Liberal Bourgeois Protestantism: The Metaphysics of Globalization (Studies in Critical Social Sciences, 41)

Sociological theory regarding the contemporary (1970s to the present) phenomenon of globalization focuses either on convergence or hybridization.The former, convergence, highlights the ever-increasing homogenization of cultures and societies around the globe via socioeconomic rational forces. From this perspective globalization is tantamount to Westernization or Americanization of other cultures and societies via neoliberal economic, market, subjugation. The latter, hybridization, emphasizes heterogeneity, the mixture of cultural forms out of the integration of society via globalizing processes stemming from improvements in information technology, communications, mass media, etc. In this latter form, cultures and societies are not homogenized, but are cultural forms that are syncretized with liberal democratic Western capitalist rational organization. In this work, Mocombe synthesizes the two positions by suggesting that globalization under American hegemony are the same process, convergence, and that the only alternative to this thesis of convergence is Samuel P. Huntington's (1996) differential hypothesis in which a clash of civilization are the result of eight intransigent cultural frameworks--Sinic, Japan, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox, Western Europe, North America, and Africa--that dominate the globe. Refutating Huntington's thesis, Mocombe suggests there are really only two opposing counter-hegemonic forces to the convergence towards Westernization or Americanization: the earth itself and Islamic Fundamentalist movements. Part I Globalization, Bourgeois Protestantism And Africans In America -- 2 Globalization 19 -- Capitalist Hegemony 23 -- Protestant Turn 29 -- 3 Liberal Bourgeois Protestantism 35 -- The Protestant Ethic And The Spirit Of Capitalism 38 -- Hybridization 44 -- 4 The Historical Constitution Of African American Consciousness In Globalization 51 -- The Hybridization Of Black America 53 -- African Americans And The Protest Ethic 58 -- A Color-caste System 64 -- Part Ii Hybrid Identities In Globalization -- 5 The Historical Constitution Of Grenadian Consciousness In Globalization 77 -- Resistance And Social Change 80 -- Grenada In The Global Economy 82 -- 6 W.e.b. Du Bois 89 -- Origins 91 -- Double Consciousness 95 -- Class Rational Social Structures 103 -- 7 Barack Hussein Obama 111 -- Origins 113 -- Race And Racial Identity 116 -- Protestantism Of Obama 120 -- 8 The Others In A World Economy 129 -- The Other In The Protestant Ethic And The Spirit Of Capitalism 130 -- Hybrid Globalization Under American Hegemony 135 -- Globalization And Modernity 137 -- Post-colonial Hybrid 146 -- 9 Conclusion: What Is To Be Done? 153. By Paul C. Mocombe. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This work analyzes the Protestant metaphysical origins and basis underlying the sociological process of globalization. Specifically, it outlines the different conceptions of globalization in the sociological literature, and then examines the nature of identity and identity politics in the age of globalization. The work concludes by drawing a connection between the nature of identity politics and the globalizing process