What Is Critical Globalization Studies?

Abstract

From a critical perspective, precisely what kind of knowledge about globalization is meaningful? The distinctive province of a critical orientation to globalization is coming to be defined by a complex of five interacting components: reflexivity, historicism, decentering, crossovers between social inquiry and other streams of knowledge, and an emphasis on strategic transformations. Critical globalization studies may be employed to identify diverse tendencies in world order, parts of a contradictory whole that coexist, with different logics colliding with one another. These are elements of the old configuration, multilateral globalization; the contemporary structure, militarized globalization; and the potential constellation, democratic globalization. The motor of transformation is not only countervailing power but also alternative knowledge, which should be demystifying and enabling.