The Meaning of Globalization?

Inaugural Conference of the Globalization Studies Network, 18-21 August 2004, at the University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.

Heikki Patomäki, NIGD

On 18-21 August 2004, the University of Warwick hosted a conference to found the Globalization Studies Network (GSN). The meeting attracted some 150 delegates from over 100 organizations in 44 countries. As such it was perhaps the largest single gathering ever of centres and programmes that undertake research of globalization.

The GSN initiative developed from preliminary meetings in Washington and Ottawa during 2003. Participants concluded that it would be helpful to have a framework of communication and collaboration that linked the proliferating programmes around the world that study globalization. The Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation (CSGR) of the University of Warwick offered to host the inaugural conference. The Centre also obtained supplementary grants from the Ford Foundation and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to support the participation of delegates from the East and the South.

The conference proceedings included several plenary sessions. Plenary speakers included James Rosenau, David Held and four members of the ILO World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization (Gerry Rodgers, Heba Handoussa, K.P.Kannan, Rolph van der Hoeven). Many other conference activities took place in the context of smaller thematic panels. In these sessions over 90 participants described the work of their institute or programme on some aspect of globalization. Panels addressed substantive topics such as global trade, globalization and culture, globalization theory, and global cities. In addition, several panels considered institutional matters such as building centres of globalization studies, developing global studies curricula, constructing research centre websites, and running journals concerned with globalization issues.

I came late to the conference (there was some overlap with the Annual Conference of Critical Realism that took place in Cambridge earlier that week) and so I missed James Rosenau’s talk, which was often cited in the subsequent discussions. The ILO Commission report arose a lot of interest and also some debate concerning mostly its rather modest recommendations (as compared to its rather bold analysis) and their implementation. Many felt that Finnish President Tarja Halonen could play an important role in the follow-up activities of the Commission. David Held’s talk was a brilliant analysis of the Washington consensus and its problems. He also presented a clear social-democratic and cosmopolitan alternative to it. Many protested against Held’s eurocentrism, which is indeed one of the major problems of his approach, but one cannot help admiring the thoroughness of his thinking and ability to present his arguments in such a clear fashion (for a critical dialogue between Held and the signer, please see a forthcoming 2005 issue of Theory, Culture & Society).

NIGD was one of the organisations that made a presentation about its work on globalisation. However, instead of reviewing all NIGD activities, I summarised our work on “Creating a strategy for democratic transformation of global institutions”. That is, I also wanted to say something about the substance itself. Usually the smaller thematic panels appeared rather instrumentalist, because the purpose of the conference was also to foster collaborative research projects among GSN members, focussing very often on funding. The response to my talk was positive, however, and the panel led eventually also to a discussion about a joint project with Peter Mandaville – from the Centre for Global Studies at George Mason University – on “critical responses to globalisation in the Middle East”, following our earlier work on civil society developments in Russia and Latin America.

Towards the end of the conference, there was a general discussion about the mission statement of the GSN. According to the final version, “the Globalization Studies Network (GSN) endeavours to make distinctive contributions to excellence in globalization studies. It promotes innovative research and teaching collaborations involving different world regions, cultures and disciplines. It brings the results of its efforts to the public domain, engaging policy circles and wider society to work towards greater economic prosperity, human security, social justice and democracy in globalization.” What I found strange that there was no attempt to characterise what globalisation means or could mean (cf. the title of the conference). I was outvoted by a nearly general consensus that we should not attempt to define globalisation in any way because that would be exclusive. I still feel that that kind of inclusiveness may be a recipe for both ignorance and power politics over the way the empty signifier “globalisation” is and will be used for various strategic purposes. After the conference, when I had lunch with Jim Mittelman in Helsinki, I found out that he was engaged in a similar debate at the beginning of the conference (I came late, he left early).

The last session of the conference was, again, thematic. I participated in the “global civil society and social movements” session, which was also attended by people such as Nicola Bullard from the Focus on Global South and Moema Miranda from IBASE (all together some 15-20 people from all over the world). We explored points of common interest, the possibility of creating a network among us and also discussed collaboration in the context of the World Social Forum.

The conference programme and a full report of the inaugural conference proceedings can be found on the CSGR website. More information on the GSN, including the text of the framework document and a list of members, is available on the GSN website. Those interested in joining the GSN can contact Jan Aart Scholte at CSGR: scholte@warwick.ac.uk. Those interested in participating in the Dakar meeting can contact Adebayo Olukoshi of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa: adebayo.olukoshi@codesria.sn