Robertson Theory Of Globalization

Defining Globalization

For Robertson, globalization refers to processes whereby the world is moving toward "unicity" or "global unicity", the growing "oneness" of the world as a single, socio-cultural place. In moving toward unicity, the significance of territorial boundaries declines, a profound change because territoriality had been a basic strategy of geographic control for much of human history. The movement toward unicity refers to two features of the human condition for Robertson, rising connectivity across the world and "global consciousness". He adds that the analysis of globalization has often focused on rapid growth of transworld connections but paid less attention to the increasingly common phenomenon of people seeing the world

He describes them as "autonomous" from one another. At the same time, he argues that over time, these components evolve to be more differentiated from one another, while becoming increasingly interdependent. And as this differentiation and interdependence intensifies, the components themselves change. National societies become more ethnically and cultural diverse, international relations become more encompassing of all parts of the world, individuals assume different and multiple, and understandings of humankind become the focus of debates around gender, sexual orientation, indigeneity, health and wellness and so on. Robertson uses the concept of "relativization" to stress the autonomy and reciprocity of these four fields. For example, one defines one 's self relative to one 's national society, relations going on between societies and to humankind. All are relevant for the identities one assumes and acts

Robertson looks at the rise of fundamentalisms through these same lenses. Let us take the rise of Hindu fundamentalism as an example. On the one side, it shares similar properties with other fundamentalisms in the world – value-oriented, while seeking the reorganization of all spheres of life in terms of these particular absolute values. On the other side, it focuses on differentiating itself sharply from religions such as Islam, Christianity, Sikhism or Buddhism. Followers stress strongly the culturally distinct elements of being Hindu particularly in opposition to being Muslim. But in doing so, they change Hinduism itself by identifying core divinely inspired texts as guides, a universal characteristic of fundamentalisms elsewhere. Religious leaders employ contemporary communication media to articulate a vision of Hinduism independent of place, thus a universal ambition. Fundamentalisms reflect once again the particularization of universals about what a religion entails and on the other the universalization of one notion of Hinduism that speaks to potential Hindus anywhere in the