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The Follies of Globalisation Theory:Polemical Essays
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“This timely study sets high standards for the essential project of critique.” —International Affairs
The Follies of Globalisation Theory is an erudite and lively critique arguing that current fashionable preoccupations, such as the concern with spatiality, have generated deep intellectual confusions that stand in the way of a clear understanding of the modern world. It shows how and why these confusions ultimately condemn the globalization theorists themselves to a peculiar and quixotic stance: the more clearly they attempt to articulate their arguments, the more equivocal and evasive those arguments become, yielding at best the intellectual equivalent of an architectural folly.
Reviews
Polemical essays these are indeed. Rosenberg concentrates his considerable theoretical firepower on three authors, dedicating a chapter to each one. These unlucky souls are Rob Walker, Jan Aart Scholte and Anthony Giddens. Each chapter reconstructs the arguments of the respective author and then sets about dissecting them in a relentless, often mordantly witty manner ... We need more books that engage critically with the avalanche of globalisation texts, and this timely study sets high standards for the essential project of critique, as well as highlighting the continuing relevance of the classical social thinkers.
This book ... will add to the ranks of those who have come to expect work of the highest quality from Rosenberg and have not felt disappointed.
Rosenberg takes issue with the historical context—arguing that contemporary changes in the nation-state system attributed to globalisation had begun well before with the advent of capitalism—and the internal logic of the analyses—arguing that contentions that globalisation explains contemporary social change are based on the very things they seek to explain. From the latter perspective Giddens carries the burden of criticism.