Globalization and Social Problems

Abstract

One of the dangers of analyzing contemporary social issues is that they are, almost by deŽnition, constantly changing. Research and writing, not to mention all the editorial processes associated with publishing, take time. So, it is often difŽ cult to make work truly topical for readers—by the time books and articles appear, the world tends to have changed; today’s central concerns are rarely those of next month or next year, much less several years ahead. As social scientists, we are notoriously bad at anticipating the future. So, only on fairly rare occasions does a theme for a long-term project resonate with current concerns as it appears in print. The UCI editorial team selected “Globalization and Social Problems” as the theme for a special issue of the journal back in the late spring of 1998, shortly after we were picked to host the journal ofŽce between 1999–2002. At that time, we tried to choose a topic that not only tapped into a vigorous debate in intellectual circles, but also might reect some of the changing realities of the world at the turn of the millennium and offer some insights into its problems. One motivation involved an academic agenda to attempt to “broaden” this journal’s intellectual purview: there was a sense, prevalent among scholars who share my general research interests in understanding the world-system, that Social Problems’ main focus was on the United States, with only occasional attention to “comparative” research on other societies, and scant attention to the way truly global forces create social inequalities and human suffering, or affect the way people perceive what is problematic. We wanted to introduce the readership of Social Problems to this kind of thinking, as well as open up the journal’s pages to authors who might not have previously considered it a potential outlet for their work. But there was also a more abstract belief that taking a “global perspective” can provide important—or perhaps even necessary—insights for developing approaches to deal with the most difŽ cult and intractable social problems we will face in the 21st century. Given the high degree of interdependence and the sheer velocity of international interaction and exchange, this might seem obvious. But here in the United States, which is a large and diverse country—but, nevertheless, has tended to be rather insular—this is a message that needs to be strongly emphasized and constantly reinforced, since our fellow citizens (including some of our scholarly colleagues) sometimes seem oblivious about how the world impinges on the U.S., or visa versa. As I write this at the end of September 2001, there is a stark awareness that the U.S. is inextricably embedded in a larger, more complex, and much more dangerous world than most Americans thought. The horrible events of 9/11, broadcast live to this country and the world, were shocking and incomprehensible to many people. Even now we are “too close” to this disaster to attempt to explain or understand it—or to predict how it will affect our collective future. But what is clear is that the foreign nationals who hijacked and piloted jet airliners into buildings in Washington and New York, raining death and destruction onto those cities, graphically and violently illustrated that global forces can impact people here in the United States. The world now warily waits for the U.S. military to begin its “war on terrorism,” wondering if the response will be measured or massive, and whether retaliation will punish the