Culture, Globalization and the World-System: Contemporary Conditions for the Representation of Identity

194 Pages·1991·19.456 MB·English

by  Anthony D. King (eds.)

CULTURE, GLOBALIZATION AND
THE WORLD-SYSTEM
CULTURE, GLOBALIZATION AND
THE WORLD-SYSTEM
CONTEMPORARY CONDITIONS
FOR THE REPRESENTATION
OF IDENTITY
Edited by
ANTHONY D. KING
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in association with
Department ofArt and Art History
State University of New Yorkat Binghamton
~ Department of Art and History,
State University of New York at Binghampton 1991
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Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction: Spaces of Culture, Spaces of Knowledge 1
AnthonyD. King
1. The Local and the Global:Globalization and Ethnicity 19
Stuart Hall
2. Old and New Identities, Old and New Ethnicities 41
Stuart Hall
3.Social Theory, Cultural Relativity and the Problem 69
ofGlobality
Roland Robertson
4.The National and the Universal: Can There BeSuch 91
a Thing as World Culture?
Immanuel Wallerstein
5.Scenarios for Peripheral Cultures 107
UlfHannerz
6.InterrogatingTheories of the Global 129
CONTENTS
I. Going Beyond GlobalBabble 131
Janet Abu Lughod
II.Languages and Models for Cultural Exchange 139
Barbara Abou-EI-Haj
1lI.Specificity and Culture 145
MaureenTurim
IV.The Global, the Urban, and the World 149
AnthonyKing
V. Globalization, Totalization and the Discursive Field 155
John Tagg
7.The Global and the Specific: Reconciling Confficting 161
Theories of Culture
Janet Wolff
Narne Index 175
General Index 181
Notes on Contributors 186
Preface
ANTHONY KING
THE PAPERS IN THIS COLLECTION WERE FIRST PRESENTED AT A
one-daysymposium,withthe sametitle,heldat the State University
of New York at Binghamton on 1st April 1989.Sponsored by the
Department ofArt and Art History in association with the Fernand
Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, HistoricalSystems and
Civilizations, the symposium was the third in the series, "Current
Debates in Art History," the previous two having addressed "The
CulturalPoliticsof'Postmodernism'" and"Cultureand the Modem
State."t
In an art history program committed to the development of new
theoretical and methodological approaches to the understanding of
culturalproduction in its broadestsense, the aim of these symposia
is to bring together scholars from a wide range of disciplines and
backgrounds to address questions ofcontemporary intellectualcon
cern. In such an inter-, or rather transdiscipllnary context, for both
1TheCulturalPoliticsof'Postmodernism',ed,JohnTagg (Binghamton, NY:De
partment ofArt and Art History, State UniversityofNew Yorkat Binghamton,
1989);CultureandtheModemState, ed. Barbara Abou-EI-Haj(Binghamton, NY:
Department of Art and Art History, State University of New York at Bing
hamton),forthcoming.
CULTURE, GLOBALIZATION AND THE WORLD-SYSTEM
faculty and students concerned with different aspects of visual and
spatial culture (aswell indeed as the larger audiences attending the
symposia) the object has beentoexplorethe rangeofconceptualand
methodological tools available for charting new areas of intellectual
enquiry. It has also, ofcourse, provided the opportunityfor scholars
from the varyingstrands of art history, and from cultural studies in
general,to make theirowndistinctivecontributionstothesedebates.
In this context,no contemporaryquestionismore urgent than the
need to explore alternative ways of conceptualising and analysing
issues related to the "globalizationofculture,"frequently perceived,
in popular terms, as cultural homogenization on a global scale.
Especially in the last two decades, revolutionary developments in
communications and transport, including satellite transmission,
seven-days-a-week, 24-hour global trading in securities, the bur
geoning transnationalization of capital and internationalization of
labor, the growing consciousness of global economic, ecological and
health concerns and especially the recent immense changes in the
world politicalstructure have become partofconventionalwisdom.
In addition, the steady increase in international organizations, the
growing coordination by global communication networks of tasks
performed by people worldwide, from international airlines, world
news, weather, congresses to scientific research? is matched by the
tendency,especiallyevidentoverthe pastdecade,for avarietyofin
stitutions, groups and individuals (corporations, universities, enter
tainers, writers or terrorists), to "position themselves globally"
whetherin relation to markets, mediaor global culturalpolitics.Itis
increasinglyintheseconditionsthenthatmuchofcontemporarycul
ture is produced whether in the privileged sites ofcinema, writing,
the visual arts or architectural design, or the less privileged, yet
equally powerful sites of popular culture: these may be seen as the
"contemporary conditions" for the representation of identity.
Yet where much has been spoken and written on world politics,
global ecological concerns and the emergence and effects of a
world-economy and global systems of production, the cultural di
mensions of globalization remain relatively unexplored. One reason
2RichardV.Knight,"TheEmergentGlobalSociety,"inCitiesinaGlobalSoci
