Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Vol. 18, No. 3/4, The New Sociological Imagination (Spring - Summer, 2005), pp. 143-159 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20059680 . Accessed: 06/02/2013 21:54
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State: Redefining
Power
Published ? Springer
online:
Science
LLC
2006
The discourse
mystery, However,
of globalization
and points to a revolution from
it has many
faces,
is full of
or hope. context, a
all-powerful thesis my
is tantamount change of
in perspective, "methodological
paradigms
the
I would
nationalism" to a "methodological cosmopolitanism" (Beck, 2006; Beck & Sznaider, 2006). I will first examine this thesis in general and then, as a second step, develop it inmore
detail using the example of a key topic, the concepts of power and state.
What
Every begin reflexive
does "Globalization"
attempt with the rather to use
Mean
in the Context
discourse
the globalization
(or
and
societies
Goldblatt,
Rather, they alter the quality of the social and the political within nation state societies. Here
I refer from to the "internal within. what does "internal globalization" or "cosmopolitanization from within" mean? One globalization" or even "cosmopolitanization" of nation state societies
But
can answer this question by referring to the theory of reflexive modernization (see Beck, Giddens, & Lash, 1994; Beck, Bon?, & Lau, 2001; Beck & Lau, 2005). One central
operational thesis, basic indicator of reflexive modernization is the pluralisation of borders.
This is supposed to be true for so fundamental dualisms like the borders between nature and
Lecture U. Beck London e-mail: at the New (El) School School University New York, April 2001.
of Economics,
University
of Munich,
London,
UK
u.beck@lmu.de ? Springer
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144
Soc
(2005)
18:143-159
and unawareness, knowledge society, on the Other. If one focuses and means national
and
life and
death, of
We
borders the
or
between
there
borders
themes and dimensions emerging, within which opportunities of action for whom); for example:
economic cultural cross (e.g., (e.g., border asymmetry transnational networks, between mobility of flows structures;
and with
what
effects
(strategy
capital and
and life
communication making
decision
number
types
of
transnational
marriages, births);
political, state (e.g., (e.g. post national citizenship); legal lex mercatoria);
global risks (e.g., climate crisis, BSE crisis, bio politics, genetically modified
military, force); police technological (e.g., decision (e.g., community making the Internet formation, structures and social of NATO or for of a European location its consequences movements).
food);
police
independent
communication,
nationalism", which
(deviations are
in the
considered
the axiom
of the congruity of borders. In the terms of a "methodological cosmopolitanism" these borders diverge. "Internal globalization" thus stands for dissonance in the drawing of
borderlines ? the axiom of the incongruity of borders. In other words: borders are no
longer predetermined, they can be chosen (and interpreted), but simultaneously also have to
be an increase in plausible of drawing is both: ways to question borders. existing are no borders and economic When congruent, cultural, longer legal political, of exclusion. the various between contradictions Globalization, up open principles a legitimation crisis of in other words as pluralisation of borders, understood produces, as two conditions: insofar This under of exclusion. the national emerges Firstly, morality are recognized transnational contexts become the national social and political (and problem as national and ethnic in turn. Secondly, insofar as such), demanding solutions transnational one and the same lived context. within and are de-essentialised ties are pluralised, overlap redrawn and new borders and legitimated a growing anew. There tendency
At this point questions as to the distribution of memberships open up: On which principles are the internal hierarchies (between minorities, themajority and migrants) of communities or states based? In addition, questions as to the distribution of civil rights: Who, and/or which principles decide who enjoys civil rights (legitimate presence, employment, social security, political participation) and what exactly do these rights entail? Further, questions as to the distribution of global responsibilities: Why do we have to recognize a special moral responsibility towards other people just because by accident they do have the same nationality. Why should they be free of any moral sensibility towards other people for the sole reason that they happened to be born on the other side of the national fence? What loses any legitimacy is the fundamentally dubious assumption that such responsibilities are absolute within a border while
This exclusion crisis sets off
which a society gives for the exclusion of strangers be questioned by members of this society and strangers alike? Who questions, who decides, who justifies and who defines
who "Who" is? For example, may "foreigners" participate in the process of discussion,
definition
?
and decision-making
when
Springer
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(2005)
18:143-159
145
decision
ultimately
the members?
The right "racial
May
of
members
claim
a right to
The
to exclude in order homogeneity homogeneity"? right of "religious The constellation cosmopolitan which which are have asserted previously both internally been
others?
"ethnic
self-determination"? cleansing"?
Of "ethnic homogeneity"? creates demands greater it opens the onus up discussion of proof and
excluded,
redistributes
their legitimacy. The international controversy in 1999 brought this crisis of exclusion of the
it aWestern invasion of a sovereign state? Or
Was
did NATO establish a new priority of individual human rights over international law with
unpredictable consequences?
