Globalization just goes on and on

In Globalization: A Very Short Introduction, Steger insightfully addresses both the time- and space-based aspects of globalization. I feel that very often the temporal, longitudinal dimension of globalization processes is ignored and that experts, academics and historians often wish to set their narratives or theories of globalization resolutely in the present. Steger positions himself as someone who wishes to flesh out these processes and move beyond popular ideas linking the interconnectedness of the world to technological innovation, industrialization and to the capitalist economic model (i.e., Thomas Friedman, who needs to wake up to intensified socioeconomic inequality across his "flat" globe.) I especially like how Steger includes one quality of globalization processes as not only occurring "on an objective, material level but also [involving] the subjective plane of human consciousness."

Globalization is not a singular thing or one narrative- it is a set of processes that are constantly changing and evolving towards this notion of "globality" that Steger speaks of, a more interconnected world of people ideas objects and geographies. It is truly such a tricky concept to think about because one can present so many different threads of globalizing tendencies and manifest so many "ideologies of globality" at so many points in the world. I could be speaking about the impact or the flows of information, knowledge and people from my perspective, but someone from another part of the world might and most definitely has a different outlook on these flows of information, goods, people, ideas and on the moral questions of how these changes are taking place and whether it is even good that they are happening. Our subjectivities and ideas of relating to one another have grown paradoxically larger and smaller. We may know more about the our online friend in Southeast Asia who we have never met than we do our local politicians or neighbors. Or else we might conceive of global community as something exclusive to a certain group of people. Or we might never leave Manhattan but spend all day trading stocks on the international market via the Internet. It is this weird, flexible dimension of globalizing processes today that I find so fascinating.

In another class of mine, Social Aspects of Internet Technology, we discussed the use of metaphors in language, science, culture and technology, and how they assist us in creating mental pictures and mnemonic devices, and also in deepening our understanding of certain concepts. We have been doing that in our Coreseminar as well. I realized that reading Steger's definition of globalization fit almost perfectly with the dynamics of the Internet communication, which includes material connections and the interactions of human users. As we know the world of Internet communications is made of millions of flows and countless social, cultural, economic, political and ideological transactions occur every second. I would like to write out Steger's concept of globalization, as I find that the very language he uses illustrates this metaphor:

"The term globalization applies to a set of social processes that appear to transform our present social condition of weakening nationality into one of globality...movement towards greater interdependence and integration..an uneven process...
with four qualities or characteristics:

1) the creation of new, and the multiplication of existing social networks and activities that cut across traditional political, economic, cultural and geographical boundaries

2) the expansion and the stretching of social relations, activities and interdependencies

3) the intensification and acceleration of social exchanges & and activities

4) globalization processes do not occur merely on an objective, material level but also involve the subjective plane of human consciousness"

(Steger, 13-15)


The Internet metaphor fails, however, when we think about the historical modulations of globalization. A computerized global network with the kind of span and reach of Internet communication has only been in existence for the past several decades, whereas Steger speaks of the many kinds of global linkages, migrations, and technological developments that have transformed our relationships across geographical and temporal boundaries and brought them closer together. The Internet globalization metaphor only works in terms of thinking about immediate fluxes and flows of our world. It fails to show us where we are going or where we wish to go; it shows us process but can't show us details or directional changes- we would have to zoom in and analyze a piece of the overall picture.


Similarly to bring this rambling post back to Jared Lanier's point- we are growing more connected, perhaps, in terms of the amount of network cables and Internet connections that exist in comparison to decades ago, but are we truly interacting more in a meaningful way? Or are we simply all agreeing upon banal facts or stories, and burying important information and voices?