Problematizing Global Knowledge Genealogies of the Global/Globalizations 401

References
Bowker, G.C. and L. Star (2000) Sorting Things Out: Classification and its Consequences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Cohen, L. (2005) Operability, Bioavailability, and Exception, in S.J. Collier and A. Ong (eds) Global Assemblages: Technology, Politics and Ethics as Anthropological Problems. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Collier, S.J. and A. Ong (2005) Global Assemblages, Anthropological Problems, in S.J. Collier and A. Ong (eds) Global Assemblages: Technology, Politics, and Ethics as Anthropological Problems. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Dunn, E. (2005) Standards and Person-Making in East-Central Europe, in S.J. Collier and A. Ong (eds) Global Assemblages: Technology, Politics and Ethics as Anthropological Problems. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Giddens, A. (1994) Living in a Post-Traditional Society, in Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social

Order. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Lakoff, A. (2005) Pharmaceutical Reason: Technology and the Human at the Modern Periphery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Latour, B. (1987) Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Scheper-Hughes, N. (2005) The Last Commodity, in S.J. Collier and A. Ong (eds) Global Assemblages: Technology, Politics and Ethics as Anthropological Problems. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Weber, M. (2002) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Other Writings. New York: Penguin. Stephen Collier is an assistant professor in the Graduate Program in International Studies at the New School in New York. His research examines post-Soviet transformation, welfare, neoliberalism, globalization, and security.

Mundialization/Globalization
Renato Ortiz
Keywords culture, globalization, mundialization, pattern, world modernity Another dimension posited by the analysis is its systemic character. A world system is an articulated set within which all elements are functionally integrated into the whole. An example is to be found in Luhmanns work, that, conceiving society as a system, can extend the concept to reach a planetary scope; in this sense, the world would be a sole communicative system, where the parts, in their differences, would be linked to the same set. There would even be a hierarchy among social systems, from simple to complex, i.e., from less to more differentiated. The difference, however, has a simply functional role, the part functions for the integrity and coherence of the whole. This theoretical conception allows us to answer an array of questions related to the role of economic and political forces in the world system. It includes, however, a series of contradictions that unveil its weaknesses. There is, first, a lack of social actors; a system-society does not need individuals and political actors: it consummates itself independently of their existence. The systemic approach encompasses the limitations of the sociological objectivism characteristic of Durkheimian or structuralist theories. By

ow can one understand the specifics of globalization from a cultural perspective? One possible answer would be to go back to the world system paradigm, for its critique of the nation-state as a unit of analysis opens a way to envision the world dynamics in other bases. This perspective, however, opens up other problems that, if ignored, will lead us into a dead end. There is, first, a strong economic inclination of the analyses, for the world systems history is conceived as the evolution of capitalism (Wallerstein, 1991). As the economic basis is the privileged unit of analysis, political and cultural manifestations appear as its immediate reflections. In fact, this way of understanding social phenomena transposes to a wider territoriality a wellknown reasoning: society is formed by an economic infrastructure and an ideological superstructure. The material floor would comprehend and determine the upper part of such architecture.

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understanding society as a thing or structure, one transcends the existence of the men who make history, i.e. the individuals and institutions that act and interact with each other. It would be difficult to conceive of social action within this theoretical framework, for the social actor would have a passive role in the social interaction process (at best, he or she would perform a function). In a word, the fate of all would be determined (not only comprehended) in the planetary structure that encompasses us. Another aspect has to do with the degree of interaction required by analytical thinking. In order to function, a system requires an articulation such that the movement of each one of its parts would be solely coordinated by the whole. Internal cohesion has to be high, and without this systemic unity would be compromised. Within this perspective, as Wallerstein (1991) emphasizes, culture is a structure through which the world system operates. In fact, it would simply have the function of a geo-culture, guaranteeing the maintenance of an order imposed by itself, independent of the culture. The above criticisms allow us to take up the cultural question at another level. There is, in the idea of globalization, the suggestion of a certain unity. When we speak about a global economy, we have in mind one single structure, underlying economic exchange in any place on the planet. Economists can even measure the dynamics of this globalized order through various indicators: exchanges and international investments. The same can be said of the technological sphere: it is marked by the unity of techniques computer, satellites, electric or nuclear energy. But, would it make sense understanding the cultural theme in the same way? Could we speak of one global culture or one global identity in the same manner we consider the economic and technological levels? Surely not, and language offers a good example. For historical reasons British colonialism, North American imperialism, capitalist economic expansion, the development of science in the USA after the Second World War, and the like English became the language of world modernity; it would not make sense, however, to imagine the disappearance of other languages in the face of its dominance. The existence of a hypothetical universal language, shared by all the planets individuals, would require that all human experiences converged towards one and the same source of meaning. But such a linguistic speculation is not reasonable. The emergence of English as a world language gives a new definition to the world market of linguistic goods at a planetary scale, shows an unmistakable power situation but does not imply a single way of speaking. And that is the reason why it is useful to establish a difference between the terms globalization and mundialization. The first may well be applied to the economic and technological spheres; the second adapts itself better to the cultural universe. The mundi (world) category is then articulated to both dimensions. It is bound first to the movement of globalization of societies, to the economic and technological transformations that involve them. Without this material dimension we could hardly discuss the existence of a process of mundialization of the cultural sphere. But it also corresponds to a world (mundi) vision, a specific symbolic universe of todays civilization, that coexists with other world visions, establishing hierarchies, conflicts and accommodations with them. Its transversality reveals modern lifes globalization, its mundiality expresses the cultural diversity that is inherent to the process. Using an idea by Marcel Mauss (Mauss, 1974), I would say, mundialization is a total social phenomenon, which pervades all cultural manifestations. The whole goes to the core of its parts, redefining them in their specificities. In this sense it would not be proper to speak of a world-culture whose hierarchical level would be situated outside and above local, regional or national cultural practices. Thinking in this manner would amount to establishing dichotomous relations between various platforms (local vs. national; national vs. global; local vs. global), promoting the dualist reason in a planetary scale. In order to exist, a culture has to have roots, to be situated in mens everyday practices, without which it would be an abstract expression of social relations. With the emergence of globalization/mundialization, the cultural whole recasts the situation where multiple particularities are located, without the need to think in systemic terms. Thinking mundialization as a totality allows us to approximate it to the notion of civilization, an extra-national set of specific social phenomena, common to many societies. But it is necessary to emphasize a particularity of our times. Historically, a civilization extended beyond a peoples frontiers, but limited itself to a determined geographical area. A mundialized culture corresponds to a civilization whose territoriality is globalized. This is not, however, synonymous with uniformity. I emphasize this aspect for the cultural debate sometimes identifies both dimensions, and this is inadequate. For a long time, the discussion of culture, especially when it refers to the so-called mass culture, has debated the dilemma of consciousness homogeneity. In fact, the conception of mass itself is associated with the idea of crowd (a popular notion in the 19th century), where the individuals tended to dissolve into the whole. The theme is posed anew in the context of the planetary diffusion of technologies. For a good many authors, the global village

