Commissioned Book Review: Manfred B. Steger and Paul James, Globalization Matters: Engaging the Global in Unsettled Times
| Author | Aleksandra Spalińska |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221101979 |
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Commissioned Book Review |
Political Studies Review
2023, Vol. 21(1) NP17 –NP18
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Commissioned Book Review
1101979PSW0010.1177/14789299221101979Political Studies ReviewCommissioned Book Review
book-review2022
Commissioned Book Review
Globalization Matters: Engaging the
Global in Unsettled Times by
Manfred B. Steger and Paul James.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
viii+308 pp., £22.99 (pb), ISBN
9781108456678.
Despite many heated debates and lots of academic
publications, the concept of globalisation remains
insufficiently researched. Manfred B. Steger and
Paul James respond to this challenge, exploring
the meanings of globalisation, trajectories of its
conceptual development and ways in which we
can approach it to better investigate how the con-
cept as well as the process of globalisation affect
everyday life. In the 11 chapters of the book, we
can find not only novel proposals for approaching
the topic but also detailed analysis of existing
scholarship, its shortcomings and methodological
innovations which the authors employ for their
study. The recurring theme is the ‘Great Unsettling’
understood as a period we live in.
The volume consists of three parts, each of
which delivers original contribution: investiga-
tion of the genealogy of globalisation (Chapters
1–2); reconsideration of dominant frameworks
in globalisation studies, including the proposal
of a new approach (Chapters 3–5); and analysis
of factors that significantly affect theorising
globalisation, for example, the Longue durée of
globalisation processes within the human his-
tory, the sense and impact of populism or the
condition of ‘global cities’ and urban imaginary
all over the world (Chapters 6–10). The study
investigates ‘the global’ (p. 12) across self-pro-
claimed global studies, conceptual history,
international relations and sociology. In addi-
tion, the book aspires to inspire other scholars to
investigate social change in global contexts
(p. 135), due to the gaps in examining subjec-
tive aspects of connectivity: social perception
and personal experiences (pp. 118–119; 134).
First, globalisation discourse and detailed
genealogy of the concept are investigated. Basing
on these enterprises, the Authors propose a fresh
non-exclusive typology of globalisation scholar-
ship: the neoclassical (related to classical social
theory), the domain-oriented (where globalisa-
tion in particular domains of social life is investi-
gated), complexity theory (referring to theorising
global connectivity) and general theorising
approach (among which Peter Sloterdijk’s philo-
sophical considerations can be found). Following
this, the authors discuss the core issue in globali-
sation scholarship, which is recognising it as an
objective phenomenon (pp. 50; 78), whereas its
subjective dimension remains under-theorised.
That is especially striking, given that the moder-
nity/postmodernity shift (approached as onto-
logical formations) occurs on three levels: ideas,
ideologies and imaginaries (pp. 78–81), each of
which has a wide subjective dimension.
Interestingly, this scheme refers to the clashing of
modern logics and practices, including the imag-
inary of ‘the national’ (p. 104), with new ways of
‘being-in-the-world’ (p. 23). Consequently, glo-
balisation affects individuals and identity forma-
tion, leading to the creation of qualities that do
not fit into national categories. In practice,
interconnectivity becomes the contemporary
human condition (p. 117), experienced mostly
via social media.
Here lies the key contribution of this volume,
which is the outline of the analytical framework
designed for investigating subjective qualities of
globalisation (Chapter 4). Combined with criti-
cal reflexivity and the action-oriented approach,
this framework provides a basis for ‘an engaged
theory of globalisation’ (Chapter 5). Consequently,
we receive a dialectical and conceptually inte-
grated framework that enables us to undertake
both explanatory and normative attempts and ‘in
which globalization constitutes a key matrix of
interconnected processes’ (p. 111). That is espe-
cially relevant for analysing transcalarity
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