Introduction: Translating Globalization, World Society and Modernity in Everyday Life – Theroretical Reflections and Empirical Perspectives

Abstract

Discussions of globalization, world society and modernity are part and parcel of current social science. Why should we present yet another publication on these topics? A simple reason is that these debates are still going on, and new contributions sometimes emerge under new headings. More important is the observation that the debates tend to separate the two elements of the structure-agency nexus and often do not link empirical research to conceptual discussions. The theoretical debates on globalization, world society and modernity which analyse fundamental structural changes often lack detailed empirical grounding and fail to reflect processes in everyday life, even when they theoretically acknowledge the importance of agency. Studies in social anthropology and in wide areas of development sociology focus on the agency aspect. They attach importance to detailed descriptions and tend to neglect further conceptualization. The fundamental structural changes associated with globalization, world society and modernity often seem to be of little interest and are at best considered to be general conditions for everyday life without further analysis. We highly value all studies of everyday life, but we want to remind the reader that processes in everyday life can only be fully understood with reference to the fundamental changes which gave birth to modern social science in the nineteenth century and which are still the driving forces behind social science today.