From Globalization to World Society : Neo-Institutional and Systems-Theoretical Perspectives

Since the 1970s, various approaches have tried to conceptualize "the global," yet few have addressed the full spectrum of social relationships. Exponents of the global approach have instead focused on particular domains such as politics or the economy. Under the label of "world society," some have suggested alternatives to the predominant equivocation of society and the nation-state. This book shares that objective and takes its point of departure from the two most ambitious projects of that theory: world polity research and systems theory. It maps out the common ground shared by both, and assesses their potential to inform empirical analyses of globalization.

Since the 1970s, various sociological approaches have tried to understand and conceptualize "the global," yet few of them have systematically addressed the full spectrum of social relationships. Prominent exponents of the global approach - such as world systems analysis - instead have focused on particular domains such as politics or the economy. Under the label of "world society," however, some authors have suggested alternatives to the predominant equivocation of society and the nation-state. The contributions to this volume share that objective and take their point of departure from the two most ambitious projects of a theory of world society: world polity research and systems theory, mapping out the common ground and assessing their potential to inform empirical analyses of globalization.