Page 432 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

9781412934633-Chap-27 1/10/09 8:57 AM Page 403

THE DYNAMICS OF LOCAL-GLOBAL RELATIONS 403

Globalization as development embraces Local-global conflicts from intrusions
world prosperity rather than the total success where the global invades the local with nov-
of some over others. The global, however, elty, more rapid processes of change, and
has emerged as the new and the modern, with resources that redefine and influence
threatening traditional social orders based on local positions of wealth and standing also
established patterns of belief and values. For bring prospects for local prosperity and
some groups, the enemy is global, intruding autonomy. Nonetheless, local resistance is
everywhere. For those attached to the global, potentially violently destructive of the
the new institutions represent freedom and global. Often the local resists or presses dif-
opportunity, just as ‘new’ nation-states offered ferent priorities than the global. Although
an alternative to the restraints and limits of the local conflicts with the global can escalate to
local or control by aliens from other cultures. violence, they often appear only symboli-
Relationships across levels of human cally in demonstrations. The other side of
organization are inherently conflictual. First, global intrusions, especially when they are
the higher level always has more variety than invited by local groups, are additions of vari-
any unit does at a lower level. It has all the ety to the locality as well as connections to
variety of any unit plus that of all other units. alternative, higher level systems that allow
The probability of higher levels of aggregation the locality to bypass the controls of regions
yielding new types of diversity is greater than and states. In the coming decades, local
that of lower level units with less variety conflicts with higher levels are likely to be
combining into something different. Higher focused on the global, with the local attempt-
levels are also bigger and more powerful and ing to enlist national authorities to help in
can absorb lower levels. The main cities in a resisting global intrusions.
region, as centers of variety, have historically In sum, the transcendent dynamic of local-
functioned as centers of innovation. Second, global relations as a source of conflict is the
because higher levels have a greater capacity evolution of social (human) systems, incor-
simply to absorb variety from others, their rate porating the ‘classical’ ecological dynamics
of change is faster. The more variety a system of competition and conflict into processes
has, the less disturbing is any novelty because that tie globalization to developmental
it is a small percentage of the total. Higher processes. Globalization is a process that is
levels seek to absorb the local by processes of inclusive of all diversity through the integra-
incorporation, often resisted by the lower tion of social, political and economic sys-
2
levels. Conflicts between a higher level center tems. This process differs from that of
and lower level localities are aggravated by empires, where populations are subordinated
the spatial distances that carry a history of to a center in limited ways, but generally
conflicts between the center and the periphery. left autonomous in the pursuit of their own
As the lower levels adapt to change, they are culture.
confronted with more change from higher During the past quarter of a century or so,
levels and, as noted, at an accelerating rate. development has shifted from the national to
Nation-states have been established in almost the global (Teune and Mlinar, 2000). For
all parts of the world except those that are over two centuries the state, with its varied
least developed economically. Most of those political economies, exercised hierarchal
areas today have institutionalized processes control from a center which was justified by
whereby local and national differences can be economic growth and social justice and a dif-
resolved whether in regional governments, ferent, often new, overriding political identity.
new forms of decentralization, or negotiated The state is, however, unlikely to regain its
economic distributions. For the time being, at role as the main engine of economic growth
least in most countries, the worst of national and integration of small units into larger
conflicts with the local have been smoothed. systems. Although the state may control