Globalising Cultures Notes Lecture
Week 1 lecture 1
Introduction - Olav Velthuis
This week’s learning goals
● Familiarity with & understanding of different definitions of globalization (this lecture & text
by Guillen)
● Awareness of the complexity of globalization debate and contested nature of many
positions within this debate (this lecture & text by Guillen)
● The critical approach of European/North American-centered accounts of globalization
(Wolf)
● Identification of global interrelations between seemingly unrelated phenomena in centre
vs periphery / global north vs global south (Wolf, tutorial group meeting)
Three limitations regarding Guillen’s text
● Data are outdated
● European/North American-centered
○ “One could argue that globalization begins with the dawn of history. The literature,
however, has tended to date the start of globalization more recently in the experience of
the West. At one end of the spectrum, historians have noted the importance of the first
circumnavigation of the Earth in 1519-1521” (p. 237)
● Emphasis on socio-economic & political issues
● Does not really do justice to its title
What is globalization?
There is no one, single best definition. Instead, each definition allows you to see different
aspects of globalization processes
1. Increasing cross-border flows of goods, services, people, money, information, culture
a. Globalisation is a system of flows
b. Where does this flow come from?
2. World-systems theory: the process, completed in the twentieth century, by which the
capitalist world-system spreads across the globe (Wallerstein 1974)
a. American occupation of japan explains the globalisation of sushi but also the
change in japans economy becoming a more capitalized system
3. World polity theory: formation of world society, composed of nations, international
organizations, and individuals with a distinct world culture (Lechner & Boli, 2005)
a. Diffusion of sushi around the world (1950s) can be due to organizations or
events such as the UN and the EXPO, in the EXPO they showed sushi on a
moving belt.
4. The intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole (Robertson 1992)
, a. People are more conscious of what is happening globally, sushi is more popular
due to the rising consciousness about the class it had but also the health benefits
5. Deterritorialization: cultural distancing from the locality, e.g. because of migration, access
to mediatization and commodification (Appadurai 1990)
a. Territory matters less and less, people do not shape their identities with the place
they were born
Depending on which definition you use, the starting point of globalization will vary
1. Increasing cross-border flows: 20th century as old as mankind? (Homo Sapiens have
always been migrating)
2. World systems theory: 15th century
3. World polity theory: 19th century
4. Intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole, compression of space and time:
19th century (telegraph, steam engine, aeroplanes, cars)
5. Deterritorialization (cultures are not anchored to a location, we cultivate identities which
are not fixed to a place)
Guillen’s five debates
● Is it really happening?
○ Not as globalized as we think we are
■ Eg. art community says they are a globalized group, but data shows
museums show mostly local art
■ Eg. globalization statistics in NL show most connection with Germany and
Belgium but those are neighboring countries
● Does it produce convergence (come from different directions and meet somewhere) ?
○ Nation state as dominant (single?) format to organize society
○ Pressure on nation state
■ e.g. reduce welfare state spending
■ e.g. lower taxes to attract those multinational organisations
● Does it undermine the authority of nation states?
○ Eg. Facebook and Google have so much power globally
○ Creates quite dramatic conflicts (australian government vs google)
● Is globality different from modernity?
○ Globality is just one step further away from modernity
● Is a global culture in the making?
Week 1 lecture 2
A Short Intro to ‘Eric Wolf’s Europe and the People without History’
Four key take-aways
1. Critique of western-centred historical narratives of progress & modernization
a. We are taught only European history; Greeks- Romans- middle-ages and so on
, 2. Sociology and anthropology have produced & legitimated these narratives
a. Think of stories that become legit theories (modernization theory), very western
centred theories (the rest is primitive, the other, not recognized)
3. These narratives should be decentered and replaced by narratives that emphasize
global interconnections
a. How to change these western centre narratives? Focus on the colonies and
global interconnections, other developments
b. A critique which is also called methodological nationalism; making sense of
phenomena by focusing on the nation-state (Wolf doesn’t agree with this,
shouldn’t focus on isolated entities like nation-states but beyond that)
4. Those global interconnections are frequently shaped by the expansion of capitalism and
global power relations that came with this expansion
__________________________________________________________________________
Week 2 Lecture 1
Huntington’s clash of civilizations
The rising consciousness of globality leads to more understanding of identity politics, it
instigates people to think about how they are the same as others and different as others.
- Huntington summarized this as fundamentals
Huntington believed conflict was not over and could come back as conflict about culture
● A battleground in geopolitics, not economic conflicts or territorial conflicts
● The clash of civilizations is the result of globalisation
○ Because we live in a global society and are so interconnected that identity politics
comes out
○ We interact with people through the media, interacting all the time that we start to
focus on all the things which make us different
○ According to Huntington that is through civilizations, and what makes up
civilizations? Culture and religion.