Drawing on Yasemin Soysal's (1994) study "Limits of Citizenship" and Aihwa Ong's (1999) work on "Flexible Citizenship", this crisis of exclusion of the national can also be
elucidated by way of the transition from national to post-national to global and political membership.
Entitlements
the nation conferred NGOs, others, solely national and no less longer "Border political alisation Established three and areas can be ? on
tied to
are
in turn, has numerous This, European etc.). legislation repercussions: can no longer be the comparatively in Germany low rate of naturalisation restrictive of German by the still comparatively regulations citizenships. citizenship interest exclude may be losing its importance particularly concerns altogether. because ? in life that there national norm, negotiable of Thus all-inclusive job, "transmigrants" welfare
systems
retirement
discrepancies" on a
contradictions become of
however,
borderlines. of
In other commitment
There which
influence,
to decision,
legitimated.
holds
only for questions of civil rights and political membership, but also for questions of bio politics (genetic engineering, human genetics) and of criminality as well as for questions of
employment at various One resulting law, environmental levels and leads modified this occurs BSE, food, etc. All policies, genetically to a pluralisation of strategic actors and strategic frontiers. is this: In the course of such a pluralisation of borders and the and conflicts, which assume new patterns and forms of
decisive exclusion
repercussion crises
development,
from becomes
to a "methodological
The Question
In the understanding
"societies". This,
"society" generally
are as many societies
however,
revival of the social sciences proposed here does not imply the "politicisation" of "cosmopolitan" sociology, political theory, history, etc. but rather of increasing the social sciences' awareness of transnational and methodological-organisational terms (Beck, 2006; for debate see British reality in empirical-analytical Journal of Sociology 2006, issue 1).
1 Tue
Springer
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146
state which is the creator, emerge and and of society. guarantor the state's within sphere
(2005)
18:143-159
Societies of
are
influence.
of nation state societies which defines and limits societies territorially, is deeply ingrained
in the self-perception imagination. of sociology, The nation to speak that the core in its categories gaze a has and become concepts, sociology's could limit say, in the sociological In this and the context, state of of perception. explicit and that
implicit national
processes. fundamentally We thus territory national constitutive territory versa: what companies, the
It is exactly
this nation
political analysis a priori of the social which is becoming sciences, of the pluralisation in the course of borders. for example, the assumed between national correspondence state as the related implication conditions. of Globalization to be or even read that In fact, the national however, What and the non
economic
and are
exclusive as a result
distinction of sovereign
processes. as a national as
is not
process. "national"
appears flows
of capital
labelled ? culture
understood outside
localised
national
territories,
in another country or in the digital space. This localisation of the global (or non-national) within national territories and of the national outside national territories undermines the key differentiation of the national and the non-national as being logically and empirically
exclusive mutually frameworks of the conditions, social which lies (Sassen, at the heart 2006). of so many methods or conceptional sciences
A widespread
sciences a relapse to is that an of the
the empirically
and questions An empirical an creates
oriented
social
of of
social
globalization
lead
a revival
sociological
qualified by numerous studies (e.g., Held et al, 1999; Beisheim, Dreher, Walter, Zang, & Z?rn, 1999; Sassen, 2006), but cannot be dismissed so easily in view of the over-theoretical
nature of the debate.
