The publication strategy of the SFB 1199 includes a series of handbooks on globalization projects (Vandenhoek & Ruprecht) as well as a series of monographs and edited volumes under the title Dialectics of the Global (de Gruyter) and a series in German called Dialektik des Globalen – Kernbegriffe (de Gruyter) with smaller works dealing with central categories of the research programme. In addition to these book series, a working papers series, an online journal, and a blog facilitate the dissemination of our research output to an academic audience.
Handbooks on Globalization Projects
Generally speaking, “globalization” has been perceived as one process that includes many facets and has been conceptualized as a linear trend in world history towards a growing connectedness across borders of formerly sovereign entities. However, we take a different vantage point that systematically positions actors at the centre of analysis together with their efforts to cope with, manage, and profit from transregional flows and interconnections. The efforts by such actors result in different globalization projects, that is to say in different ways of globalizing the world via respatialization. Of interest to our research are the social groups –which are empirically observable as forming around political, cultural, and economic claims, institutions, and ideas – who globalize the world according to their particular interests and ideas; their possibilities in mastering nature, technology, and knowledge while navigating interactions with other societies; and their specific world views. In contrast to the talk about a single and unique globalization, we therefore speak of multiple globalization projects. The handbook series is an attempt to materialize this conceptual shift in the dominant rigid descriptions of globalization. The first volumes planned will address
- the French globalization project as one that revolves around a national community and later on around a nation-state,
- the socialist camp’s endeavour to globalize the world in its own way during the 20th century, with a focus on transnational alliances’ projects, and
- the specific approach international organizations of various kinds take towards a changing world order and the contested regulation of border-crossing challenges.
Further volumes will look into the role of colonial elites from different countries in their effort to profit from Africa’s integration into world markets, transnationally acting cultural entrepreneurs in the formulation of a specific globalization project, and the formation of a populist project to combine anti-globalism with the transregional ties developed by populist parties and regimes.
Dialectics of the Global
Ever since the 1990s, “globalization” has been a dominant idea and, indeed, ideology. The meta-narratives of Cold War victory by the West, the expansion of the market economy, and the boost in productivity through internationalization, digitalization, and the increasing dominance of the finance industry became associated with the promise of a global trickle-down effect that would lead to greater prosperity for ever more people worldwide. Any criticism of this viewpoint was countered with the argument that there was no alternative; globalization was too powerful and thus irreversible. Today, the ideology of “globalization” is met with growing scepticism. An era of exaggerated optimism in favour of global integration has been replaced by an era of doubt and a quest for a return to particularistic sovereignties. However, processes of global integration have not disappeared, and the rejection of “globalization” as an ideology has not diminished the necessity as well as urgency to make sense of both the high level of interdependence and the ideology that gave meaning and justification to it.
This series takes up this need by investigating the complexities of these processes as dialectics. The following three dialectics of the global are the foci of this series:
Multiplicity and Co-Presence: “Globalization” is neither a natural occurrence nor a singular process; on the contrary, there are competing projects of globalization, which must be explained in their own right and compared in order to examine their layering and their interactive composition.
Integration and Fragmentation: Global processes result in de- as well as reterritorialization. These processes go hand in hand with the dissolution of boundaries while, at the same time, producing a respatialization of the world.
Universalism and Particularism: Globalization projects are justified and legitimized through universal claims of validity; however, at the same time they often just reflect the world view and/or interest of particular actors.
Dialektik des Globalen – Kernbegriffe
In this German series, the SFB 1199 presents key terms of its research programme in a compact format that allows for conceptual debate about the theoretical pillars of the SFB. At the same time, the series serves as an introduction for students and colleagues to the perspective we take on processes of spatialization.
Working Papers, E-Journal, and Blog
Our publication strategy additionally encompasses a working paper series. As of 2020, it has been integrated into the ReCentGlobe working paper series, where we publish fresh insights into ongoing research from the participating SFB projects. The SFB also provides contributions to the e-journal Connections, edited at the Research Centre Global Dynamics, and the ReCentGlobe blog to further disseminate its findings.