Includes bibliographical references (p. [189]-203) and index.

Globalization as a problem -- The cultural turn -- Mapping the global condition -- World-systems theory, culture and images of world order -- Japanese globality and Japanese religion -- The universalism-particularism issue -- 'Civiliztion,' civility and the civilizing process -- Globalization theory and civilization analysis -- Globality, modernity and the issue of postmodernity -- Globalization and the nostalgic paradigm -- 'The search for fundamentals' in global perspective -- Concluding reflections.

This comprehensive analysis of globalization offers a distinctively cultural perspective on the social theory of the contemporary world. This perspective considers the world as a whole, going beyond conventional distinctions between the global and the local, and between the universal and the particular. Its cultural approach emphasizes the political and economic significance of shifting conceptions of, and forms of participation in, an increasingly compressed world. At the same time the book shows why culture has become a globally contested issue - why, for example, competing conceptions of 'world order' have political and economic consequences. Roland Robertson distinguishes his analysis and interpretaion of globalization from, on the one hand, world-systems theory and, on the other, theories which regard globalization as a direct extension of the Ẁestern project of modernity'. These approaches, he argues, fail to identify the actual, changing form of globalization and underestimate both the relative autonomy of culture and the political interpretation of modernization and globalization. His alternative view incorporates these aspects of the global scene, and connects them to the historical development of the modern world. A stimulating appraisal of a crucial contemporary theme, Globalization will be essential reading for students and lecturers in sociology, social theory, cultural and communication studies, anthropology, international affairs, religious studies, geography and urban studies.