The “Doxa” of Globalization and the Politics of Naming

Smeeta Mishra
Bowling Green State University

Understanding Globalization. By Tony Schirato and Jen Webb. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2006.

Tony Schirato and Jen Webb clarify in the first few pages of the book that they are not out to “craft a unitary and definitive statement about globalization” (p. 19). Instead, they engage with the “grid” of globalization and analyze how the processes of globalization transform various aspects of people’s lives. The book addresses issues of technology and its implications, global flows of capital and the impact of globalization on the sovereignty of the nation-state and the media. It was first published in 2003 and then reprinted in 2004 and 2006. One of the factors contributing to the success of the book could be the manner in which the authors ably challenge commonly-held assumptions about the effects of globalization on people, institutions and nation-states. Further, the examples provided by the authors from the events of September 11 and its aftermath make the book extremely relevant and current.

For Schirato and Webb, what makes globalization real to most people is the “politics of naming” (p. 21). Naming, which involves evaluation and interpretation of phenomena, “simultaneously creates one reality, and forecloses another” (p. 6). Citing the example of the media coverage of the September 11 attacks, the authors argue that the American media promoted a specific version of reality in their reports; American values and lifestyles were considered universal and desirable while America’s enemies were automatically labeled barbaric and monstrous.

Throughout the book, Schirato and Webb use concepts and ideas of scholars such as Pierre Bourdieu, Manuel Castells, Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, Claude Lefort, Armand Mattelart and Raymond Williams to explain the various discourses and practices associated with globalization. While criticizing Marxist approaches for focusing excessively on the economic sphere, the authors find Bourdieu’s concept of “doxa” useful in explaining the discourse of globalization. Schirato and Webb point out that “doxa” helps naturalize and reproduce power imbalances in society: “it is seen as ‘just the way things are’, and people submit to it the way they submit to the weather: not necessarily happily, but all the same adjusted to the circumstances” (p.35).

The doxa of globalization thus changes the way people interpret space and time. However, Schirato and Webb are also quick to point out that while technology may collapse time and place for some, “far more people are pinned down in a very specific space and time because of their economic, social and cultural constraints” (p. 69). The authors thus highlight the importance of analyzing the “contexts and politics” of the use of new technologies. They draw upon several examples to emphasize that technology is neither neutral nor essentially emancipatory for all. On a similar thread, Schirato and Webb emphasize that while global capitalism ensures free flow of capital for wealthy nations, it checks the free movement of people across the globe.

Further discussing the impact of globalization on people, the authors argue that it is the politics of naming, again, which has ensured that Westerners are more humanized in media reports than those living in the rest of the world: “Clearly, some kinds of identity mean more, matter more, and are worth more air time, more relief funding, more empathic grief” (p. 134). Schirato and Webb also discuss the impact of technology on our bodies and identities. While acknowledging that globalization creates “mobile identities,” Schirato and Webb condition that observation by pointing out that it is only those who possess “capital and literacies” who get to move freely around the world: “There is a profound difference between the ‘nomadic chic’ available to globetrotters and the enforced nomadism of the refugee” (p. 152).

But it is not just individuals whose lives are transformed by globalization. The practices of globalization impact the sovereignty of nation-states as well. Schirato and Webb argue that while national interests continue to drive globalization efforts, the prevalence of global networks and developments of communication technologies have limited the “ability of states to control events around them” (p. 130). For example, the authors point out that the international performances of the United States in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks were influenced by global networks. The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan was thus presented as a “globally endorsed campaign to eliminate barbarism and free the women of Afghanistan” (p. 125).

In a globalized world, Schirato and Webb argue that the media have become the de facto public sphere. The Internet has become an important arena for airing of dissent even as several governments have attempted to limit accessibility. The authors point out that as the media, which are important sites of meaning making, are owned by a few corporations in the West, they tend to universalize Western values. The authors give the example of American media coverage of veiled Afghan women who were portrayed as victims waiting to be rescued by American forces. Wearing of the veil was portrayed as unnatural, barbaric and indicative of the violation of human rights while Western garments were presented as “markers of civilization and modernity” (p. 182).

The media also choose to humanize and personalize specific events and people in the West while portraying the developing world as a “place where disasters happen, where corruption and violence are endemic, where ‘life is cheap’, and where people behave in an erratic, barabarous and irrational manner” (p. 171). This is the reason, the authors argue, Western audiences often characterize the developing world as naturally violent and barbaric.

Emphasizing that the media produce a public sphere inhabited by the powerful, Schirato and Webb point out that those in power are invited in only occasionally and only when it is considered to be in the interests of those in power. Such a public sphere is also committed to the logic of the market. Thus, the media rarely offer in-depth analysis of public issues or probe those in power. Instead, as Hemant Shah (1997) argues, concentration of mass media ownership and the resulting commercialization of news, has led to a focus on “politically ‘safe’ topics” as the owners of media organizations do not want to risk displeasing any sections of the audience.

Despite the growing hegemony of the West, Schirato and Webb believe it is wrong to assume that all consumers of global media uncritically accept Western values and lifestyles. Instead, the authors point out, people who are exposed to Western images may be “taking something and making it their own” (p. 184). While Schirato and Webb hint at the exercise of agency by consumers of global media, they do not adequately explain such an important process. As Homi Bhabha tells W.J.T. Mitchell (1995) in an interview, “slight alterations and displacements are often the most significant elements in a process of subversion or transformation.” These alterations help the subaltern resist hegemonies.

Overall, Understanding Globalization is a good introductory book for students who want to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to understand the complex concept of globalization and its impact on people and institutions. It introduces students to an array of scholars and their work. Students will also benefit from the way Schirato and Webb explicate complex concepts from cultural theory.

The authors successfully interrogate common assumptions about globalization. However, one of the limitations of the book is that Schirato and Webb do not engage with paradigms that promote alternative versions of modernity and progress. The book offers a critique of mainstream Western understandings of globalization from within the Western philosophical tradition. Another weakness is the writing style. The book is littered with innumerable block quotes that break the flow of the text. Several lengthy quotes could be paraphrased.

Mitchell, W.J. T (1995). Translator translated: W.J.T. Mitchell talks with Homi Bhabha. Artforum, 33(7), Retrieved February 13, 2008, from http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/bhabha/interview.html

Schirato, T & J. Webb. (2006). Understanding globalization, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Shah, H. (1997). Journalism in an age of mass media globalization. Paper presented at the 9^th MacBride Roundtable on Communication, Boulder, Colorado. Retrieved on February 13, 2008, from http://www.idsnet.org/Papers/Communications/HEMANT_SHAH.HTM

Smeeta Mishra is assistant professor of Journalism in the School of Communication Studies, Bowling Green State University, Ohio.