World Culture

This book explores the development, content, and impact of world culture. Combining several of the most fruitful theoretical perspectives on world culture, including the world polity approach and globalization theory, the book gives a historical treatment of the development of world culture and assesses the complex impact of world culture on people, organizations, and societies. This is a provocative, synthetic, and grounded interpretation of world culture that is essential for any student or scholar of globalization and world affairs.

• Traces world culture back from the mid-19th century to the present day
• Includes numerous illustrations of key issues and empirical research
• Written in lively, accessible language for the student and general scholar

List of Tables vi

Acknowledgments vii

List of Abbreviations viii

1 Introduction: The Olympic Games and the Meaning of World Culture 1

2 Analyzing World Culture: Alternative Theories 30

3 Tracing World Culture: A Brief History 60

4 Constructing World Culture: UN Meetings as Global Ritual 81

5 Sustaining World Culture: The Infrastructure of Technology and Organizations 109

6 Differentiating World Culture: National Identity and the Pursuit of Diversity 135

7 Transforming World Culture: The Antiglobalization Movement as Cultural Critique 153

8 Expanding World Culture: Pentecostalism as a Global Movement 173

9 Opposing World Culture: Islamism and the Clash of Civilizations 191

10 Instituting World Culture: The International Criminal Court and Global Governance 215

11 Epilogue: Reflections on World Culture 234

References 241

Index 261

"Lechner and Boli's scholarship is extensive, theoretical, abstract and synthetic ... The authors engage in conceptual and theoretical refinement and synthesis of existing scholarship and extend that intellectual frontier with their own substantial contributions. Lechner and Boli ... deserve special commendation for the rich and illuminating historical context and examples." Choice

"Lechner and Boli have done their homework and the compendium they offer is valuable in itself."
The International History Review

"This volume provides a fascinating, and immensely broad-ranging, call to understand the complex inter-relationships between geopolitical forces and those resilient urban lives. Whilst as a source of multiple departures it should be of interest to an equally broad ranging audience, for those particularly curious about the often-neglected ways in which extreme ideologies seek to construct and reconstruct understandings of cities there is much to consider." Andrew Inch, Oxford Brookes University

Frank J. Lechner is Associate Professor of Sociology at Emory University. He has published numerous papers on global change, fundamentalism, secularization, and sociological theory. He is co-editor, with L. van Vucht-Tijssen and J. Berting, of The Search for Fundamentals (1995).

John Boli is Professor of Sociology at Emory University. He has published extensively on global culture and organizations, education, citizenship, and state power and authority. His books include New Citizens for a New Society (1989) and Constructing World Culture (with George M. Thomas, 1999).

They are the co-editors of The Globalization Reader (2nd edition, Blackwell, 2003).

This book explores the development, content, and impact of world culture. Combining two of the most fruitful theoretical perspectives on world culture – the world polity approach and globalization theory – the book traces the development of world culture from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. It includes extensive illustrations of key issues and empirical research, gives a historical treatment of the development of world culture, and assesses the complex impact of world culture on people, organizations, and societies.

This is a provocative, synthetic, and grounded interpretation of world culture that is essential for any student or scholar of globalization and world affairs.