Book Description

In this book I develop the argument that the omnipresence of the contemporaryadjective global is more than a linguistic curiosity. I argue it is a politicalphenomenon and, as such, a valuable, albeit 'unconventional', object ofstudy for scholars outside the linguistics discourse. I argue that the omnipresenceof the contemporary adjective global constitutes the discursive reproductionof a web of meanings that is best labelled 'new world'. As such, the omnipresence of the contemporary adjective global constitutes a distinctdimension of the enduring contestation over the construction of the world. Given the word's current popularity and unscrutinised existence, as well asthe loaded nature of the web of meanings 'new world' that it brings out, Iargue, this dimension is not just a minor matter but plays an important, hence, research-worthy role in the contemporary symbolic struggle over theworld. My conceptualisation of the omnipresence of the contemporary adjectiveglobal as the re-production of a web of meanings 'new world' is groundedin two central insights that arise from my empirical engagement with the adjectiveglobal. The first of these two insights is the empirically groundedunderstanding that the contemporary adjective global is closely enmeshedwith the talk about (different ideas associated with the word) globalisation; Icall this talk 'globalisation'-discourse. As I demonstrate, the contemporary adjective global has come to be used in the sense of 'outcome of globalisation'. This makes the adjective a 'new word'. What is 'new' about the contemporaryglobal, I argue, is that it implies ideas that are associated with theword globalisation. I develop my argument that the contemporary adjectiveglobal is best be taken as a 'new word' by building on relevant discussionsamong lexicographers about when a word is appropriately called 'new', aswell as by drawing on a theory of language and meaning, according towhich language and meaning are not natural and referential but conventional and 'productive'. The second central insight that arises from my empirical engagementwith the contemporary global and that underlies my conceptualisation of theomnipresence of global as the re-production of a web of meanings 'newworld' refers to the word globalisation. It is the insight that all utterances, which contain the word globalisation, can be seen as constituting a discursivere-production of an object that is best labelled 'new world'. In other words, my conceptualisation of the omnipresence of global builds on myunderstanding that what all uses of the word globalisation have in common- despite and in addition to the myriad of meanings that are associated withthis word in whichever context it is used - is that they imply the 'proclamation'of a 'new world that came'. This insight makes what I call 'globalisation'-discourse different fromexisting conceptualisations under this label, such as the one by Hay andSmith (2005). Normally, the 'globalisation'-discourse is conceptualisedbased on a scholarly preconception of what the word globalisation refers to, such as market integration or the spread of neoliberalism. In contrast, mysuggestion that we understand the uses of the word globalisation as a discursivere-production of a web of meanings that is best called 'new world' isgrounded in an approach that takes the polysemy of the word globalisationseriously. In addition, it builds on an elaboration of the question how andwhen the concept/s 'globalisation' and the neologism globalisation came tobe "in the true" (Foucault 1981: 61), i.e. became socially accepted and'normal' tools to grasp the world. As I discuss in this book, developments, which have come to be addressedwith the word globalisation, existed before this neologism becamepopular at the end of the 1980s and in the course of the 1990s. Given thatmeaning is not inherent in social reality but conventional, the question arises, why a new word was perceived to be needed and accepted at the end ofthe 1980s and 1990s, i.e. at that particular moment in time. My answer tothis question is that this was because the end of the Cold War was perceivedto have brought out a 'new world', for which existing conceptual tools wereperceived to be inadequate. This 'new world' was perceived as having produceda conceptual vacuum. This is apparent in assessments, such as that ofIR theorist James N. Rosenau (1990: 5), who argued after the end of theCold War that observers were left "without any paradigms or theories thatadequately explain the course of events". I argue, it was this perceived vacuumthat opened the discursive door and let the concept/s 'globalisation'and the neologism globalisation step in to fill it. Consequently, the use ofthe word globalisation can be conceptualised as re-producing and filling theconceptual space 'new world' with meaning. It is the synthesis of these two insights that allows me to conceptualisethe omnipresence of the contemporary adjective global as a distinct phenomenon, namely, as a discursive re-production of a web of meanings called'new world'. This phenomenon, I argue in this book, is relevant and interestingin two respects