"Cultural Disembedding and Social Dislocation"

Lecture #5: “Cultural Disembedding and Social Dislocation”
Staffan Appelgren

Opening note: Today we will begin by discussing the meaning of globalization. We will start with the definition provided by Jan Aart Scholte and I will make some of my own additions.

The Meaning of Globalization
- I agree with Scholte that what theory you choose and can best answer questions in related to the phenomena you are researching. In other words, you need to employ theory according to your research question.
- If we want to understand globalization more deeply, we need to isolate two crucial factors:

o The Global Subject- The global subject is a subject conscious of global interconnections that shape his or her life.
§ Rather than focusing on material flows (i.e. mobile phones, foreign investment), I would like to focus on the mind or the creation of subjects. Globalization is the spread of an awareness that we are a part of a greater whole. Globalization is with us and within us. Some people are more conscious of globalization but there is an awareness of us and them. This awareness has always existed. What I am arguing is that there is now a greater whole encompassing us all. “We” or “us” are necessarily interrelated with “them.” The imaginary is a crucial factor in the process of globalization. This awareness is grounded in practical experiences.
§ The global subject is increasingly pushed to participate in a global world primarily as a consumer. As we are drawn into consumer society, we are constituted as consumers even in social and political domains. For example, people are encouraged to think about carbon emissions as both an economic and political issue. As a result, politics and ideology are increasingly subordinated to economics. Responsibility is individualized— you deal with the environment as an individual not a collective— and accountability is diffused— everyone is responsible for environmental degradation.

o No Escape- There is no place outside of the global; we are in it together, like it or not.
§ I differ from Scholte who says social action increasingly takes place on a global scale. Rather than saying that social action has global reach, I would like to phrase it as an inability to escape. There has been an erasure of positions of non-engagement. As we learned from the hunt for Bin Laden, if globalization means anything, it means the vanishing of exteriority both in physical and psychological terms.
§ Globalization and the advance of capitalism also means the subordination of other forms of social organization (i.e. indigenous people)
§ According to Anna Tsing, it’s a matter of the symbolic order that has the power to decide.

- A final note on the characterization of globalization:
o Scholte points to quantitative differences (i.e. velocity) in globalization. I believe that we quantitative differences exist but this is not a qualitative difference. A qualitative difference is the closure of non-interconnected space and the transformation of the global subject.
o Of course, it is easier to talk about globalization in terms of “more.”
Today’s Texts: Giddens and Harvey
- Today we will discuss “Modernity, Time and Space” and “Disembedding” by Anthony Giddens and “Time-Space Compression and the Postmodern Condition” by David Harvey. Both are classic texts.

“Time-Space Compression and the Postmodern Condition” by David Harvey
- Harvey discusses conditions of post-modernity and argues that we are experiencing an intense form of time-space compression due to transformations in capitalism. This shift in capitalism has consequences for the society as a whole.
- Crucial to this shift is the speeding up of production, consumption and life in general. This occurs through such things as outsourcing and non-binding labor contracts.
- We have shifted from consumption of material objects to services which turn over rapidly.
- In addition, social-cultural life has become more sensuous—thinking is no longer as important as it used to be.
o Things that are produced in one location rapidly lead to emotional reactions elsewhere. (i.e. Mohammed cartoons, the Aftonbladet article on the Israeli military)
o Because life is sensuous, heated debates occur between countries, leaders and ordinary people.
o In other words, we live in a global world where emotions are important.
- Space has been abstracted and boundaries have dissolved but, at the same time, place has become more important.
- Space needs the capacity to attract capital which flows and flees rapidly.
o How can a place (space) attract capital?
§ Deregulation
§ Decreased taxation
§ Educated / Skilled workforce
§ Cultural richness
o This gives capital the means to exploit places (the commodification of space)
o This competition can turn into a race to the bottom and creates new hierarchies between places.

“Modernity, Time and Space” and “Disembedding” by Anthony Giddens
- Giddens formulates the same kind of concept called Time-Space Distanciation or the stretching of social actions and relations.
- He argues that the processes connect presence with absence or a departure from face to face interactions.
- In large, modern societies, social interaction is governed by absence and not always conditioned by space this is the disembedding process.
- In other words, globalization is an extension of the disembedding of social relations on a global scale.

Disembedding Processes

- Time: The modern clock disembeds social life. Although time and calendars have existed in many societies they existed in the form of contextualized time. Time existed in relation to rituals, seasons and the cosmos; it was connected to practices. Modern time is abstracted and facilitates larger societies, scientific measurement, transportation, communication, etc.

- Writing and Printing: Writing has a long history starting in China, Mesopotamia and elsewhere. The first writing systems were used both to communicate with gods and to govern people. Like time, writing facilitates the growth of societies. Writing was disembedding because, through writing, knowledge becomes distanced from time and space.
o In oral societies, knowledge was dependent on repetition tied to time, place, activity and person.
o In literate societies, knowledge can move around independently of time and space. It is moveable and transferable.
o Plato argues against the disembedding process inherent in writing in Phaedrus. Here, Plato contends that writing is a poison to memory and only produces forgetfulness. He argues that writing is only the appearance of knowledge, not real knowledge.
o Derrida presents a counter-argument.

- Money: Money disembeds economic transactions from local, social contexted once again stretching time and space. Wealth is now convertible throughout the world. Someone can earn money in Sweden and spend it practically anywhere on earth.
o Marx criticized the subordination of the worker through money.
o Time and space is now commodified.

- Bureaucratic Organization: Max Weber contends that modern societies are said to be organized and ruled according to the abstract principles of equality. In non-modern societies, rights, responsibilities, power, etc. were largely based on kinship, class and regional origins. Today, at least theoretically, all people are equal and deserve equal access to education and equality before the law.

- Tradition: In modern life, tradition comes back to us as “tradition.” Tradition is a part of modernity and the present. Our own identities, cultures and traditions are being lifted out of ourselves, examined and selected or rejected. We don’t just practice traditions, we question them and decide whether or not to observe them. There was a time when tradition did not entail choice and awareness. Today, we are aware of choice. But, in my opinion, the option we can’t choose is not to choose. This process of choosing necessitates rationalization. In other words, I do this because I am female, American, etc.