A kaleidoscope of societies. Variations of contents of international, transnational, global and world society

Abstract

Although terms of society and its nexus to the globe are widely used, their socio-scientific meaning needs clarification. The aim of this article is to achieve that, while returning to the basic premise that sociology is the primary discipline that has to deal with concepts of society. Four typical terms of society and its nexus to the globe can be distinguished: international society, transnational society, global society and the term world society. The central question of the article refers to these concepts and the variation of these terms as well as their use; and it also refers to a discourse in conceptualisations of world society, in which case the similarities and differences between the approaches are worked out. The author concludes that in order to understand society and its nexus to the globe, there is an urgency to make available accurate meanings and to clarify universally recognised definitions and use of the terms. The suggestions bring us to the fundamental issue of the clarification of terms used within the social sciences.