The conceptual
globalization
and methodological
state societies
study of cosmopolitan
should thus have the goal
sociology
of creating
of the internal
a "cosmopolitan
of nation
index ". This should include the systematic treatment of questions such as the following (Beck-Gernsheim, 2004; Beisheim et al., 1999; Beck, 2000; Beck, 2006; Held et al, 1999):
How nationality? many people How many in Germany, children Great grow up Britain, France, etc. marry context? foreigners? Of which
in a bi-national
? the place they How many languages are spoken? What do people most identify with or with the fate of the world as a whole live (local identity), their nation (national identity) (cosmopolitan identity)? Are these identifications mutually ex- or inclusive? In other words, how far and inwhich areas do local and cosmopolitan identities, for example, or national
and cosmopolitan ones, interconnect or clash ? and what are the repercussions? What
can be
of globalization, or products,
themselves
great
is the
exchange
of
cultural
programs
how
large
is the
share
of
[imported?] products on TV, on the radio, in the book-market, etc.? What do telephone ? the relation of domestic to international calls? habits look like within one country ? Springer
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(2005)
18:143-159
147
Similar to be as
data taken, of
ought however,
to be not of
taken
from
of
tourism
or travel of
Great
care
has
interpretation
or variables
proof
society". really
or behaviour be taken
further
towards How Or
to new
cosmopolitan
sensibilities
the
perceived
internal globalization become a bogeyman in peoples' minds? Or even: do both occur simultaneously, and if so, inwhich proportions? In other words, how do specific population
groups from or countries react in their self-perception, and, above all, of to universities, force police and the cosmopolitan borders in public in primary their lived debates, schools, organisations, to the pluralisation of Is a subterranean, relations? in their
transformation
invisible change in national experience taking place? Is the national frame of reference and one? Are the two linked in experience really being replaced by a cosmopolitan
contradiction or do they constitute an explosive opposition? Perhaps any relevant
statement will inevitably relate only to specific topics (migration, the global ecological crisis)? How then, and with what time-lags is this creeping internal cosmopolitanization
reflected in people's minds, attitudes and actions? And how can this complex trans
nationalisation
has appropriate to be done
of lived, work
and organized of
and production
practicable
indicators
of an empirically
the embarrassing
paradox
in transnational globalization"
It systems
difficult state,
up
of
and
conceptual
and
inconsistency. tools
What
is required, of analysis of
game, decode
of problems is an epistemo to
conflicts,
Ultimately,
of the
social
An appropriate transnationalised. being to this ontological of perception, is transformation, epistemological change corresponding ? that is, from a methodological to a methodological nationalism required cosmopolitan a new differentiation in turn necessitates ism. This in social and political between analysis ? are possibly of appearance the levels national in phenomena circularly misinterpreted, ? state framework the nation of analysis and the level of essence, to be i.e., they have analyzed cosmopolitan Use leading with are are of us and theoretically framework. the nation to believe state that we processes can paradigm are observing or processes state thus be or become very when illusory and mistaken, are dealing explained as transnational phenomena and dynamics in a
itmore
national entailing
in fact we transnational
identified
institutions
phenomena
and
of consciousness. ? even in
the
context
and practice
of a "transnational
index",
&
Springer
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148
(2005)
18:143-159
transnational assume
inflected historical and political etc., which, inequalities, by specific a variety zones of "national" in different of an open global appearances
conditions, economy.
This paradigm shift is founded on and signalled by a dualism characterised by the opposing
terms international and transnational. The dominant assumption and keeps politics, is that this differentiation
lends the world a new design. The national order was divisible
and of outside, experience at the centre encompassed of which the the nation central themes state rules of work,
resulting crises and class conflicts, perceived and processed against the backdrop of the collective unit of action provided by the nation. The international, located in the external
sphere of experience, corresponded and to the confirmed self-perception In this sense, is reflected the distinction image of "multiculturalism", in the distinction from and was always more in which exclusion than the national of strangers. it
national/international
a differentiation;
The opposing thesis of transnationality blows open this entire framework of meanings from the inside. Against the backdrop of the transnational, it suddenly emerges that national
and international cannot from national be one and clearly another. the differentiated, National international that realms no nor are can they serve to so separate that the of entities homogenous national is no longer transnationalisation open space from and the time, inside new de-nationalised, international. state
of power
the outside of
coordinates
is simultaneously broken a new and a new view is established, of perspective as already mentioned: the and the political, the social
In the course
world
This
is designed anew, justifying a new epochal term, that of the second age of modernity.
paradigmatic a logical the zero opposition or temporal of exclusivity, i.e., what internationality rather and an uneasy This transnationality co-existence should certainly is gained does of not however a new seen as a transition, not in the be
in the national
transnational
versa. same goes for conflicts of gender, The class, ethnicity, homosexuality, of social which though is also
they have emerged from the national realm have long left it behind and in reality overlap
and interconnect in the transnational.
evident ?
values,
cosmopolitanization
movements
conflicts,
and duties. rights ? to summarise to its conclusion be founded anew and class, as a
must
science
conceptually, of "modern
? must be removed from their fixed settings in methodological sphere, politics, etc. nationalism. They must be redefined or rethought in the framework of methodological cosmopolitanism. This has to be done elsewhere (Beck & Grande, 2007). Paradigm Shift in the Social Sciences from the First to the Second Age of Modernity
also
organisationally. power,
democracy,
economy,
Methodological Borders
Nationalism
of borders: the national Congruency of inside and outside differentiation dominates all areas; political membership and exclusive.
predetermined 4? Springer
to area: borders have according to be redrawn and justified; continually elective plural political memberships.
