Approaches to globalisation : a critical evaluation

Eagle, Simon Paul (1998) Approaches to globalisation : a critical evaluation. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

Increasingly heralded as an important new development in economic, social, cultural and political life, a great deal has been written about the phenomenon of globalisation. The central premise of this thesis is that an assessment of globalisation must not only be concerned with how we can most accurately understand and explain this process. Rather globalisation represents the possibility of making an assessment of established theoretical perspectives on world order and political-economy. Given the claim that globalisation is a new development the argument here remains open to the possibility that it is a process which may be rendering problematic existing concepts in social theory.

The way in which globalisation has been interpreted by a range of authors is explored critically. Too often, it is suggested, discussion of globalisation has involved an acknowledgement of an intensification of international and transnational relationships whilst the broader political implications are ignored.

The argument takes in an assessment of the debate over whether globalisation is actually occurring. This is achieved through an appraisal of two key protagonists in that debate. Important insights into the globalisation process are highlighted here. Specifically, the way in which the state is commonly depicted in relation to global economic forces is argued to be misleading. This in turn is often a result of specific and problematic conceptions of the relationship between politics and economics.

Immanuel Wallerstein's World-System Theory is the first perspective to be considered as a vehicle for understanding globalisation. Wallerstein's distinctive approach to capitalism as an historical social system is outlined and a number of criticisms are levelled at this perspective. In particular, attention is drawn to the functionalist and structural nature of World-Systems explanations. As such, it is concluded that this perspective is not capable of the kind of multidimensional analysis necessary for globalisation.

Robert Cox's Neo-Gramscian World Order perspective is then chosen as a corrective to many of the shortcomings identified in other accounts.

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