Page 52 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

38 Changing Definitions of Politics and Power

most part, social relations that close down future possibilities for some
as they open up opportunities for others continue routinely, accepted by
all concerned as the proper way to go on with life in common. In part,
this is because, in shaping identities and perspectives, cultural politics
changes preferences. Understanding “ how to proceed ” in everyday life
shapes individual aims and goals as well as permitting us to get along
together. It is only relatively rarely that cultural politics becomes a sig-

nificant force for change. Nevertheless, in complex, hierarchically ordered,
and unequal societies, there is always the potential for re - assessment of
the justice, feasibility, or attractiveness of existing arrangements. The
main way in which settled social structures become politicized is through
the formation of collective will in social movements, which makes issues
and injustices visible, challenges assumptions structuring the status quo ,
and represents alternatives. Although change is a permanent possibility
of social life, and ongoing, insofar as the reproduction of social relations
requires the continual re - iteration of symbolic meanings in slightly new
contexts, it is relatively rare that challenges to routine understandings of
“ how things are done ” coalesce into large - scale or fundamental social
change.

Contemporary p olitical s ociology

Arguably societies are currently going through fundamental changes
linked to the development of information technology. In chapter 2 ,
we discuss globalization, probably the most dramatic and widely ack-
nowledged challenge to sociological models of state - centric politics.
Globalization makes it difficult for state actors to control the traffi c of

goods, services, technology, media products, and information across
borders. State capacities to act independently in the articulation and
pursuit of domestic and international policy objectives have become highly
politicized as a result. The political authority of the state to determine the
rules, regulations, and policies within a given territory has to some extent
been “ scaled up ” in order to try to take control of processes and fl ows
of globalization. The “ internationalizing state ” raises diffi cult questions
for contemporary political sociology concerning fundamental assump-
tions about society that were established by the isomorphism of state, the
nation, and national territorial boundaries.
The empirical changes brought about by globalization problematize the
most basic concept of sociology, “ society, ” by disaggregating the eco-
nomic, social, and political processes previously seen as bound together
within the borders of distinct national societies. What Ulrich Beck calls