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(2005)
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149
Differentiation economy: of nation state and global
Economy
Differentiation
and of domestic economy within the order of industry (family/market) the nation state; transition from agricultural societies with local markets and production for hundreds of years, unchanged social cohesion was founded on
de- or ex-territorialised
methods where
of the economy without the reorganisation framework of a global state; rise structuring of a world-, market-, and ego-society, where capital and labour are mobile without limits, are largely urbanised, populations religions and ethnicities pluralised and social inequalities radicalised. Under these conditions "nationalism" becomes a "cure" that is worse than the illness.
religious rites to a national age of modernity, which is dominated by market economy, and national culture are mutually democracy determining and dominant.
State/politics
Apparently
a priori fusion of space and of space and identity: de Uncoupling = = territorial state nation state; spatialisation of state, politics and society ? identity: state state of equated with autonomy: state"; differentiation sovereignty "cosmopolitan national self-determination and autonomy: national tasks independence, sovereignty and the solution of central national tasks have to be solved transnationally; the loss of (welfare, law, security) coincide. autonomy can lead to a gain in sovereignty.
Nationalism
Methodological
social inequalities sociology: are solely and exclusively addressed within the national framework ? "consonant notion of unacknowledged ethnic-national of differentiation
Sociology
detached
"discrepant/dissonant notion of hierarchies"; acknowledged = world societal ethnicity; "migration" (upward) mobility. Non-hierarchical pluralism: universal coexistence of cultural differences; quantitative majorities and qualitative metamorphosis into minorities and vice versa; of
Ethnicity/ culture
Hegemony
majority
homogeneity premise; "minority problems"; hidden essentialism; non-differentiating race and space create a universalism; fatal discourse; political potentially assimilation and integration. goal:
de recognition of ethnic differences; new mixed forms (hybrids) and essentialised; lived relations ("diaspora"); plural ethnic of "here" and identities, the co-presence "there". Ethics Other"; of inclusive dominance exclusion: the "present versus the
Ethics
Ethics
of exclusion:
of the universal
"Interconnectedness":
particular ("cosmopolitan nation"). Internal globalization: "cosmopolitan The distinction implodes national/international frame of in the reference world
index";
the national and the globalization; international constitute two seemingly logically mutually exclusive conditions; world society secondary; primary backdrop (socially and in the social sciences) national society(ies).
transnationality; backdrop;
society
sociological
categories
"zombie-categories".
The Cosmopolitan
State: Redefining
Power
In the second half of this chapter Iwant to pick up only one topic out of themany ? and ask: How do the concepts of "power" and "state" have to be redefined in the global age? (Beck, 2005) In order to answer this huge question (in five minutes) or to sketch out an
4y Springer
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150
one theses: to to
Soc
(2005)
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exemplary economy.
has
refer
the
relationship
of
nation-state
and
global
The is:
between to change
world the
economy rules of
and the
the
state
now and
national
economy
in particular
has
gained
this meta-power
because
the cage of the territorially and nationally organised and dominated power conflict and has
acquired for power chess and new while changing power moves in the digital changing of the game space. So by "meta-power rules The game" of power. ? pawn I mean It's the like playing playing ? simultaneously the rules the nation-state along the way.
economy
the knight (given new possibilities of mobility suddenly becomes by information can thus checkmate the king ? the state. But suddenly the state may technology) and
also to "jump" and begin From what do capital summed up in the headline the German chancellor: can thus checkmate draw east their strategies of an "We the knight-economy new meta-power? newspaper and on Await in new The basic ways, etc. was of the principle of the visit It is
European
Forgive
the Crusaders
Investors".
precise opposite of the classic theory of power and authority which maximizes
transnational investors, overrun by or corporations: the threat of The their threat is no longer overrun of an invasion one but of withdrawal. being ? There is only thing worse
the power of
of being than
the non-invasion
big multinationals:
not
by multinationals. ? to make
This kind of authority is no longer tied to the execution of orders, but rather to the
possibility of going somewhere else to other countries better investments. It
thus introduces the threat of not doing something, that is, of not investing in this country. The new global economic power of big business is thus, in this sense, not founded on
violence makes "globally as the ultimate more rationale mobile, to force that is, not their will tied upon others; specific it so much to any location it is precisely this which and consequently
disposable".
