TY - JOUR
AU - Sachsenmaier,, Dominic
AB - First published in 2003, Globalization: A Very Short Introduction has since been translated into a range of languages. The English version was well-received, and in 2017, Oxford University Press published the book’s fourth edition. Due to the contemporary issues the monograph covers, it is hardly surprising that the 2017 edition is more than a reprint of earlier versions of the same book. The author, Manfred B. Steger, modified substantial parts of his text and added more substance to themes that have become particularly important over the past few years. These include enduring problems like the global inequality of environmental challenges and new political currents, from Trumpism to ISIL. Manfred Steger doesn’t treat these forces as wholly new phenomena, but seeks to sketch the wider contemporary and historical contexts from which they arise. Like other works in Oxford’s Very Short Introductions series, Steger’s book is supposed to offer a concise overview of a given topic—not in the sense of a textbook but rather as a primer of interest to a general audience that can also be used for teaching. “Globalization” is, by definition, a topic that is large and difficult to clearly circumscribe, particularly in fewer than 150 small pages. Another challenge, as Steger emphasizes in his introduction, is the vague connotations of “globalization,” a term that has gained prominence fairly recently and that remains subject to a wide range of definitions and viewpoints. He shows the lack of consensus regarding the scales, root causes, topographies, chronologies, and other character traits of globalization and offers insights into relevant rival interpretations. Steger maintains that we need to see globalization as a multifaceted process driven by a set of entangled cultural, social, economic, and technological transformations. As a scholar who has published much on global ideologies and other globally circulating ideas (discussed in a separate chapter), Steger pays special attention to the modes of consciousness he sees as an essential aspect of globalization, both as driving forces and as consequences of growing levels of worldwide interconnectivity. Given his polygonal understanding of globalization, it is small wonder that Steger stresses the limitations of scholarship focusing on particular aspects—economic and other—of global integration. As a proponent of interdisciplinary research, he maintains that recently established fields like global studies have as their central task “to devise better ways for gauging the relative importance of each dimension [of globalization] without losing sight of the interdependent whole” (14). Nevertheless, he also acknowledges the necessity of analyzing and narrating specific dimensions of globalization separately. Globalization: A Very Short Introduction is divided into eight chapters. The first figures as an introduction by discussing some of the complexities of the concept of globalization. Subsequent chapters focus on thematic clusters. The third chapter, for instance, deals with the economic aspects of globalization and their more recent historical origins. While the chapter largely bypasses the role of communist economies and their international dimensions, Steger provides an overview of the Bretton Woods Agreement and other institutional pillars of the contemporary historical origins of the international economic order. He also discusses the disintegration of the Bretton Woods system and its fixed exchange rates during the 1970s. Moreover, the author sketches how the 1980s witnessed the rise of neoliberal currents in countries like the United States and Great Britain, who were promoting programs to untie economic players from state regulation. Steger points out that in these circles, the then novel term “globalization” was used. He adds that since that time, economic globalization has been characterized by an internationalization of trade and finance, a growing influence of multinational corporations and the global banking sector (particularly investment banks), and new global positions of economic institutions like the WTO or the IMF. The same chapter provides some more detail on subjects like the international financial markets or the scope and nature of transnational companies. Steger maintains that economic globalization as we know it, with all its contours and volatilities, ought not be regarded as a self-enveloping process but rather as a product of political decisions. The fourth chapter covers the political dimensions of globalization, which in Steger’s account includes the rise of the nation-state system (as well as more recent pressure on this system), some of the political implications of migration and challenges pertaining to global governance. The author pays much attention to the Syrian refugee crisis as a case that showed the great difficulties of nation-states or supranational organizations like the European Union to responsibly cope with growing transborder migration. While he stresses that we ought not rush to assume the impending demise of the nation-state, Steger points out that many processes related to globalization have made it far more complex to maintain boundaries between domestic and foreign politics. The chapter ends with some reflections on ideas of cosmopolitan democracy as they have been advocated by thinkers like David Held. The following chapter on culture and globalization starts with an account of prominent debates about the relationship between homogenization and diversity in the age of globalization, then moves to global consumerism and mediatized images as well as its underlying corporate powers. Another chapter in the book is dedicated to ecological aspects of globalization, and chapter 7 deals with the ideologies of globalization. This chapter doesn’t pay much attention to historical ideologies like communism or fascism that had been influential in many parts of the world. Rather, the author focuses on currently influential systems of ideas. Steger firstly concentrates on neoliberal and post-neoliberal beliefs that he categorizes as “market globalism.” A second section illuminates various aspects of “justice globalism” articulated by various kinds of nongovernmental organizations and activists. Another part of this chapter is titled “Religious Globalisms” but mainly discusses jihadist Islamism. The chapter on culture and globalization is followed by a brief final chapter that reflects on the potential future of globalization, including instabilities and potential crises of the current global system. In this book, one chapter (chap. 2) focuses on the history of globalization, particularly the question of whether globalization needs to be understood as a new phenomenon. Steger shows that while some schools point to the 1970s or 1980s as the birth period of globalization, others think of its trajectory in much longer-term dimensions and start with far earlier epochs of the human past. Steger categorizes five periods of transregional exchanges and global dynamics: the premodern period (3500 b.c.e.–1500 c.e.), the early modern period (1500–1750), the modern period (1750–1980s), and the contemporary period (starting in the 1980s). An overview of this kind, only fifteen pages, can hardly be measured against the latest currents of historical scholarship, nor can it be compared with more recent introductions to world history or global history. Like the book as a whole, the historical parts are primarily written as an introduction for students and other readers with a more general—and perhaps more presentist—interest in globalization. The book is far from endorsing any kind of Western supremacy, and the author repeatedly offers critical perspectives on Eurocentric assumptions. Still, it is striking how little attention some parts of the world, including China, India, and Japan, receive in this overview to globalization. This book is not primarily based on the growing literature that seeks to view globalization—past and present—at least equally from the viewpoint of world regions outside of the West. In quite a few chapters, it would have been possible to ascribe more agency to forces, networks, and institutions emanating from parts of the world situated outside of the West. Nevertheless, this work is concise and accessible and to be recommended to a general audience seeking to gain a first overview of the broad and complex dynamics connected to the term “globalization.” © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
TI - Manfred B. Steger. Globalization: A Very Short Introduction.
JO - The American Historical Review
DO - 10.1093/ahr/rhz1159
DA - 2020-10-21
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/manfred-b-steger-globalization-a-very-short-introduction-8fBfR8yKkx
SP - 1358
EP - 1359
VL - 125
IS - 4
DP - DeepDyve
ER -