Problematizing Global Knowledge Genealogies of the Global/Globalizations 403

would consecrate the homogeneity of habits and thinking. Communication technologies, getting people closer to each other, would make the world smaller and identical. An example: Theodore Levitts (1983) diagnosis of markets globalization. We would be living a reality that had suffered a standardization of products consumed at a global scale, leveling cultural practices to a sole common denominator. It would be nave to non-critically oppose this globalizing perspective. Science, technology, consumption, all are important vectors of the globalization process. There is in fact a patterning of modern lifes different domains. This is due to some extent to industrialism that invades the cultural sphere itself. The industrial making of movies, television series, books, video games, clothes, is doubtless bound to product patterning. It is, however, important to distinguish pattern and standards. Anthropologists teach us that there is no society without a determined cultural pattern. And for this they understand the models, the norms that structure social relations. Individual behavior is bound to this ground shared by all. A society is a set of subgroups whose particular ways are distinguished within a common framework. But no one ever refers to culture standardization when dealing with indigenous societies (as it would make no sense to describe Trobriand aborigines life in terms of patterning). It is only in the discussion of industrial societies that pattern and standard are identified to the idea of homogeneity. Such an association became natural due to the high degree of rationalization of modern life and to the extension of industrial procedures to the cultural domain. The modern worlds rationality distinguishes different areas of society, in one of which, consumption, the patterning process is deeply established. The serial production of cultural artifacts even allows for an analogy with industrial rationality. This fundamental trait of contemporaneous societies, however, should not lead us to be confused. When Weber writes on the rationalization about Western music, he has in mind the casting of a cultural pattern in the sense anthropologists give to the notion. We could hardly assimilate such a pattern to the idea of standardization. In other words, the pattern is not to be confused with the standard. The point is to understand how the patterning process takes on hegemonic character, although not univocal, in the globalized context. Taking on again the concept of civilization restores the discussion to another level. There is no conceptual opposition between the common and the diverse; a mundialized culture promotes a cultural pattern without imposing the uniformity of all; it disseminates a pattern bound to the development of world modernity itself. Its width certainly involves other cultural manifestations, but it is important to emphasize that it is specific, founding a new way of being-in-the-world and establishing new values and legitimizations. And that is the reason why there is not and there will be not a single global culture, identical in all places. A globalized world implies a plurality of world-views. What we do have is the consolidation of a civilization matrix, world modernity, that is actualized and diversified in every country, region, place, as a function of its particular history. And this means that globalization/mundialization is one and diverse at the same time. We should not conceive of such a diversity as equivalent to the idea of pluralism. In the global situation, parts are different and unequal, fill hierarchically diverse positions, and are permeated by the power relations and force lines that constitute the reality of the game of the worlds interests.

References
Levitt, Theodore (1983) The Globalization of Markets, Harvard Business Review MayJune: 92102. Luhmann, Niklas (1982) The World Society as a Social System, International Journal of General Systems 8: 1318. Mauss, Marcel (1974) Thorie des civilisations, in uvres, vol. 2. Paris: Minuit. Wallerstein, Immanuel (1991) Geopolitics and Geocultures: Essays on the Changing World-System. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Renato Ortiz is Professor of Sociology at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil. He was an undergraduate at lUniversit de Paris VIII (Vincennes), and gained his PhD at lcole Pratique des Hautes tudes (Paris, 1975). His publications include Mundializacin y Cultura (Buenos Aires, 1997), and Otro Territorio: ensayos sobre el mundo contemporaneo (Bogot, 1998).