The
compression of the world and the intensification of the consciousness of the
world as a whole
- Roland Robertson
Roland Robertson was born in 1938 in Scotland, United Kingdom. He is a sociologist and theorist of globalization who lectures at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, United Kingdom.
Formerly, he was a professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, and in 1988 he was the President of the Association for the Sociology of Religion.
· According to him Globalization has developed rapidly in the information age.
· He opines that Globalization has a significant pre –history.
·
For Robertson, the most
interesting aspect of our modern (or postmodern) era is the way in which a global consciousness has developed.
He lays down a progression of "phases" that capture the central aspects of different eras in global history, asserting that we have entered the fifth phase, that of Global Uncertainty.
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Robertson's
main works are Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (1992) and the
edited volume Global Modernities.
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In 1985, he was the first
sociologist to use the term globalization in the title of a sociological
article.
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His 1992
definition of globalization as "the compression of the world and the
intensification of the consciousness of the world as a whole’’.
He is also said to
have coined the term glocalization in 1992.
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Robertsons approach “takes
its departure from empirical generalizations concerning the rapidly increasing
compression of the entire world into a single, global field and [ from] conceptual ideas about the ways
in which the whole should be ‘mapped’ in broadly sociological terms”.
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Robertson shows that the
discipline of Sociology has been a key element in the effort to come to grips
with what he calls “globality” sociologists have crucially helped to
shape global awareness.
Robertson’s analysis certainly expands
awareness of globality’s complexity.
They are built around four focal points:
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Individuals,
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National societies,
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Internaltional relations in the global framework
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And concept of “humankind”.
All the
four are set into inescapably intense global interaction.
Five phases of globalization:
- The Germinal phase : (1400- 1750)
- The incipient Phase: (1750-1875)
- The take-off Phase: (1875-1925)
- The struggle for Hegemony (1925-1969)
- The uncertainty Phase (1969-1990 onwards)
The germinal phase: (1400- 1750):
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Rise of Europe as a power with the support of religion.
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Driven by curiosity and desire for wealth and power European traders and armies carved out world empires.
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Superior technology gave them a navigational and military advantage.
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Robertson opines that germinal
phase pre-dates capitalism although the economic motive played a role in
it.
The incipient Phase: (1750-1875):
o
It saw the establishment of the
modern nation state and crucially their conflictual and competitive relations
in the international field.
The take-off Phase: (1875-1925)
The third phase was crucial in defining the
basic elements of globalization., because it established what Robertson sees as
the four focal points of reference in the ‘global field’.
They are
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Individuals,
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National societies,
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International relations in the global framework
And
concept of “humankind”.
o These reference points bear
comparison with the level of action /identity.
o The individual and nation – state.
o He is less concerned with the
state.
o And that the value of
individualism and nationalism have become increasingly adopted globally and
that the universalization of these values is central to the process of
globalization.
The
struggle for Hegemony (1925-1969)
o It saw the further trends towards
internationalization, such as the founding of the league of Nations and UN
but also ideological- military struggle for predominant influence over, if not
control, of the world.
o This phase developments beyond the
merely international, narrowly defined and may be preliminary to Globalization.
o Here international indicates
relations between national states and is a global system of relations although
falling short of the substantial ‘pooling’ of national powers and sovereignty
that developed globalism would seem to require.
o He regards bodies which go beyond
practical cooperation between nations to seeking to promote and implement
universal values as tending towards the global.
eg UN
The uncertainty Phase (1969-1990 onwards)
- The uncertainty Phase is characterized by a rising awareness of the global as a social entity and
attempts to define rights and identities for instance individual and
communal, with reference to universal humanity.
- Global dimension emerged both
practically and people having developed a global consciousness.
- Now awareness of a common
humanity with shared universal values is seen across the world.
- He argues that globalization
has actually occurred in the last quarter of the 19th century.
- A global consciousness goes
beyond internationalism.
- Globalization is
characterized both by the specific developments- such as globalization of
the media and aspects of consumption and an awareness of what is happening
all around.
- Robertson argues that
globalization began prior to modern capitalism.
- His approach to globalization
is pluralistic.
- His emphasis on consciousness
and values in the development of globalization is rather culturalist but
he also stressed the role of nation state in exploring and ‘connecting up’
parts of the world and he acknowledge the importance of technology in
making globalization possible.
- Malcolm Waters summaries four key substantial propositions about globalization :
- Globalization has already
happened and is accelerating.
- New concepts are required to
analyse globalization.
- The process is reflexive and
cultural in character.
- Globalization follows the
path of its inexorable logic.
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