence of a global society are re-considered. The conclusion to this chapter states that while there isn’t yet a fully assembled structure constituting a global society, the construction has started to happen. The authors argue that although Globalization has so far done little to diminish the blight of poverty in which about half the world’s inhabitants are forced to live, some global changes are very positive: they provide a greater potential than ever before for the world’s inhabitants to forge new alliances and structures – both from below and in alliance with elite institutions – in the pursuit of more harmonious, environmentally sustainable and humanitarian solutions to local and global problems. The authors identify the key social challenge of the twenty-first century as the ability to forge situations where disadvantaged people or ‘global losers’ can discover and benefit from the transformatory possibilities globalization has generated.
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