Ulrich Beck’s notion of Globalization centres primarily around market forces and the pitting of globalising processes against the nation-state. He describes globalization as the amalgamation of processes through which different nation states are ‘criss-crossed’, and their sovereignty undermined by transnational agents. More specifically, Beck views the advent of globalisation as causal to national institutions such as the welfare state and pension system being ‘opened up to political intervention’ . Beck’s point of contention with globalization appears to be twofold. He takes issue not only with how globalization has subverted the core task of politics (to ‘define the basic legal, social and ecological conditions under which economic activity first becomes socially possible and legitimate’ ) but too with the way in which globalization has manifested itself within society under the guise of normalcy and ‘without any complaint or discussion in parliaments’ . In this sense he sees globalization as malicious to national interest and unchecked as a process. Globalisation’s purge to national interest emerged, in the opinion of Beck, having been formed in the turn of modernity, something that he defines as the collapse of agricultural society in favour of industrial social structures. However, one of Beck’s most notable additions to the field of sociology is his introduction of the term ‘second modernity’. This formed with the demise of industrialism, and the consequential rise of tertiary employment in information and financial sectors. This could be seen as two, distinct, yet very separate, inceptions of globalisation. With the latter closely aligned to the undermining of national interest and state power.
Bibliography
Ulrich Beck, What is Globalisation, 2005, pp.10-22