Global Terminology

The development of global studies has been intimately connected with the elaboration of a terminology cognate with “globe,” joining it with, but in distinction from, members of a family of terms that includes partial, local, national, regional, international, universal, and ecumenical. In all those cases, “global” can be one of a contrasting pair, as in global/local. In each case, “global” takes on the connotations that make the specific contrast with the partner term.

The noun globe often is used interchangeably with world, planet, sphere, or Earth (also for the physical model of planet Earth). Each one of these has a different emphasis. Thus, world and sphere can take one of two different directions, world carrying with it a sense of totality or completeness, while sphere refers us to a body in three-dimensional space.

Global as an adjective in everyday use predated attempts to shape a field of global studies. Referring to planet Earth, or metaphorically to any object treated as a whole, it was used sparingly but unreflectively until the middle of the 20th century when its use took off. Globalization, however, has become the label for a big idea, emerging out of academic work, and adopted in public discourse throughout the world in the last decade of the 20th century.

The use of this term has employed both the metaphorical sense of totality and the reference to the Earth often in one and the same expression, creating often highly charged confusion. In French, clarity has been retained by using mondialisation for worldwide extension, of markets for instance, globalisation having been used earlier in the sense of totalisation, treating something as a whole.

Two other cognate terms remain largely confined to specialist vocabularies. Globalism has come to take on a pejorative sense and is employed largely by antiglobalization campaigners. Globality remains a technical term subject to debate within social science. Other derivatives from globe, such as globaloney, globology, and globalbabble are witticisms designed to deflate any implicit claims in the expanded use of global terminology that there is anything new in the world, or that anything new has been discovered.

In this entry, the main attention is on the rise of the new vocabulary rather than on any truth claims used to justify its use. But this rise is itself challenging for a variety of intellectual approaches to the topic, including the history of ideas, the sociology of knowledge, and discourse analysis. There is now a widespread recognition within the social sciences that the choice of terms is not a neutral thing. A new vocabulary may not only reflect a changing world but also help to construct it.

Given that global studies has a continuing contemporary focus, it is not just a changed perspective on the past but an active component in shaping the future. Moreover, defining an issue as “global,” encouraging a global orientation to world problems, is contentious. It means adopting at least a viewpoint, possibly taking a stand. If we get it wrong, “the fault is not in our stars,” to crib from Shakespeare, but it certainly is, in part at least, in our words.

...