Globalization in question

Abstract

Since the early 1980s, “globalization” has become a key word for organizing our thoughts as to how the world works. How and why it moved to such a central position in our vocabulary is an interesting tale. I want here, however, to focus on the theoretical and political implications of the rise of such a mode of thought To that end, I begin with two general sets of questions in order to highlight what appear to be important political changes in Western discourses (though not necessarily in realities), including that of much of the socialist movement. 1 Why is it that the word “globalization” has recently entered into our discourses in the way it has? Who put it there and why? And what significance is to be attached to the fact that even among many “progressives” and “leftists” in the advanced capitalist world, words like “imperialism,” “colonialism,” and “neocolonialism” have increasingly taken a back seat to “globalization” as a way to organize thoughts and to chart political possibilities?