After Globalization? the Economic, Political, and Social Transformation of World Society

The decade of the 2020s started with widespread skepticism about the ongoing globalization process: Bloomberg News asked “Have we reached peak globalization?” (24/01/2020), and Foreign Affairs (2022) added “What comes after globalization?” Recent research demonstrates that while some globalization domains are suffering from a slowdown, other areas, like digital cross-border activities, are not affected and are even speeding up. This suggests a process of reshaping and restructuring of globalization, rather than of deglobalization. This panel invites empirical analyses of the ongoing political and social transformations of world society and nation states, but also theoretical contributions to the discussion of the “deglobalization” thesis. Issues that may be addressed include (but are not limited to):

• Re-examining and (re)theorizing the concept of world society in the context of deglobalization: How should the concept of world society as an analytical tool in a context of the “after globalization” arguments be further developed?
• How can we locate the ongoing transformations in the long-term historical and cyclical globalization dynamics?
• What is the impact of geopolitics and great power rivalry on patterns of (de)globalization?
• There are significant differences between world regions in terms of (de)globalization: Are we witnessing a regional fragmentation or a regional reconfiguration of world society? What does this process imply for the core-semiperiphery-periphery relationships?
• Are new technologies (digitization, interconnectivity, AI) shaping a profoundly new pattern of globalization?
• How does (de)globalization impact on democracy? Does rising protectionism, isolationism, nationalism and populism undermine democracy and democratic movements in the global North and the global South?