While
foreign
companies or broken
threat
conquest,
rather
of transnational trade and deterritorially, exterritorially, by way of a new weightlessness activity in the digital space. This deterritorial conception of power reverses the logic of the
traditional Not understanding imperialism of power, violence, not authority. invasion but the retreat of investors constitutes but non-imperialism,
the nucleus of power of global economic power. The deterritorialised power of business need neither be politically obtained nor legitimated. Its implementation avoids the
institutions Deliberate inaction ? of no developed ? conquest democracy this such as parliament, nor even the courts threat of achieving and government. or meta non-violent, upon consent invisible, intentional capable of withdrawal it. This
is neither
conditional
power
change The
the power
rationale
to
of
? power is evident: Investment capital is the equivalent of fire power difference, the threat of not firing enlarges the power. Product development
the state is the equivalent of weapon innovation. Taxes can be defence
strategies
Springer
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(2005)
18:143-159
151
local and
and
national
markets research
against and
global
taxpayers'
increases
course,
rule. No
is
no
email address. So the more the globalization discourse dominates through discursive identity construction all areas of life, including the self-definition of one's own life in terms
of said 'self-entrepreneurship', before, often that managers unseen Two the more are ruling capital powerful the world. of strategies of get. This does not mean, as I
consequences
this meta-power
global
economy
are
really
remarkable. So far throughout history the rules of the game in world politics have been bloody and imperialistic. The new global meta-power is in its essence pacifistic (maybe not
in its consequences). The power of global capitalism derives from potential non-conquest.
Of course, global capital has to be localized somewhere and so it is imperialistic at the same time. But it is a kind of imperialism, which the invaded, even if they don't like it at all, vitally depend upon.
Second, even a perhaps and only "cosmopolitan ? at home time capitalism" and in a special is in ? sense, "cosmopolitan Global corporations" corporations are and maybe using and the making. is becoming policy
developing
nationalities and at the
the productivity
of diversity.
abroad employment
The mixing
their of is
of races,
central transnational the norm,
ethnic groups
for
and
resource
creativity
same
a dominant
against sets
stagnation and
is hybridization.
governance companies So
agencies.
the growing meta-power corporations. ? free to diversify their workforces often national against are transnational en minature. societies global corporations new other. But, are are very
M?lange It is exactly
open-end
scenarios.
categories capture
state
centred and power ? new the new wars and ambivalent of the too
paradoxes After
and
between But
the worse.
to recognize
that through all the confusion and threats the rising power of capital changing the rules of state power, but doing this in a pacifistic way, without democratic legitimation and with
"translegal" means at the same time.
Second dynamics
does
'translegal'
mean?
The
meta-power
game
derives
its
its forms
of development
and unpredictable
consequences
Springer
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152
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18:143-159
because strategically
in
this
way
the
negotiated,
between redefined.
broken The
up, state
monopoly
advanced
of law making
capitalist societies
Africa, Asia and Latin America, which are reshaping their legal norms and institutions under the regime of the International Monetary Fund and theWorld Bank. So the state no
longer law enjoys a monopoly over bodies, the production lex mercatoria, of law. A range of new actors ? firms, arbitration international institutions and NGOs corporate ? are
contributing to the diversity of forms of regulation, to the variety of settings of rule creation
and to proliferation of methods of interpretation and application of norms and standards.
Law is both: privatized and transnationalized. It is instrumental in structuring processes of transnationalisation just as it is being shaped through them. Thus property rights, patent
law, between environmental national and law and human transnational and rights contexts are the key areas in which the boundaries are blurred, and are remixed. disappear thus become ". They private organisations "as-ifstates
Transnational
co-operations
make
decision
collectively
makers,
binding decisions,
virtual organizations.
into fictitious
enterprises were
regulated by the principles of market and hierarchy; their power and their decisions were
economically nowadays same the determined corporations time as and limited, so that also have on the burden to make negotiation of legitimation decisions, trust, and was removed. and they But are at quasi-states political and
fundamentally
dependent
thus
become
legitimation-dependent
a sources As of legitimation. able to draw on public-state-democratic being ? of the economy is a chronic need for trust on the part of the global players unstable. So there is an interesting markets become up, paradox coming extremely
which can be used by NGOs: High power and low legitimation (economy) are confronted with low Power and high legitimation on the side of NGOs. They can utilize it to develop
their The of "legitimation specific of as-if-statehood of world and power". transnational become so to speak, economic evident include meta-power, not least from nation states the scope and that force binding norms are organs".
the norms
economy thus,
these
conceived
globally,
executive
This is what Renata Ruggerio, the general director of theWorld Trade Organisation was referring to, when he said in 1997: "We are writing the constitution of a single global economy". It is the neo-liberal project, which anticipates globally binding decisions. a universally valid and applicable "policy mix" is being propagated. Accordingly,
According to this, political reforms are to be geared to the standard of economic ? goals
the dismantling
adjustment the
and a lean of the national labour market regulation are the reform of into work. These its citizens goals pushes can remain In this way, economic power "non-political", ? ? above the global finance markets international economy minimum of "ruling" politics.
become
compass
So we are not living at the 'end of polities', but in a time of translegal meta-politics:
neoliberal regime represents a global reform policy. It envisions a borderless world, not
the
for
labour but for capital. This is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy through the structural futures are being reform policies initiated by the IMF and World Bank. Neo-liberal I just want to pick up two less familiar criticisms: First the contested on many grounds ?
