The chapter provides a review of different theoretical approaches to globalization and options for its future development. It starts with identifying globalization theories' position within the social sciences group and some of their classifications, including Frascati Manual 2015, JEL, and the like. The interdisciplinary nature of the globalization process and its dynamics are revealed as the next, which continues by listing the most important international institutions specialized in its study. The chapter continues by naming the most significant national and international programs related to issues determining globalization's further directions. It finishes with an attempt to characterize the key features of potential alternative options for its future development.
Top4.1 Theories On Globalization And Their Position In Research Within The Social Sciences Group.
Theories about globalization are not conclusively rooted in the structure of economic and social sciences; they are dealt with by various scientific disciplines from different perspectives, their methodology, including its temporal classification in the historical context, and perspective on future development. Although globalization is mentioned in some systems of scientific disciplines (e.g., JEL), in others, it is ignored, e.g., in certain databases and classifications like Frascati Manual and OECD guidelines). This disparity not only affects its inclusion in databases but also influences perspectives on its classification, measurement, historical progression, and future prospects, leading to a wide range of approaches and interpretations. In addition, the relationship to the sciences at the interface is diverse, which is probably associated with a variety of methodological apparatus used at different levels of abstraction.
Theories of globalization are gaining an important place in contemporary social science disciplines, containing both structural or relatively static characteristics of this process and its dynamic, i.e., historical-futurological aspects. The diversity of theoretical approaches and models of globalization with a greater or lesser level of abstraction and thus incorporating into other scientific disciplines also contain an essential ideological element (Robertson, 1992,2009). On the one hand, the result is an optimistic view of the future built on preservation (Simon, 1996; Fukuyama, 2002) or relatively limited modification or modernization of the current socio-economic organization of the global economy and society.
The opposite pole is the negative view of the future, consisting of the inability of the current world order to find ways to resolve the global contradictions generated by the current model of global civilization. It results either in global austerity models and the restriction of the consumer model of humankind or in the need for further colonization of additional free space, this time in the interplanetary dimension (Hawkins, 2020). The grouping of different theoretical models leads to the identification of approximately six basic theoretical directions of gradually emerging theories of globalization. There are following theories of:
The modernity of technology is rooted in its universality, drawing upon longstanding Enlightenment principles that emphasize human mastery over nature and its alignment with the objectives of production, consumption, and, ultimately, the pursuit of global social justice. Modernist theories understand globalization as a consequence of the universality of modernity generated by the development of science and technology, which have reached the interconnection of the world in the form of a transnational, globally interconnected, and interdependent community. In principle, this optimistic vision includes the older theories of Aron (Aron, 1968) and the related sociological-futurological models of the new post-industrial era (Bell, 1973). The next was the concept of “technetronic societies” and “programmed societies” by Z. Brezinski and A. Touraine, and the “third wave” of civilization (Toffler, 1984, 1994), or the information revolution.