Culture, Globalization, and the World-System

Contemporary Conditions for the Representation of Identity

1997

Anthony D. King, editor

A foundational work in the study of the globalization of culture.

One of the inaugural books discussing the increasing tendency of cultural practices to cross national boundaries. Updated with a new preface, these influential essays by a distinguished group of cultural critics lay the groundwork for a vital new field of inquiry.

Contributors: Barbara Abou-El-Haj, Janet Abu-Lughod, Stuart Hall, Ulf Hannerz, Roland Robertson, John Tagg, Maureen Turim, Immanuel Wallerstein, Janet Wolff.

Culture, Globalization and the World System remains a valuable addition to a growing body of work which challenges cultural studies to see beyond the nation-state as a point of reference.

David Palumbo-Liu, Stanford University

First published in 1991, Culture, Globalization and the World-System is one of the inaugural books discussing the increasing tendency of cultural practices to cross national boundaries. Now widely available in the United States for the first time and updated with a new preface, these influential essays by a distinguished group of scholars and cultural critics lay the groundwork for a vital and exciting new field of inquiry.

Culture, Globalization and the World-System views culture through different prisms and categories—including race, gender, ethnicity, class, and nation. The contributors consider how socially organized systems of meaning are produced and represented. Drawing from sociology, art history, film studies, and anthropology, these essays—many of them representing their authors’ only treatment of globalization—provide paradigms for understanding cultures and the representation of identity in “the world as a single place.”

Contributors: Barbara Abou-El-Haj, SUNY, Binghamton; Janet Abu-Lughod, New School for Social Research; Stuart Hall, Open U, UK; Ulf Hannerz, U of Stockholm, Sweden; Roland Robertson, U of Pittsburgh; John Tagg, SUNY, Binghamton; Maureen Turim, U of Florida, Gainesville; Immanuel Wallerstein, SUNY, Binghamton; Janet Wolff, U of Rochester.

Anthony King is professor of art history and sociology at the State University of New York, Binghamtom.

Culture, Globalization and the World System remains a valuable addition to a growing body of work which challenges cultural studies to see beyond the nation-state as a point of reference.

David Palumbo-Liu, Stanford University

A valuable contribution. The breadth of perspectives offered in this volume grant insight into the coming together of ‘the world as a single place’ that is absolutely necessary.

Urban Geography

Contents

Preface to the Revised Edition
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Spaces of Culture, Spaces of Knowledge Anthony King

1. The Local and the Global: Globalization and Ethnicity Stuart Hall
2. Old and New Identities, Old and New Ethnicities Stuart Hall
3. Social Theory, Cultural Relativity and the Problem of Globality Roland Robertson
4. The National and the Universal: Can There Be Such a Thing as World Culture? Immanuel Wallerstein
5. Scenarios for Peripheral Cultures UlfHannerz
6. Interrogating Theories of the Global

CONTENTS

I. Going Beyond Global Babble Janet Abu-Lughod
II. Languages and Models for Cultural Exchange Barbara Abou-El-Haj
III. Specificity and Culture Maureen Turim
IV. The Global, the Urban, and the World Anthony King
IV. Globalization, Totalization and the Discursive Field John Tagg
7. The Global and the Specific: Reconciling Conflicting Theories of Culture Janet Wolff

Name Index
Subject Index
Notes on Contributors