Springer
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(2005)
18:143-159
153
distinction
between
mobility
and migration,
second
the
question
whether
the
neo-liberal
Population shifts within a national state meant mobility and were highly desired, especially in view of regional imbalances in the labour market. Part of the ideal of the 'flexible worker' is that he or she should go where the jobs are. The fact that this breaks up families,
because wives and mothers are also economically on active and must show 'flexibility', is
constantly ignored by those who are apologists for both market and family.
Mobility between national states, the other hand, is regarded as 'migration' and
subjected to major restrictions. At the border posts, 'desirable flexibility' thus turns into 'undesirable migration', and people who do what is so much demanded within individual
countries seekers' find or themselves being criminalized. who put They are, 'economic of refugees', 'human 'illegal immigrants', themselves in the hands traffickers' 'asylum ?
exchange. How
a transnational
can
in universalistic
within
dimension, enemies of the very mobility for which they insistently call inside their own country? Why then does nobody talk about "capital migration" but only about "capital mobility"?
There are well grounded arguments that the neo-liberal regime is not capable of
reproducing itself. Major elements of instability are: financial instabilities: or emerging markets; the series of financial crises in Asia, South America, Russia
'jobless growth'; unemployment, fragile employment, inequality, poverty and exclusion within and between countries and their nexus to conflict, security risks and withdrawal of investors; global environmental and technological risks; the downward trend of corporate taxes and the instability to finance common goods, nationally and globally; and political the market and tensions between freedom, finally capitalism
democracy.
For
regime proper
such
challenges
and privatization
of
the "world
provide no
risk
society"
In fact, for
(Beck,
such
1999) deregulation,
hazards Without the neo-liberal taxation, Without no a
liberalization
remedy.
infrastructure. taxation no
public
sphere.
public sphere no legitimacy. Without legitimacy, no conflict management and no security. To close the circle: Without forums and forms of regulated (that is, recognized and non violent) handling of conflicts, both nationally and globally, there will be no economy
whatsoever.
Third thesis This reveals a central paradox of the neo-liberal model of state and politics: On the one hand, it is orientated to the ideal image of the minimalist state, whose
responsibilities economy. The and state autonomy "as are to be to the tailored global to the enforcement market" has to be of the norms of global and adjusted easily replaceable
completely exchangeable; has to compete with the largest possible number of similar states; is expected to have institutionally internalised the neo-liberal regime of the global market.
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On the other hand, however, deregulating themarket and privatizing public assets does not
mean a weak state. What and stepping repression: up border is surveillance sentences, in prospect is a at habeas chipping patrols and being stronger corpus prepared state, or for trial for by example, in matters of jury, increasing as the weapon prison of the
terrorism
weak.
That
by
is, because
the states
economy must
Above all,
in turn be
a state is
sanctioned
resistance.
labour. reinventing
border controls. Those new borders do not function like the old ones. They look like cheese from Switzerland: They incorporate wholes and uncertainties because of flows of
information, transnational in any capital, people, risks. But because and of the enforcement of must new not borders be on a autonomy in a position their to accept convince societies even states must transnational rules of power. bestow Indeed, post-hoc legitimation come in a completely will often have about undemocratic decisions which manner, way, the political level, power states must be rather, of governments curtailed the and and
which
initiative
simultaneously
to the global
goal of neoliberal
simultaneously
have to be
minimised
Fourth
thesis Why do governments, parties and states find it so difficult to exploit this paradox for the revitalisation of democratic politics? As noted above, corporations with the advantages of mobility and a global network, are able to weaken individual states by
them the more off each other. This extension against dominates the national perspective of the the "translegal and rule" works action of people all the and thinking
playing better
nationalism
power
The world of big companies. of national and competitiveness, the encouragement rivalries, egotism by the mighty of co-operation and extending potential strength discovering transnational enables words, so far the economic actors fixation is the to play of politics second the individual states a decisive off
of finding institutional forms for it. On the principle of divider e et impera, this yet again
against self-defeating each other. mechanism In other (the the national last example constitutes
Iraq war).
