Re-thinking society: How can sociological theories help us understand global and cross-border social contexts?

Abstract

Globalization and cross-border studies have changed the ways in which sociological theorists think about space. Rather than viewing society as integrated, placing individual and collective actors in clearly bounded spaces nested within each other, this article combines several differentiation theories of society as a first step towards achieving an abstract language that can account for a plurality of comprehensive social contexts, thus relating actors to socio-spatial contexts in various ways. Starting with Simmel, the article discusses how some social contexts, such as the state, use the territory to gain exclusivity, whereas other social contexts are non-territorial in nature. Further types combine social and spatial differentiation. The article expands on Simmel’s socio-spatial forms with the help of newer systems theories proposed by Luhmann and Walby and Bourdieu’s field theory. The article provides cross-border and transnational studies with a comprehensive typology of socio-spatial forms. The argument contributes to global studies by considering a plurality of content-differentiated globalization logics and by clarifying the relationship between macro-social contexts and actors. In organizations, networks and professions, content differentiation, spatial segmentation and actors’ contestation intertwine.