A Genealogy of ‘Globalization’

The Career of a Concept

Bibliographic Data

ID12716632
AuthorsP James (0000-0002-8591-4594, Western Sydney University, corresponding author), Manfred B Steger (0000-0002-1679-6539, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume11
Issue4
Pages417-434
Publication date2014-07-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobalizations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1474-7731 • E-ISSN: 1474-774X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14747731.2014.951186
OpenAlexW1995297992
LanguageEN
Citations received55
References cited41

‘Globalization’ is an extraordinary concept. It is a complicated concept that burst upon the world relatively recently, but soon became a household concern. It is a concept that was rarely used until the 1990s, but processes of globalization had been happening for centuries. This article follows the genealogy of the concept from its unlikely beginnings in the 1930s–1950s to the heated scholarly debates across the end of the twentieth century to the present. Before it became a buzz word, the concept of ‘globalization’ began to be used in the most unlikely fields: in education to describe the global life of the mind; in international relations to describe the extension of the European Common Market; and in journalism to describe how the ‘American Negro and his problem are taking on a global significance’. The article begins to answer the question ‘Through what lineages and processes did the concept of globalization become so important?’ Drawing on textual research and interviews with key originating figures in the field of global studies, the article attempts to get past the usual anecdotes about the formation and etymology of the concept that center on alleged inventors of the term or references to first use of ‘globalization’ various dictionaries. The article tracks the careers of major scholars in relation to the career of the concept

Epistemology · Etymology · Field (mathematics · Globalization · Linguistics · Marketing buzz · Political science · Relation (database · Social science · Sociology · Globalization and Cultural Identity · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions