Sociology of the Global System.

Abstract

In the first edition of Sociology of the Global System, Leslie Sklair argued that social scientists have not yet generally come to regard the whole world as a legitimate object of knowledge. He challenged this practice by establishing the conceptual viability of the global system and by presenting sociological propositions about how it works, and why it works in the ways that it does. In this second edition, Sklair updates his important research with substantial new material relating to intemational corporations, global environmentalism, the socialist Third World, effects of the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, changes in China, and the impact of the Green movement globally. He establishes further evidence that the global system-one based on transnational practices-operates in three spheres: economic, political, and cultural-ideological. In a world largely structured by global capitalism in its various forms, Sklair maintains each of these practices is typically, if not exclusively, characterised by a key institution: the transnational corporation, the transnational capitalist class, and consumerism.