1. Globalization and Culture. . Globalization as Complex Connectivity. Culture as a Dimension of Globalization. Why Culture Matters for Globalization. Why Globalization Matters for Culture. 2. Global Modernity. . Global Modernity as Historical Period. Globalization as a a Consequence of Modernitya . Suspicion of Global Modernity. Conclusion. 3. Global Culture: Dreams, Nightmares and Scepticism. Dreams: Historical Imaginings of a Global Culture. Nightmares: Global Culture as Cultural Imperialism. Global Culture: The Sceptical Viewpoint. 4. Deterritorialization: The Cultural Condition of Globalization. . The Concept of Deterritorialization. The Mundane Experience of Deterritorialization. Objections to Deterritorialization. Deterritorialization at the a Marginsa . Hybridization. 5. Mediated Communication and Cultural Experience. . Mediation and Connectivity. Mediated Proximity 1: Intimacy Redefined. Mediated Proximity 2: Televisual Involvement and the Closing of Moral Distance. 6. The Possibility of Cosmopolitanism. Cosmopolitanism: Idea, Ideology, Ideal. Cosmopolitans Without a Cosmopolis. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

Globalization and Culture

An increasingly important fraction of contemporary economic activity is devoted to the production of cultural outputs, i.e. goods and services with high levels of aesthetic or semiotic content. This kind of economic activity is especially, and increasingly, associated with a number of large cities scattered over the globe. A conceptual account of this phenomenon is provided on the basis of an exploration of the character of place-specific forms of culture generation and the agglomerative tendencies of many kinds of cultural products industries. The empirical cases of Los Angeles and Paris are briefly discussed. The dynamics of production, distribution and location of major cultural products industries are also examined. The paper ends with a brief allusion to the modalities of spatial differentiation of culture in contemporary capitalism and to a prospective cultural politics.

The Cultural Economy of Cities

From the Publisher:
This book sets out to examine and assess the variety of theories of information in society currently available. Frank Webster sceptically examines what thinkers mean by an information society, and looks closely at different approaches to informational developments. He provides critical commentaries on the major postwar theories: Daniel Bell's ideas on a post-industrial information society, Anthony Giddens' thoughts on the growth of surveillance and the expansion of the nation state, Herbert Schiller's insistence that information both expresses and consolidates the interests of corporate capitalism: Jurgen Habermas' account of the diminishment of the public sphere; Jean Baudrillard's thoughts on postmodernism and information, and Manuel Castells' depiction of the 'informational city'. Each theorisation is subjected to close scrutiny and is tested against empirical evidence to assess its worth. The author concludes that, while there has undoubtedly been an information explosion, it is premature to conceive of an information society. We should rather emphasise the 'informatisation' of established relations.

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Theories of the Information Society

Since the early 1970s, debates have raged throughout the social sciences concerning the process of ‘‘globalization’’ ^ an essentially contested term whose meaning is as much a source of controversy today as it was over two decades ago, when systematic research ¢rst began on the topic. Contemporary globalization research encompasses an immensely broad range of themes, from the new international division of labor, changing forms of industrial organization, and processes of urbanregional restructuring to transformations in the nature of state power, civil society, citizenship, democracy, public spheres, nationalism, politico-cultural identities, localities, and architectural forms, among many others. 2 Yet despite this proliferation of globalization research, little theoretical consensus has been established in the social sciences concerning the interpretation of even the most rudimentary elements of the globalization process ^ e.g., its historical periodization, its causal determinants, and its socio-political implications. 3 Nevertheless, within this whirlwind of opposing perspectives, a remarkably broad range of studies of globalization have devoted detailed attention to the problematic of space, its social production, and its historical transformation. Major strands of contemporary globalization research have been permeated by geographical concepts ^ e.g., ‘‘space-time compression,’’ ‘‘space of £ows,’’ ‘‘space of places,’’ ‘‘deterritorialization,’’ ‘‘glocalization,’’ the ‘‘global-local nexus,’’ ‘‘supra

Beyond state-centrism? Space, territoriality, and geographical scale in globalization studies

The accelerating process of globalization and the increasing interconnections between cultures involve an unprecedented challenge to contemporary psychology. In apparent contrast to these trends, academic mainstream conceptions continue to work in a tradition of cultural dichotomies (e.g., individualistic vs. collectivistic, independent vs. interdependent), reflecting a classificatory approach to culture and self Three developments are presented that challenge this approach: (a) cultural connections leading to hybridization, (b) the emergence of a heterogeneous global system, and (c) the increasing cultural complexity. By elaborating on these challenges, a basic assumption of cross-cultural psychology is questioned: culture as geographically localized. Finally, 3 themes are described as examples of an alternative approach: a focus on the contact zones of cultures rather than on their center, the complexities of self and identity, and the experience of uncertainty.

Mathias Bös

Papers

Globalization - Social Theory and Global Culture