● Huntington believes there is nothing that we will share with each other at a supera
civilization level
○ Why? He argues that we cannot change, it is eternally fixed
○ This the difference between the previous source of conflict that organized
geopolitics, which was the conflict over ideology (capitalism vs communism)
Week 1 lecture 1
Introduction - Olav Velthuis
This week’s learning goals
● Familiarity with & understanding of different definitions of globalization (this lecture & text
by Guillen)
● Awareness of the complexity of globalization debate and contested nature of many
positions within this debate (this lecture & text by Guillen)
● The critical approach of European/North American-centered accounts of globalization
(Wolf)
● Identification of global interrelations between seemingly unrelated phenomena in centre
vs periphery / global north vs global south (Wolf, tutorial group meeting)
Three limitations regarding Guillen’s text
● Data are outdated
● European/North American-centered
○ “One could argue that globalization begins with the dawn of history. The literature,
however, has tended to date the start of globalization more recently in the experience of
the West. At one end of the spectrum, historians have noted the importance of the first
circumnavigation of the Earth in 1519-1521” (p. 237)
● Emphasis on socio-economic & political issues
● Does not really do justice to its title
What is globalization?
There is no one, single best definition. Instead, each definition allows you to see different
aspects of globalization processes
1. Increasing cross-border flows of goods, services, people, money, information, culture
a. Globalisation is a system of flows
b. Where does this flow come from?
2. World-systems theory: the process, completed in the twentieth century, by which the
capitalist world-system spreads across the globe (Wallerstein 1974)
a. American occupation of japan explains the globalisation of sushi but also the
change in japans economy becoming a more capitalized system
3. World polity theory: formation of world society, composed of nations, international
organizations, and individuals with a distinct world culture (Lechner & Boli, 2005)
a. Diffusion of sushi around the world (1950s) can be due to organizations or
events such as the UN and the EXPO, in the EXPO they showed sushi on a
moving belt.
4. The intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole (Robertson 1992)
, a. People are more conscious of what is happening globally, sushi is more popular
due to the rising consciousness about the class it had but also the health benefits
5. Deterritorialization: cultural distancing from the locality, e.g. because of migration, access
to mediatization and commodification (Appadurai 1990)
a. Territory matters less and less, people do not shape their identities with the place
they were born
Depending on which definition you use, the starting point of globalization will vary
1. Increasing cross-border flows: 20th century as old as mankind? (Homo Sapiens have
always been migrating)
2. World systems theory: 15th century
3. World polity theory: 19th century
4. Intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole, compression of space and time:
19th century (telegraph, steam engine, aeroplanes, cars)
5. Deterritorialization (cultures are not anchored to a location, we cultivate identities which
are not fixed to a place)
Guillen’s five debates
● Is it really happening?
○ Not as globalized as we think we are
■ Eg. art community says they are a globalized group, but data shows
museums show mostly local art
■ Eg. globalization statistics in NL show most connection with Germany and
Belgium but those are neighboring countries
● Does it produce convergence (come from different directions and meet somewhere) ?
○ Nation state as dominant (single?) format to organize society
○ Pressure on nation state
■ e.g. reduce welfare state spending
■ e.g. lower taxes to attract those multinational organisations
● Does it undermine the authority of nation states?
○ Eg. Facebook and Google have so much power globally
○ Creates quite dramatic conflicts (australian government vs google)
● Is globality different from modernity?
○ Globality is just one step further away from modernity
● Is a global culture in the making?
Week 1 lecture 2
A Short Intro to ‘Eric Wolf’s Europe and the People without History’
Four key take-aways
1. Critique of western-centred historical narratives of progress & modernization
a. We are taught only European history; Greeks- Romans- middle-ages and so on
, 2. Sociology and anthropology have produced & legitimated these narratives
a. Think of stories that become legit theories (modernization theory), very western
centred theories (the rest is primitive, the other, not recognized)
3. These narratives should be decentered and replaced by narratives that emphasize
global interconnections
a. How to change these western centre narratives? Focus on the colonies and
global interconnections, other developments
b. A critique which is also called methodological nationalism; making sense of
phenomena by focusing on the nation-state (Wolf doesn’t agree with this,
shouldn’t focus on isolated entities like nation-states but beyond that)
4. Those global interconnections are frequently shaped by the expansion of capitalism and
global power relations that came with this expansion
__________________________________________________________________________
Week 2 Lecture 1
Huntington’s clash of civilizations
The rising consciousness of globality leads to more understanding of identity politics, it
instigates people to think about how they are the same as others and different as others.
- Huntington summarized this as fundamentals
Huntington believed conflict was not over and could come back as conflict about culture
● A battleground in geopolitics, not economic conflicts or territorial conflicts
● The clash of civilizations is the result of globalisation
○ Because we live in a global society and are so interconnected that identity politics
comes out
○ We interact with people through the media, interacting all the time that we start to
focus on all the things which make us different
○ According to Huntington that is through civilizations, and what makes up
civilizations? Culture and religion.
● Huntington believes there is nothing that we will share with each other at a supera
civilization level
○ Why? He argues that we cannot change, it is eternally fixed
○ This the difference between the previous source of conflict that organized
geopolitics, which was the conflict over ideology (capitalism vs communism)
