What in the World?: Understanding Global Social Change (Bristol Studies in International Theory)

Analysing social change has too often been characterized by parochialism, either a Eurocentrism that projects European experience outwards or a disciplinary narrowness that ignores insights from other academic disciplines. This book moves beyond these limits to develop a global perspective on social change. The book provincializes Europe in order to analyse European modernity as the product of global developments. It provides a range of promising theoretical approaches, analytical takes and substantive research areas that offer new vistas for understanding change on a global scale. The book begins with the questions that need to be addressed when thinking about global social change. It discusses the cross-fertilizations between the various branches of global history, world society theories, global historical sociology, postcolonial studies, and theories of international relations. It moves on to explore the possibilities of a fruitful exchange between world society theory and global history approaches, and develops a new perspective on fundamental problems of periodization that goes beyond postcolonial criticism. The book explores how the Bourdieusian field theory can be deployed to make sense of global dynamics. It next investigates the emergence of the idea of international organization in the nineteenth century and argues that the perception of organization for the world accompanied the foundation of states from the very beginning. It discusses how an international political system was eventually established while being theoretically anchored in the world society approaches of modern systems theory, and analyzes the history and effects of third-party actors in global military affairs. The book concludes by examining the global numerical statistics on territories, populations, and economic potentials over the past centuries that have created a vast political space in which the nation features as a result. Front Cover Series What in the World: Understanding Global Social Change Copyright information Table of contents List of Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors Acknowledgments 1 Introduction: World Society and Its Histories – The Sociology and Global History of Global Social Change The global from different disciplinary points of view Distortions: modernity, coloniality, Eurocentrism, postcoloniality (and the ‘Eurocentrisms’ of world society) Reflective devices: periodization, epochs and orders Problematizing social change in a global perspective A laboratory of thinking about global change: the individual chapters Conclusion: follow-up questions for future research Postscript Notes 2 Every Epoch, Time Frame or Date that Is Solid Melts into Air. Does It? The Entanglements of Global History and World Society Introduction A reading of global history A reading of world society theory Large-scale ‘epochal’ change The ‘long nineteenth century’ ‘Big’ events and ‘turning points’ Beyond arbitrariness: differentiation as heuristic, evolution as theory? Conclusion: evolving together Notes 3 Periodization in Global History: The Productive Power of Comparing Introduction Periodization in global history: challenges and shortcomings Postcolonial criticism of epoch concepts Why periodization is vulnerable – and unavoidable Historicist concepts: Ranke and Droysen Comparisons as the basis of periodization Comparisons, ‘narrative objectives’ and periodization in global history Conclusion Notes 4 Communication, Differentiation and the Evolution of World Society From universal to instantaneous communication Media of communication, universalism and differentiation From adaptation to fusion Conclusion Notes 5 Field Theory and Global Transformations in the Long Twentieth Century Introduction Field theory and the global political field Global political transformations, 1800s–1960s Imperial expansion and war: struggles for succession Decolonization and struggles of subversion Field theory in comparison Notes 6 Organization(s) of the World Introduction Organization and world in the foundation of international organizations Organization and organizations World and state Types of organizing the world International law International conferences International organizations World state/statehood Conclusion Notes 7 Particularly Universal Encounters: Ethnographic Explorations into a Laboratory of World Society Introduction Entering the field Humanitarian interventions as laboratories of world society Humanitarian interventions in world politics Researching interventions as laboratories of world society Women in Afghanistan as a global cause Afghans striving for women’s rights and empowerment Encounters: women’s rights and empowerment in the practice of intervention Conclusion Notes 8 From the First Sino-Roman War (That Never Happened) to Modern International-cum-Imperial Relations: Observing International P Introduction Communications, differentiation and evolution International politics: internal and external differentiation Imperial-cum-international relations: reflections on power and opposition in modern world politics Conclusion 9 Nationalism as a Global Institution: A Historical-Sociological View Introduction Conceptual remarks: modern nationalism Conspicuous and inconspicuous mechanisms of reproduction Globalized reproduction: the transformation of nationalism into a global institution Institutionalized nationalism Scarcity nationalism Conclusion: analysing nationalism as a case of global social change Notes 10 States and Markets: A Global Historical Sociology of Capitalist Governance Introduction: politics and economics States and markets Globalization mark 1 Globalization in retreat The golden age States and markets in the contemporary world Conclusion: varieties of capitalist governance Note 11 The Impact of Communications in Global History Introduction Cultural effects Economic effects Political effects Environmental effects Conclusion 12 The ‘Long Twentieth Century’ and the Making of World Trade Law Introduction Hegemony and cooperation Bilateralism, non-discrimination and bifurcation: the nineteenth-century order Globalism, hierarchy and arbitration Conclusion Note 13 Third-Party Actors, Transparency and Global Military Affairs Introduction Uncertainty, transparency and third-party actors An evolution in four phases A limited but discernible impact More visible overall patterns and developments Data not used as bases for arms control agreements A new competition over public opinion Conclusion Notes 14 Technical Internationalism and Global Social Change: A Critical Look at the Historiography of the United Nations Introduction Questioning histories of the UN Technical internationalism UN practices in technical internationalism Periodization in the history of technical internationalism Conclusion Notes References Index Back Cover Moving beyond the limits of parochialism, this book develops a truly global perspective on social change. It brings together renowned scholars from across disciplines and provides a range of promising theoretical approaches, analytical takes and substantive research areas that offer new vistas for understanding change on a global scale. Analysing social change has too often been characterized by parochialism, either a Eurocentrism that projects European experience outwards or a disciplinary narrowness that ignores insights from other academic disciplines. This book moves beyond these limits to develop a global perspective on social change. The book provincializes Europe in order to analyse European modernity as the product of global developments and brings together renowned scholars from international relations, history and sociology in the search for common understandings. In so doing, it provides a range of promising theoretical approaches, analytical takes and substantive research areas that offer new vistas for understanding change on a global scale Analysing social change has too often been characterized by parochialism, either a Eurocentrism that projects European experience outwards or a disciplinary narrowness that ignores insights from other academic disciplines. This book moves beyond these limits to develop a global perspective on social change. The book provincializes Europe in order to analyse European modernity as the product of global developments and brings together renowned scholars from international relations, history and sociology in the search for common understandings. In so doing, it provides a range of promising theoretical approaches, analytical takes and substantive research areas that offer new vistas for understanding change on a global scale. -- Provided by publisher