Recurring Themes and Perspectives on Globalization

Review by Lee Artz, Purdue University Calumet

The Globalization and Development Reader: Perspectives on Development and Global Change (2007). J. Timmons Roberts and Amy Bellhone Hite (Eds.) (2007). Carlton, Victoria, Australia: Blackwell. ISBN 1-4051-3237-X (paper). $34.95

This collection of 27 essays from classical theorists to contemporary globalization theorists is a remarkable compilation of the diverse approaches to globalization that inform much of international media studies. Although the text does not address media practices directly, essays by Castells, Sassen, and Duffeld, among others, conceive of power as related to information and communication technology and the communication of market ideology. More importantly, the essays assembled here represent the terrain of globalization study that necessarily informs and parallels media studies. In their exceptionally lucid introductions to the six sections of the text, editors Roberts and Hite rightly note that globalization is not the first time the world has undertaken or witnessed large-scale global economic change and its social impact. Colonialism, industrialization, and world wars over economic control of continents may thus be culled for insights and approaches for understanding and preparing for contemporary social disruption and transformation, so the first section presents the formative approaches from social critiques of capitalism to treatises by capitalist triumphalists. This section accentuates a central and recurring debate on globalization: what is the role of the state in addressing poverty, inequality, and social relations? For almost two hundred years, two radically opposed perspectives have characterized understandings and proposals for state/government responsibility. One conceives of poverty, development, and global wealth to be the result of internal, domestic actions and abilities of governments and markets; the other understands poverty, development, and wealth to be the result of external, international relations that structure inequality and exploitation (p. 4). Marx (and Weber) both noted that changes in economic relations and accompanying social structures changed social relations, ways of life, and access to benefits of social production. After the great depression, the defeat of mass working class parties, the socialist revolution in Russia, and WW II, western experts, represented here by W. W. Rostow and Samuel Huntington, advanced theories of modernization to explain why some countries remained "backward" despite exposure to capitalism and other aspects of modern life: poor countries lacked capital, technology (including media), and "modern" social structures and cultural values (including consumerism).

Part II pursues the trajectories of these approaches through their historical progressions: from modernization and its focus on internal factors (poor nations lacked the right cultural values) to dependency theory and world systems theory (colonial and neo-colonial relations relegated poor nations to suppliers of cheap raw materials and consumers of more expensive imported commodities). This section presents excerpts from seminal theorists such as Andre Gunder Frank and Immanuel Wallerstein, an essay by the well-known development-dependency Brazilian politician Fernando Cardoso, as well as offerings by post-colonial (Gary Gereffi) and feminist (Valentine Moghadam) theorists. The editors introduce the section with a concise description of the theories and their impact on scholarship and politics. Often overlooked in media debates over cultural imperialism, cultural proximity, and hybridity, dependency theorists provided valuable descriptions of socio-economic relations among core and periphery nations. Contrary to critiques of the structural excesses of cultural imperialism, dependency theorists noted the agency involved in these structural relations: multinational corporations, elites within peripheral nations, and national governments in both core and periphery made decisions and carried out actions that determined practices and relations. Dependency theory emphasized the global interconnections of development: developing nations are not similar to developed nations at different stages of development (p. 71), but function within a hierarchical global system of production which creates inequality on a global and national scale. Roberts and Hite emphasize the divisions within dependency theory, noting some see these international relations as permanent, while others envision possibilities for capitalist development within particular nation-states that can benefit from their unique resources. Media scholars will benefit from these varied takes on globalization, as they undergird much of the varied research approaches to international communication.

The third section of this text, "What Is Globalization?," should be of particular interest for media scholars because each of the six essays tackle (directly or indirectly) the fundamental changes in social and political life that accompany globalization: namely, that due to increased communication technology, centers of control may be more concentrated but also more dispersed, and that globalization has and will continue to transform social organization (creating what McMichael’s sees as a new "global ruling class," p. 221) and cultural practices (whether creating a new international division of labor, p. 160; or as Thomas Friedman argues, communications technologies that "flatten" the world, creating a greater equality of opportunity, pp. 248-250). The more important essays here for media scholars are Manuel Castells’ "Informational Mode of Development and the Restructuring of Capitalism" and Leslie Sklair’s "Competing Conceptions of Globalization," but each of the writings in this section provide significant material on the impact of information and communication technologies and use in the new global order.

Part IV spans the continuum of perspectives within the debate over whether globalization advances or retards development among the world’s poorer nations and peoples. Strangely, however, the continuum falls short of full critique, among the essays included "all agree that globalization is here to stay, that globalization has brought incalculable improvements for people in poor countries, and that there are serious and real impacts of globalization for societies throughout the world" (p. 261). The debate here is between those who think the process is unwinding favorably unfettered and those whom argue for better policies, stronger democracies, and better education. It seems the only issue is providing better leadership for the World Bank and the IMF—the structural intent and free market mandates go unchallenged.

The real challenges to globalization, both theoretically and pragmatically, are reserved for Part V, "Confronting Globalization." Essays on the emerging anti-globalization social movements and the material contradictions between development for some and growing inequality for others, positions the debate on globalization within the context of actual human conditions. Recognizing that globalization’s impact on social, political, and cultural practices are not just national, but transnational, David Held and Anthony McGrew argue for a "cosmopolitan social democracy," noting that "the conventional territorial conception of the political community appears profoundly inadequate" (p. 363). Media scholars might to heart Held and McGrew’s call for a new politics of globalization based on global democracy and social justice. From here, media studies have much to contribute to an understanding of global relations and justice and democracy within and among nations. Optimistically, Peter Evans provides a useful coda to the collection, noting that transnational capitalist domination is neither natural nor inevitable and neo-liberalism has proven disappointing to many ordinary citizens (pp. 420-421). He envisions "counter-hegemonic" movements, in the classical Gramscian sense, that challenge global structures of power, both public and private, economic and cultural (p. 423). Importantly, Evans notes that such movements are not as post-modern as many advocates suggest, rather most, including the World Social Forum, recognize the centrality of the international labor movement in framing a new world social order that champions "basic rights," a progressive "social contract," and "democratic governance" (p. 427). Evans is no idealist—he recognizes the "increasing ease with which capitalists move high-productivity technologies around the globe" which intensifies the "potential for cross-border competition among workers" (pp. 426-427), but he also identifies the rising consciousness and political networking of labor organizations around the world. Again, a conversation which includes Evans’ noteworthy observations and the perspectives and findings of international media scholars who have studied sites of contestation and resistance (e.g. John Downing, among others) would benefit all.

This book is a valuable contribution to that conversation primarily because it assembles multiple perspectives and arguments in a concise, readable, and coherent format. This reader belongs within reach of all media scholars, researchers, and activists. Perhaps some of those media scholars will contribute to the next edition of The Globalization and Development Reader and make the collection even more complete and useful.

May 2007