Globalization, neo-globalization and post-globalization: The challenge of populism and the return of the national

Abstract

In the context of a perceived crisis of globalization, this article outlines key features of the globalization paradigm that bore influence in media and communication studies, observing two recurring and related weaknesses: underestimation of the continuing significance of nation-states, and overestimation of the extent to which cultures and identities had become ‘post-national’ and cosmopolitan. The rise of populism could lead to a post-global era, but it is more likely that it marks a reassertion of national policy and political priorities into the operations of global corporations and multilateral institutions. This raises the question of whether global communication studies need to be more concerned with national policy questions rather than with ‘the global’ as an entity in its own right.