Globalization in a Structuralist Perspective - Kolegia.pdfVIP

WFES 1:1 2010 Globalization in a Structuralist Perspective Witold Morawski* Abstract h e author engages in a polemic with a structuralist perspective on globalisation. Whereas acknowledging the fact that the particular perspective has dominated the globalisation debate in recent years, he assumes a highly critical stand towards that view. In the authors’ eyes, there is no evidence suicient to support not only the structuralis thesis itself but also any deterministic approach towards globalisation. However, determinism – albeit of its multiple faces – still enjoys enormous popularity within the academic milieu, and even seems to be shared by the circles that consistently disagree on any other subject. In the end, it is argued the third wave of globalization requires a great deal of rel ection at the level of ontology, epistemology and methodology. Structuralism has so far been a dominant perspective applied in research on globalization. According to the structuralist view, globalization is taken for granted and seen as a manifestation of some deterministic logic. Most ot en, it is either technological or economic determinism or both employed together. Aside from the two, there are also other types of determinism favored by researchers. For example, since the publication of Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations, other determinisms (e.g. cultural ones) have become fashionable. McGrew dei nes that perspective as ‘thick’, because structural determinism works in an imperative way. * Department of Social Sciences, Kozminski University, Warsaw. 150 Witold Morawski In other words, particular causes always lead to certain ef ects. h e i nal result may always be predicted