At
actual
this point
power
it is useful
to introduce a differentiation
the extent to which state
between potential
strategies can counter
power and
the force
in order
to examine
of capital strategies. The actual power of states' is paralyzed by the twin self-defeating
mechanisms of neoliberalism and of nationalism. Potential state meta-power in turn is
global economic geography can be found if conceptions and paths of a despatialisation of state, politics and identity are developed and pursued. What does 'despatialisation' of state
mean? binding together taken Governments international in new impose are essentially legal agreements, in a transnational acting ? or as for example because is how cooperative space as soon as they Union negotiate ?join they forms (Beck, of have state 2005, in the European the responsibilities transnational sovereignty"
cooperation
create
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5). of
This states
strategy, find
states
of economic has its price. Under the conditions to the sovereignty in a nationality trap: If they stick the competition investment both for they intensify on the world in which of monopoly-formation market, the other hand, they reduce inter-state competition by
turn weakens
players.
on themselves,
their own national qualify the state thus becomes of the political and
to the development
the
cosmopolitan ?
constellation: national
The
problems to surrender Governments have opposed. so to speak, in in cooperative hands, agreements, new to open of central national tasks and up and but and also nationally, sphere. to achieve greater
opportunities freedom
the public
Fifth
vital
thesis In order to break free from the nationality trap both in thought and action, it is
to introduce is based a on distinction the equation between of autonomy and and sovereignty. From Methodological that point of view, sovereignty autonomy.
nationalism economic
military, legal and technological co-operation to loss of autonomy between leads and hence loss of sovereignty. ? if sovereignty is equated with economic However, i.e., creating solving political problems ? etc. social state then transnational growth, prosperity, jobs, security increasing in sovereignty: that is, the loss of autonomy in a gain results The political cooperation, to exercise of governments control increases with interstate the and ability cooperation diversification,
subsequent rise in living Standards which thus becomes possible, with their transnational legitimacy (human rights), with their technological and global economic strength. Sharing
sovereignty pooling does not reduce include sovereignty security and but, stability, on the reduce opposite, increases it. Trade-offs of and conflict, reduce military anxiety a loss of autonomy and technological Put differently, spending cooperation. ? can mean to urgent and transnational solutions national such as cooperative problems ? etc. falls in tax revenue, in sovereignty. and thus a gain So there migration, unemployment in de-nationalization, is a "national in sharing interest" in order to solve national sovereignty sovereignty and economic problems.
This insight is central to a cosmopolitan social science: A reduction in (national) autonomy and
a growth in (national) sovereignty by no means logically exclude one another, they are in fact even
capable of mutually strengthening each other. Globalization implies both an increase in the sovereignty of players (for example through theirpotential to act across borders and distances and
thus open up new options) while at the same time leading to a loss of autonomy of entire countries.
The sovereignty of (collective and individual) players grows in proportion to the increase in their dependency. That is to say, the process of globalization goes hand in hand with a shift from
autonomy logic cultural of based the zero on (national) sum game, independent new politics exclusion as we know to sovereignty on (transnational) based inclusion. The it from economic and colonialism, great powers, states and military loses its explanatory blocs, power. breaking the "national sound barrier".
nation begins
with
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transnationalisation
is going
to prevent
the next
My answer is: possibly the cosmopolitan state. The latter is founded on the principle of the national indifferent of the state. Just as the Peace of Westphalia was able to end the religious civil European wars of the 16th and 17th centuries by separating state and
of religion, state so and the national nation. so world Just the as wars only of the the 20th century could state be answered the the by a of of separation different national non-religious state should makes practice
religions
possible,
cosmopolitan
guarantee
co-existent
identities through theprinciple of constitutional tolerance. The curbing of national theology should lead to a redefinition of the scope and frame of action of the political just as did the pushing back of Christian theology at the beginning of modern times in Europe. In themid
17th century, this was inconceivable or even synonymous with the end of the world, and
today it is equally unthinkable for the theorist of the national, because it breaks with the basic idea of the political, the antagonism of friend and foe. And yet, following in the footsteps of Bodin, who defended the sovereignty of the state from the intervention of religion and opened the former to history and politics, itwould be possible to theoretically justify and politically develop this cosmopolitan sovereignty of the state by two principles: the enablement of genuine diversity and being grounded upon fundamental human rights. As already emphasised this does not imply the negation of the national but to its very opposite: the facilitation of national diversity within the new constraints of the global.
So what glitter meaningful adjective determination into avoid aside through indifferent the age and of again? does It the ancient is now which mean, "cosmopolitan" adjective ? to have both and possible "wings" ? without one's rooted renouncing origins The self-determination. presumes cosmopolitan against live whom? How at the two are same the victims time both of has suddenly to begun ? to develop "roots" The cosmopolitanism. question goes: self
affiliations "national" ?
but
it? How
can we
destructive
only violence? the post-nation, nation through Only plural-nation, overcome state can possibly in these destructive alternatives nation-tolerant or globalization. The culturally cultural as well So Other means: "cosmopolitan" acknowledging must be present, heard and have both, a voice equality in the
in homogenous
living which
cultural
difference. ? community
as politically.
