International Sociological Association
XIV World Congress of Sociology
July 26 - August 1, 1998, Montreal, Canada
"The Future of Globalization"
two sessions organized by :
Volker Bornschier
University of Zurich
Sociological Institute, Raemistrasse 69
CH-8001 Zurich/Switzerland
Fax: 0041/1/634-49-89
e-mail: vobo@soziologie.unizh.ch
and
Christopher Chase-Dunn
Department of Sociology
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218 USA
Fax: 001/410/516-7590
chriscd@jhu.edu
During the late 1980s a new term entered popular discourse:
globalization.
Instead of clarifying issues of world development the buzzword rather
seemed to add confusion and misunderstandings. There are at least five
different dimensions of globalization that need to be distinguished:
-- economic globalization
-- political globalization
-- common ecological constraints,
-- cultural values and institutions, and
-- globalization of communication.
While the earlier popular discourse on globalization seemed to suggest -
at least implicitly - that globalization and world economic growth occur
in tandem, a closer look reveals that the various aspects of
globalization became accentuated in the phase of long term sluggish
economic growth (1973-1992) as compared with the earlier long term
economic upswing (1950-1973). And it became evident that despite several
countries with remarkable growth in the 1980s and 1990s, overall
polarization in the world did not shrink but increased in the latest era
of globalization. Adjectives such as "uneven" and "limits" have
increasingly appeared in the titles of academic works on globalization.
This not only reflects a critical stance, but also the obvious need for
theoretical clarity and empirical research.
For the above sessions we invite abstracts of proposed papers that
examine the diverse phenomena of "globalization" and reflect on the
sustainability of developments and the design of new (or strengthening
of existing) institutions in order to shape a less polarized and more
peaceful social world. How are the different aspects of globalization
related to one another? What are the long-term trajectories of
international integration? And what institutional structures may emerge
in the future to cope with the recent high level of economic
integration?
Please share this information with interested colleagues and submit
proposals to both organizers no later than January 15, 1998.