Politics Week 1-4

Politics (Heywood)

Activity through which people make, preserve, and amend the general rules under which they live

Politics (core feature)

linked to conflict and cooperation

Power (Robert Dahl)

Power as influence over another

Power (Steven Lukes)

Power as agenda/preference shaping

Politics (Harold Lasswell)

Who gets what, when, and how

Narrow view of politics

Politics = that which concerns the states

Broad view of politics

—> politics as means or process of conflict resolution over “who gets what, when, and how

Formal politics

Parliaments, elections, government

Informal/everyday politics

Family rules, social norms, workplace dynamics, algorithms, social movements, NGOs, TNCs, digital platforms

Small-p politics

Everyday, informal, “invisible” politics

Globalization (definition 1)

Multidimensional and uneven intensification of social relations and consciencious across world time and world space

Globalization (definition 2)

Intensifying planetary interconnectivites, mobilities, and imaginations

Globality

An evolving social condition characterized by tight economic, political, cultural, and environmental interconnections and flows that make many borders and boundaries irrelevant

Global imaginary

People’s growing consciousness of the world as a single whole, which has weakened the national imaginary as a source of identity

Globalisms

Political ideologies driving policy agendas rooted in subjective views of the global imaginary

Dominant Formations

Embodied, disembodied, objectified, institutional

Great Unsettling

Globalization disrupts existing social, political, and economic arrangements, producing uncertainty and transformation.

Liquidity

Increasing ease of movement of people, objects, places, and information.

Flows

Movement of people, things, information, and places due to increasing porosity of borders.

Multidirectional flows

Flows move in multiple directions, not just one-way

Other characteristics of flows

Interconnected, conflicting, and can be reversed.

Solids

Fixedness of people, ideas, and objects in earlier eras

Liquids

Greater ease of movement due to technological advances

Gases

Even lighter forms that move more easily (e.g., digital communication).

Heavy

Hard to move (physical people, good, etc)

Light

Easier to move (digital goods, information)

Weightless

Almost instant movement

Structures (general)

Infrastructure, institutions, and regulatory mechanisms that shape flows.

Structures that expedite flows

Enable and facilitate movement (e.g., airline routes, global value chains).

Structures that block flows

Restrict or prevent movement (e.g., borders, sanctions)

Four branches of globalization

Educational / Psychological, Sociological / Cultural, Political / IR, Economic / Business

Dominant understanding of globalization

The economic / business branch becomes the dominant popular meaning.

Why it became dominant

Linked to the rise of neoliberalism and global institutions shaping policy and discourse.

Neoliberalism (definition)

Markets solve problems best; competition = efficiency; government should step back from regulation/interference; emphasis on individual responsibility.

Neoliberalism (key idea)

Ideas → institutions → policies → public meaning of globalization.

How meanings become dominant

Ideas → institutions → policies → public meaning of globalization.