SOCIOLOGY, GLOBALIZATION AND POSTMODERNITY - COMMENTS ON THE SOCIOLOGY FOR ONE WORLD THESIS

As processes of globalisation transform economic and cultural life and render the received image of society problematic, what are the prospects for sociology? One view is that there has been a retreat from international endeavour and an increasing preoccupation with diversity, difference, tradition, locality and indigenisation as the discipline has embraced postmodernism. In contrast, it is argued that postmodernism already constitutes an international discourse and that recognition of the increasing significance of global transformations has opened up the analytical frame beyond modernity. Both international and local or regional forms of sociology are necessary for understanding the complex articulation of global processes with local or regional conditions, and it is in this context that an 'interpretive' internationalised sociology informed by postmodern preoccupations belongs.