World Society Theory

Encyclopedia of Global Studies World Society Theory Contributors: Helmut K. Anheier & Mark Juergensmeyer Print Pub. Date: 2012 Online Pub. Date: May 31, 2012 Print ISBN: 9781412964296 Online ISBN: 9781452218557 DOI: 10.4135/9781452218557 Print pages: 1823-1825 This PDF has been generated from SAGE knowledge. Please note that the pagination of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book. SAGE Copyright ©2013 SAGE knowledge 10.4135/9781452218557.n579 Hertie School of Governance and University of HeidelbergUniversity of California, Santa Barbara World society theories are concerned with the study of world society and are in dispute over what world society means. Societies generally include some people and exclude others. We can define American society because non-American societies exist. Yet the definition of world society is problematic, as we cannot (yet) detect a non-world society. Thus, theories of world society differ in the ways in which they find an equivalent to the “other.” As world society is nonexclusive, the idea of external enmity generally associated with national societies takes within world society the form of an internal enmity. Human society is the most inclusive term for talking about the sum of human social relations, leaving open the number, size, and shape of its component societies. World society suggests something organized as one of those components, for instance, a national society, but including all people. Equally, whereas societies are generally characterized by a distinctive culture, world society is unique in its absence of a clear contrasting culture. World society theories differ in the way they perceive of all- inclusivity, internal enmity, and indistinctiveness of culture within world society and thus contribute different insight to global studies. It is regrettable that sociology has paid little attention to the theoretical implications of the concept of world society, contrasted with traditional definitions of society, as it offers broad possibilities for further global studies. World society theory developed during the interbellum and the course of World War II as an ideological answer to prevalent nationalistic tendencies. In the field of political science and international relations, theorists sought to define prospects for world order and a peaceful community of states. This followed Kant's idea of a league of nations, as described in Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (1795). As such, it was the awareness of an acute internal enmity within the world that was the impetus for first theories on world society, as an ideological answer to national societies. After the founding of the United Nations in 1945, the concept seemed to fade from discussion, gaining new momentum in the 1970s. With the expansion of international relations, the need for an ideal of international legitimacy had grown. World society, initially the idea that sought to foster international society, now became its antidote. Within the English school of international relations, world society, referring to the set of Page 2 of 5 Encyclopedia of Global Studies: World Society Theory SAGE knowledge SAGE Copyright ©2013 SAGE knowledge common interests and values on which common institutions are built, became the more philosophical ideal, in contrast to international society, the society of states, its common practice. A second set of theories highlights the aspect of all-inclusivity of world society. John Burton's book World Society, published in 1972, views world society as the sum of all human interactions, a non-state social world. Whereas the English school makes a distinction between world society and international society, as practice and ideal, Burton's world society is nonnormative and essentially shaped by communication. A more refined elaboration of the notion of all-inclusivity comes from the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann. Luhmann views social systems as systems of communication, with society being the most encompassing social system. As modern society is laid out such that people, in principle, everywhere in the world can connect and communicate, world society is a reality. To Luhmann, world society is auto-poietic, self-creating: a meaning processing system, reminiscent of Hegel's Weltgeist (world spirit) but lacking its subjective idealistic connotation. Luhmann's world society, as reality, produces differentiation and can be studied as an independent variable, without reference to regional particularities. A third set of theories on world society highlights the creation of world culture in absence of a contrasting culture. World polity theory, associated with Stanford University sociologist John Meyer, views world culture from a universalistic point of view, suggesting that a rational, institutional, and cultural world order shapes national, organizational, and individual identities, producing similarity and harmonization. World polity theory conceives of world society as an institutional formation from above that produces sameness below. This is in sharp contrast with Luhmann, whose notion of world society as auto-poiesis produces differentiation. Scholars at the Institute for World Society Studies in Bielefeld (Germany) suggest that all processes, whether local or global, now can be understood internally. A fourth set of theories, mostly in the field of globalization studies, addresses the notion of all-inclusivity and the shaping of culture in world society but draws attention to the emergence, but not yet existence, of a distinctive new structure of world society. Sociologists like Martin Albrow have conceptualized globalization as “all those Page 3 of 5 Encyclopedia of Global Studies: World Society Theory SAGE knowledge SAGE Copyright ©2013 SAGE knowledge processes by which the peoples of the world are incorporated into a single world society, global society” (Albrow, 1990, p. 9). From the perspective of an emerging world society, the “other” is then the existing global society. Global society, like global economy, refers to the current rational globalized society shaping our contemporary lives, whereas world society, by definition, is always in the making. World society, once conceived of as an ideal in times of war, is increasingly empirically studied, for example, by the World Society Foundation in Zurich. Perceiving the making of world society as driven by a continuum of continuously increasing global connectivity could bridge the gap between those who see world society as an actual reality and those who merely anticipate its emergence. Martha C. E. Van Der Bly 10.4135/9781452218557.n579 See also: Further Readings (1990) Introduction . In M. Albrow, ed. , & E. King (Eds.), Globalization, Albrow, M. knowledge and society . London: Sage. Albrow, M. (1996) The global age . Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Bull, H. (1977) The anarchial society . London: Macmillan. Burton, J. (1972) World society . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Buzan, B.(2004) From international to world society? English school theory and the social structure of globalisation . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Luhmann, N. (1995) Social systems . Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. (1941) Foundation of modern world society . Stanford, CA: Stanford Mander, L. A. University Press. Page 4 of 5 Encyclopedia of Global Studies: World Society Theory SAGE knowledge SAGE Copyright ©2013 SAGE knowledge Meyer, J., Boli, J., Thomas, G. M., and Ramirez, F. O. World society and the nation-state . American Journal of Sociology , (1997) vol. 103, pp. 144–181 The rise of one heterogeneous world culture: A micro-perspective of a Van Der Bly, M. C. E. global village . International Journal of Comparative Sociology , (2007) vol. 48, pp. 234– 256 Page 5 of 5 Encyclopedia of Global Studies: World Society Theory SAGE knowledge