Connected, disrupted, entangled: nonlinear globalization

Habibul Haque Khondker

Chapter 5 in A Modern Guide to Globalization, 2025, pp 123-143 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter explores globalization historically as a nonlinear process. It argues that cultural encounters over history can be approached through three lenses: connectivity, disruption, and entanglement. Diffusion theories posited connectivity in terms of spread of elements of culture – ideas, tools, and institutions – examining cultures as layered or sedimented. Such images of layering hide the complexities of historical encounters. Climatic changes, pandemics, invasions, wars, and revolutions create disruptions. Such moments of instability causing disruption are commonplaces in history. Colonialism was a disruption, yet its unintended consequences helped foster globalization. A closer examination reveals that cultural connections were complicated; sometimes, connections were disrupted, alternating between autonomy and connectivity. The consequence of such processes of connectivity and disruption led to an entangled globalization, which can even be viewed as glocalization. The chapter examines both historical and contemporary cases to illustrate the interplay of connectivity, disruption, and entanglement – the three processes resulting in nonlinear globalization and, at the individual level, a deep sense of ambivalence.

Keywords: Connectivity; Disruption; Entanglement; Diffusion theory; Glocalization; Nonlinear globalization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781802205688
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