Global Studies

At a time of heated debate on the future of humanity and the resilience of Earth system processes – atmospheric, geological, hydrological, biospheric, and on the planetary and extraplanetary implications of such a loss of resilience – it seems appropriate to interrogate the field of global studies over its scope and ambition when addressing global processes, forms and consciousness. This article is a contribution to the science of globalization, as scholarship tries to keep pace with seemingly runaway trends and daunting circumstances, yet still give due attention to the humdrum and incremental as staples of world-making practice. Contemplating the global requires authors to “unthink”, or at least recalibrate, social science in much the same spirit – though from a more varied perspective – as Immanuel Wallerstein counselled some three decades ago (1991). In such a milieu there are many questions for scholarship, including do the same rules of knowledge creation apply regardless of disruption or continuity? Are we talking about phenomena that share the same characteristics regardless of time and space? Is there variability across different periods of “globalness”, with any answer dependent upon which global formation is being referenced? In sum, is globalization always, and obviously, globalization, or do we need new ways to comprehend rapidly changing global complexity and cosmic uncertainties

Linguistics · Globalization and Cultural Identity · History · Philosophy