Analysing social change has too often been characterised by parochialism, either a eurocentrism that projects European experience outwards or a disciplinary narrowness that ignores insights from other academic disciplines. This book moves beyond these limits to develop a global perspective on social change.
The book provincialises Europe in order to analyse European modernity as the product of global developments and brings together renowned scholars from International Relations, History and Sociology in the search for common understandings. In so doing, it provides a range of promising theoretical approaches, analytical takes and substantive research areas that offer new vistas for understanding change on a global scale.
Introduction: World Society and Its Histories: The Sociology and Global History of Global Social Change ~ Mathias Albert and Tobias Werron Every Epoch, Time Frame or Date that Is Solid Melts into Air. Does It? The Entanglements of Global History and World Society ~ Mathias Albert Periodization in Global History: The Productive Power of Comparing ~ Angelika Epple Communication, Diff erentiation and the Evolution of World Society ~ Boris Holzer Field Theory and Global Transformations in the Long Twentieth Century ~ Julian Go Organization(s) of the World ~ Martin Koch Particularly Universal Encounters: Ethnographic Explorations into a Laboratory of World Society ~ Teresa Koloma Beck From the First Sino-Roman War (That Never Happened) to Modern International-cum-Imperial Relations: Observing International Politics from an Evolution Theory Perspective ~ Stephan Stetter Nationalism as a Global Institution. A Historical-Sociological View ~ Tobias Werron States and Markets: A Global Historical Sociology of Capitalist Governance ~ George Lawson The Impact of Communications in Global History ~ Heidi Tworek The ‘Long Twentieth Century’ and the Making of World Trade Law ~ James Stafford Third-Party Actors, Transparency and Global Military Affairs ~ Thomas Müller Technical Internationalism and Global Social Change: A Critical Look at the Historiography of the United Nations ~ Daniel Speich Chassé
Mathias Albert is Professor of Political Science at Bielefeld University. Tobias Werron is Professor of Sociological Theory at Bielefeld University.
Reviews for What in the World?: Understanding Global Social Change
Studying global social change urgently needs interdisciplinary collaboration. In this volume, this challenging endeavour is excellently being advanced in a most fruitful way. Richard Munch, Zeppelin University Bringing together leading historians, sociologists and international relations scholars, this book invites the reader to a unique interdisciplinary attempt to push forward the boundaries of international historical sociology. David M. McCourt, University of California, Davis
