Contemporary Social Theory

10 Globalization
308
The globalization debate
310
Global cosmopolitanism
318
Globalization since 9/11
322
Criticisms of the globalization debate
328
Globalization, work and the new economy
328
Uncertain lives in the global electronic economy
332
Globalization, communication and culture
334
Globalization and the new individualism
337
Summary points
338
Further questions
340
Further reading
340
Internet links
340
Afterword: Social Theory Today and Towards 2025:
From 
Giorgio Agamben to Manuel DeLanda
342
Further reading
351
References
352
Index
385
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Preface and
Acknowledgements
There are few areas of academic enquiry as diverse, multidisciplinary and
politically important as social theory. In writing this book, I have sought to
develop a readable, comprehensive and critical introduction to the field of
contemporary social theory. This, in itself, might be considered something
of a tall order – given that social theory now manages to scoop up everything
from self-identity, sexuality and signifiers to gender, globalization and
governance. In seeking to provide a reasonably comprehensive account of
contemporary social theory, I have tried to cover most of the major traditions
of thought – from the Frankfurt School to postmodernism, from struc-
turalism to post-feminism – along with overviews of many recent cutting
edge developments. As such, the book includes detailed discussions of
globalization and the global electronic economy, postmodernism, the rise
of networks and processes of societal liquidization – among other new
topics of key importance. 
At the outset, this is perhaps the place to comment on and clarify not only
the developments in social theory reviewed in the chapters that follow, but
also some of the omissions from this book. Social theory emerged in the
context of the European Enlightenment, and has for the most part remained
a largely continental affair in its traffic with the fundamental questions about
the social dynamics of our lives and of our lives in the age of modernity. If
contemporary social theory represents, among other things, a kind of acad-
emic shorthand for the intellectual contributions of, among others, Michel
Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva, Jean Baudrillard and
Luce Irigaray, this says something about not only the richness, diversity and
esotericism of social theory itself, but also the ambitious critique it has
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developed of our current ways of life. Contemporary social theory, as I argue
throughout this book, is a kind of doubled enterprise: a resourceful, high-
powered and interdisciplinary project of the social sciences and humanities
on the one hand, and an urgent critique of ideological thought and the
discourses of reason, freedom, truth, subjectivity, culture and politics on the
other. At its best – and my argument is that the best is to be found in the
writings of Herbert Marcuse, Jürgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony
Giddens, Judith Butler, Zygmunt Bauman, Giorgio Agamben and many others
– contemporary social theory provides a sophisticated, scintillating critique
of the arrogance of power as well as engaging the future of progressive
politics.
All of which brings me to the omissions of this work. The first is of any
serious appraisal of the North American traditions of social theory. Readers
will no doubt discern various thematic cross-references to some aspects of
American social thought – of, say, Daniel Bell, Christopher Lasch or Noam
Chomsky – in the mainly European social theory I discuss. It is the case 
that I discuss some of the most important social theorists working in the
United States today: Fredric Jameson, Judith Butler, Manuel Castells, Charles
Lemert and Manuel DeLanda. Yet all these figures are substantially indebted
to the European tradition of social theory in some form or another.
Moreover, it seems to me that the large bulk of current American social
thought, at least that which is politically progressive, is also derivative 
of continental traditions of social theory. The other omission arises as a
result of the embarrassment of riches which social theory presents in our
own time. Some readers may be surprised to discover that, for example,
there is no coverage of the ‘systems theory’ of Niklas Luhmann. Nor the
hermeneutics of Paul Riceour. Nor the actor-network theory of Bruno Latour.
The omission of such figures is, of course, partly a consequence of pro-
ducing a book that didn’t end up the size of a door-stooper. But it also
reflects my own rating of not merely the ‘stock-market’ fortunes of particular
theorists, but the political usefulness and value of the work of certain critics.
There is, in short, no value-free way of doing social theory; and to that degree
my choices reflect my preferences. Then there are those whose work I should
have very much liked to include had space permitted: again, among others
– Stuart Hall, Jean Laplanche, Richard Rorty, Gianni Vattimo, Umberto 
Eco, Roberto Unger, Noberto Bobbio, Emanuel Levinas and Manfred Frank.
These figures I hope to include in some future edition of the book, or
perhaps a companion volume.
I should like to thank various people who have helped in the writing of
this book. I am very grateful to Gerhard Boomgaarden, my friend and editor
at Routledge, for ‘insisting’ that I write this book: almost every introduction
to social theory I have read seems, somehow, to fall wide of the mark. This
is perhaps less a reflection of poor scholarship than an indication of a
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dynamic interdisciplinary terrain. Against this backdrop I was often doubtful
that I could come up with an approach that would be at once theoretically
serious and personally engaging. To the extent that I might have succeeded,
I remain grateful for the many ways in which Gerhard, along with his
assistant Miranda Thirkistle, has assisted with the project.
Since there is no value-free way of engaging with social theory, perhaps
this is the place for me to record my own debt of acknowledgement to 
those with whom I have studied, and learnt from, over the years. The late
Alan Davies at Melbourne University was marvellously helpful in gearing 
me to think in novel ways about the relationship between our social and
private worlds. The period of study I undertook with Tony Giddens at
Cambridge University in the late 1980s was transformative, and I remain
profoundly indebted to him for the various ways in which he has helped 
to shape my sociological outlook. I owe to the late Cornelius Castoriadis 
an immense intellectual debt, specifically as regards the analysis of the
creativity of action. To Zygmunt Bauman I also own much – particularly for
his instruction on the value of persistence, as well as how to both think 
and act against the grain of academic orthodoxy. And to Charles Lemert, 
with whom it has been my good fortune to work these recent years, who
reviewed the manuscript and made some superb last-minute suggestions
for improvement.
I should like to thank the following colleagues and friends: Bryan S.
Turner, John Urry, Nick Stevenson, Jeffrey Prager, David Held, Paul du Gay,
Jessica Evans, Anthony Moran, John B. Thompson, Mary Holmes, Bob
Holton, Sharyn Roach Anleu, Peter Redman, Stephen Frosh, Alison Assiter,
Larry Ray, Paul Hoggett, Deborah Maxwell, Elizabeth Williams, John O’Neil,
Keith Tester, Kriss McKie, Jean and Keith Elliott, Carmel Meiklejohn, Conrad
Meyer, Simon Smith, and Jem Thomas. 
Daniel Chaffee and Eric Hsu played an absolutely fundamental role in
the whole project, especially towards its final stages. They were really won-
derful to work with, and I am especially grateful for their labours in pulling
threads of the project together. Eric also undertook bibliographic and
reference research, and I owe to him huge thanks for his input to this. 
Many thanks to Rictor Norton for expert proof-reading and also thanks to
Maggie Lindsey-Jones at Keystroke for project managing this title through
to printing stage. Tamara Waraschinski undertook valuable research into
various social theory websites. I also wish to thank students involved in the
Flinders Social Theory Group.
Above all, I should like to thank Nicola Geraghty – along with our chil-
dren Caoimhe, Oscar and Niamh – for their support, encouragement and
help. This book has been a number of years in the making – written variously
in Bristol, Dublin, Canterbury and Adelaide – and I most certainly could not
have done so without their love. To the extent that our youngest, Niamh, is
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the budding social theorist of the family – the child’s instinctive curiosity
(as Freud argued) is disabling to the established adult world, and thus a
suggestive model for social theory – I dedicate the book to her.
Anthony Elliott
Adelaide, 2008
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