In the ears of those thinking in national terms, this sounds like a completely unrealistic utopia, and yet many of its basic characteristics are already partly paid lip service, partly
reality. nationalism possible Every country is already to think Europe on that puts democracy to the kind of and human state. rights For me above autocracy only and really the way as a new cosmopolitan transnational, it is thus as-if-state
cosmopolitan
structure,
which draws its political strength precisely from the affirmation and taming of the European
diversity economic certainly The as a cosmopolitan Europe as well as guaranteeing globalization a realistic be or become utopia. of nations. idea of of the state the cosmopolitan nation the unrealistic state the which otherness cooperatively of the others domesticates ? this could
defined
self-reliant and
three positions: the against idea of the minimal, neo-liberal of a unified global state.
temptations
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state corresponds to the struggle of the cosmopolitan the concept for a political states regularly at each other's is more than a conglomerate of nation throats It is about overcoming & Grande, and the nation ethnic nationalism state, but 2007) which
requires of democracy,
are not
gender!
what that mean, does for example with of national difference In my in the islanders' it is not the opinion, Euro-scepticism their own national civilisation that deserves but rather their inability criticism, not cancel that a cosmopolitan it out but, does cherishes it. rather, Europe Europe Britain?
Europe would not be Europe without the British idea of civilisation. The most important historical event of the 20th century, the defeat of National Socialist terror,would have been inconceivable without the British determination to defend European values in Europe against the Germany in their fascist favour. This is a product of British history, a part of
British not cosmopolitanism Similarly, and dismissed. a founding it is necessary Poland, act of the new Europe which must France, be treasured, cosmopolitan but to discover Spain, Greece, cosmopolitan etc.
Germany,
cosmopolitan
Italy,
Seventh
thesis
Is
the
idea
of
the
cosmopolitan
state
transferable
to other
regions
of
the
world? Indeed, this possibility emerges clearly when comparing the political architecture of cosmopolitan states with national federalism: Both prescribe and establish a highly
differentiated, balanced power structure ? in the rise of federalism within a nation state, in
this in mind,
architecture unbreakable of
it is possible
state federation.
to
without and
of nation and unity a power vacuum. creating state, which systems alternative state of seeks rule of to and
The authority. of a cosmopolitan state Union a way federalism out of the politics could point ? in particular in regions of chronic state conflicts ethnic-national the alternatives, ? comes conflict Israelis or in the face of the between and Palestinians to mind as in the rise of Hong Kong or Taiwan by China. as one In the case of Israel
global, regional wherever there was the emerging previously only or submission thus state self-determination within national
either
of annexation
this would
consciousness others, devoid
assume
? of a
its cosmopolitan
collective power.
tradition,
sharing
the diasporic
territory with
exclusiveness
Eighth thesis The enemies of cosmopolitanization are easy to identify and apparently all ? but who would qualify as bearer and supporter of such a cosmopolitan powerful
transformation? modern Modern nationalism emerge was born out of emergent capitalism? national Or cosmopolitanism as a creation of global Could capitalism. is it, vice versa, that
radicalised global capitalism destroys the preconditions bindings and political freedom?
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that a cosmopolitan of democracy? I know,
Soc
(2005)
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could put
rise the
to become
a factor
in the of the
socialist
perspective
Workers' International upside down. Would it be even possible to forge the subpolitics of investment decisions into an instrument of power with the goal of establishing global rules
for wild capitalism on the one hand, and, on the other, to force the nation states to open up
to cosmopolitanism?
the labour movement serving politics, democracy this merely ? not
Is it at all conceivable
a movement to an employers' and become investment cosmopolitan the purposes of advertising but also constitutions, only rewriting in alliance with states? Or does transnational and justice regulating cooperating once and false raise false hopes consciousness again?
It is well known that in the social sciences there is nothing more risky than making
prognosis in power long term of especially global in behalf can short of economy, In the the future. Whoever focuses, ? indeed derive experimentally term, the protectionist as well a forces however, ? may on a short ? triumph defenders the increase and term
a
a
this
is a
environmentalists,
as xenophobic coalition
long
global
economy
financial (big business, lead to a cosmopolitan their rights, systems. specific interests
the political by
sides
advocates
of workers' legal
cosmopolitan At the
globally can also in a be economically successful only day, they themselves and others and social that guarantees security. legal, political, can and democracy extension of state, politics, the cosmopolitan justice only ? ? we are all as we all know But of business. the profit interests ultimately end of the
also
unreasonable depends
persists
in trying man."
the unreasonable
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