ety, eds. Richard V. Knight and Gary Gappert (Newbury Park, London, New
Delhi:Sage,1989):24-43.
viii
PREFACE
for this maywellbe the absenceofan appropriate,andagreed upon,
conceptual language in which to couch the terms of the debate;
another reason may be that even where such a language and con
ceptualframework does exist, the commonly acknowledged gaps in
the academic division of labor have prevented it from being devel
oped.Tomakeahuge,andover-simplifiedgeneralization,thesubject
of "culture" as it is often understood to cover the arts, media, liter
ature, music (and I address this topic in my introduction) tends to
fall under the humanities and the world of economics, politics and
society, where theories and perspectives of the "world as a whole"
have developed in recent years, in the social sciences, and this, de
spite (ormaybeevenbecauseof)poststructuralistandpostmodernist
perspectives which are also reflected in the following pages.
The aim of the symposium, therefore, was to bring together, and
engagein debate,someofthe leadingscholarswho,overthe lastone
or two decades, have beenconcernedwith these issues, some focus
ing more on questions ofculture, otherson the world politicalecon
omy, still otherson questions ofsocietal transformation and identity
formation.Despitetheirdifferentpositions,however,andverydiffer
entconceptual languages, allshare at least two perspectives: the re
jection of the nationally-constituted societyas the appropriate object
of discourse, or unit of social and cultural analysis, and to varying
degrees, a commitment to conceptualising "the world as a whole."
And having brought them together, to ask two questions:first, how
far can these theorizations or perspectives, and the concepts used to
constructthem,informourunderstandingofarangeofculturalprac
tices, from writing, speaking, building, painting, photography, to
architecture and urban design, both in the contemporary world and
also historically? Given that the totality of the world's cultural pro
duction(ifthatconstructcan be allowed)ismostcommonlyandcon
ventionally classified according to national cultural categories
("Frenchpainting,""Americanarchitecture,""Indiantextiles") how
far do othercategories suchas gender, race, class, ethnicity, locality,
or mode of production provide more appropriate prisms through
which cultures, as socially organized systems of meaning expressed
in particularforms, can beunderstood,aswellasmobilizedforpolit
ical, economic, religious or social purposes?
In other words, what purchase can be got on these practices by
adoptingamore transnational, global or world-systemsperspective?
In the second place, however, whatcontribution and insight does
ix
CULTURE, GLOBALIZATION AND THE WORLD-SYSTEM
thereflexivestudyofcultureandspecific culturalpractices,whether
photographic representation, or academic scholarship, make to the
ways in which we think about the processes of globalization, about
the capitalist world-economy, about the world as a single place?
Given the way in which thesymposiumwas set up, with scholars
from sociology and anthropology establishingthe main termsof the
debate,andothersfrom art andarchitecturalhistory,cinema,critical
theory and feminist studies obliged (under more severe time con
straints) to respond, the discussionwas regrettablyvery uneven, not
least because of the limited opportunities of a one-day meeting.
Nonetheless,oneproductiveoutcomewasthe stimulatingsuggestion
(fromtheaudience)thatthenext"currentdebate"bedevotedtocon
sidering conceptualisations of globality, or "the world as a single
place," as they have been represented in the arts, in literature,
cinema,religion, paintingor musictowhichrepresentativesfrom the
social sciences would be asked to respond.
It remains to say something about the contributors to the sym
posium.The first two talks were given by Stuart Hall in mid March
1989,twoweeksbeforethe mainsymposium.Thechaptersasprinted
representslightlyeditedversionsofthe transcriptionsmadefrom the
taped talks.
With Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams, Stuart Hallcan be
said to have founded CulturalStudies as an intellectualand cultural
intervention rather than a formal "discipline." For eleven years
(1968-79),he wasDirectorofthe influentialCentreforContemporary
CulturalStudiesat the UniversityofBirminghamwhosefaculty,pub
lications, and graduates have had a profound impact in this field.
Subsequently Professor of Sociology at the Open University, Stuart
Hall(andhis numerouspublications)havebeenequallyinfluentialin
introducing the CulturalStudies paradigm into the USA.
While the 1980s witnessed a flowering in European and North
American intellectual circles of the debate on "modernity," specifi
cally in the context of "postmodernity," many of the issues, though
couchedina differentlanguageandlocatedina differentspace,con
tinueda discourseofthe 1960s,thoughthis waslesson "modernity"
than on "modernization," specifically as it was related to so-called
"developing societies." Roland Robertson first addressed some of
these issues in a book, co-authoredwith PeterNettl, on International
Systemsand theModernization of Societies in 1968 and subsequently
co-edited, withBurkhartHolzner, IdentityandAuthority:Explorations
x