Connectivity and Global Studies

Book excerpt: This textbook provides readers with evocative and analytical accounts of social processes that are linked to globalization and connectivity, which includes a wide range of multi-centred connections in history, DNA analysis, technology, art, populism and political economy. Rather than globalization, Nederveen Pieterse focuses on connectivity. His approach to globalization differs from both structuralist accounts of the world-system, and the institutionally-centred focus of much work in international studies. This synthesis will provide a new resource to reconstruct theoretical approaches to globalization and global studies. Fluently written, clearly organized and with an interdisciplinary approach, the book will be accessible to upper division undergraduates and graduates in social sciences, including students and researchers from the fields of sociology, politics, political economy, development studies and international relations.