Global Sport

World sport often appears as one of the most powerful illustrations of globalization in action. This chapter provides a critical analysis of global sport. Four major areas of research and debate on global sport are examined: political–economic issues, centering particularly on the commercial growth of sport and inequalities between different regions; global sport mega-events such as the Olympic Games or World Cup finals in football; the emergence and institutionalization of the global sport for development and peace; and sociocultural issues, notably the importance of global sport to diverse and shifting forms of identity and belonging. Concluding recommendations are provided on areas for future research into global sport.

Trafficking

This chapter offers a global history, as well as cultural, legal, and political–economic analysis, of “trafficking,” a set of relationships and processes often constituted as the dark mirror of globalization. First, the chapter traces how the term “trafficking” emerged. Second, it examines the evolution of “trafficking” in the context of “drug wars,” from the imperial Opium Wars in China in the early nineteenth century to the twenty-first-century “narco” battlegrounds of Mexico. Third, it surveys how global studies-related research has developed critical lenses for analyzing the politics of “sex trafficking” and “human trafficking.” Finally, it examines the term “trafficker” as selectively deployed along racial and social lines in ways that produce obscuring pseudo-analyses of the violence of global capitalism that preserve the impunity of certain powerful actors, create monstrous misrepresentations of globalizing forms of violence, and stir moral and racial panics on a global scale.

Financialization

The size and scope of financial sectors throughout the world have grown exponentially in tandem with the rise of globalization and increased capital mobility. The terms “economic globalization” and “financialization” are often discussed as inextricably related phenomena. Although the rapid increase in the number and variety of financial services and products during the past four decades has helped spur economic growth and create wealth on an unprecedented scale, the devastating fallout from the global financial crisis of 2008–2009, and the economic turbulence that followed, demonstrates how poorly managed financial sectors can simultaneously cause enormous pain. This chapter argues that if the opportunities created by economic globalization and financialization are to be maximized, while at the same tempering volatile financial markets, then the global financial system (and the national economies connected with it) must be fundamentally restructured. A number of ways that should be taken under consideration are discussed.

Researching the Localizations of the Global

Although the global is often portrayed in opposition to the national, this chapter explores how the global can be structured inside the national in at least three ways that are significant for the field of global studies. They are a) the endogenizing or the localizing of global dynamics in the national milieu; b) the creation of formations that, although global, are articulated with particular actors, cultures, or projects; and c) the denationalizing of what had historically been constructed as national. Global studies research into such subnationally based processes and dynamics of globalization requires methodologies and theorizations that engage not only global scalings but also subnational scalings as components of global processes. It makes possible the use of long-standing research techniques in the study of globalization, and it provides a bridge between globalization and the wealth of national and subnational data sets.

Pandemics

This chapter discusses the history of and responses to global epidemics of serious diseases. Case studies of cholera, influenza, and HIV/AIDS illustrate typical reactions to pandemic events. The initial stages of a pandemic are often characterized by collective anxiety and a desire for isolation. As the pandemic progresses, there are calls for collective global responses to protect human security and contain outbreaks while maintaining international trade and travel. As pandemics enter a recovery phase, there is often a shift toward the use of advocacy to promote international cooperation, secure continued funding for global health activities, and advance other strategic goals. The rhetoric of pandemics is now being used to describe obesity and other emerging noncommunicable diseases because the language of pandemics connotes risk and demands global action. Pandemics are the result of global interactions and globalization processes, and studies of pandemics are, by definition, global studies.

Problem Orientation

Globalization is complex, dynamic, and unpredictable. A commensurably dynamic mode of analysis is thus required for the necessary task of comprehending globalization’s intricacies and consequences. Adopting a creative, problem-based technique, this chapter develops a global approach to problem orientation. Irregular migration is the topic focus used to map out how a complex problem space can be constructed and how notions of complexity can be imaginatively applied to explore avenues for global response. A global problem orientation accepts that new knowledge can form at the interstices of different systems or schools of thought. The creative–imaginative technique discussed in this chapter encourages the use of divergent models or paradigms in tandem to enable thick description and deep analysis of complex problem spaces.

Transdisciplinarity

This chapter assesses transdisciplinarity as an epistemological and methodological approach to research and teaching in the emerging field of global studies. It posits that the world’s most pressing problems in the areas of migration, health, and intersectional identities, to name a few, are unlikely to be addressed convincingly by inquiries rooted exclusively in singular social science disciplines. At the same time, transdisciplinarity is understood as a means to complement disciplinary research, not to dispense with it. By foregrounding global–local dynamics and their effects across scales, global studies can draw from a wealth of approaches and experiences in interdisciplinary scholarship without becoming entangled in protracted epistemological battles over scholarly turf. This chapter then provides examples of transdisciplinary research in global studies and closes by stressing the importance of disciplinary methodological innovations as building blocks for multimodal designs and arguing for methodological rigor in global studies, whether transdisciplinary or not.

The Female Body in Global Media

This chapter examines the relationship between the body, globalization, and the media. It discusses how the female body is subjected to being “played” in the global media and what that reveals of gender and minority–majority relationships and of global aims and fears. The cases presented in this chapter serve as samples of “sexy violence” imagery that cannot be thoroughly explained by theories of objectification, liberation, or commodification of women but, rather, are considered in reference to the socially constitutive role of globalization. Although the female body may function to discursively dissolve, enforce, or alleviate conflicts embedded in the processes and discourses of globalization, the preoccupation with “sexy violence” imagery in the global media does not necessarily offer a solution to global concerns but, rather, plays out the fears, aims, and anxieties about globalization through violence and aggression.

Global Food Policies

In this chapter, global food policy is depicted as focusing on the elimination of hunger and improvement of food security for all persons while simultaneously satisfying their dietary needs and food preferences. This chapter provides a brief history ranging from late-nineteenth-century practices to the current impact of economic globalization on food systems. This is followed by a review of the current state of hunger and malnutrition, including the persistence of these despite major increases in global food production. Emphasis is placed on the need to develop food policies, including the right to food, using an interdisciplinary approach in the context of global studies. Such an approach calls attention to ethical and legal principles that affirm the right to sufficient and nutritious food. This understanding of political, economic, ecological, social, and cultural conditions will ensure the development of critical thinking with respect to the agenda of global food politics.

Digital Connectivity

Digital connectivity has become central to the daily lives of billions of people throughout the world. This chapter employs the growing digitization of food as a way of grounding and materializing people’s engagements with the digital. The first section discusses the role of digital connectivity in relation to lifestyle and consumption. The next section on cultural economies of participation discusses the growing role of ordinary people as key participants in online food cultures in terms of the rise of “prosumerism” via video-sharing platforms such as YouTube. The third section turns to questions of food politics and the digital and also the constraints and affordances of digital connectivity in relation to food activism. The final section discusses the growing role of transnational corporate food players in social media space and the limits of data sharing and so-called informational transparency in an era of data monitoring and “big data.”