Approaches to the Study of Globalization Manfred B.

Steger
Introduction

Even after more than two decades of intense scholarly scrutiny, ‘globalization’ has remained a
contested and slippery concept. In spite of the remarkable proliferation of research programmes for the
study of globaliza-tion, there are many different approaches to the study of globalization. Since the
beginning of self-conscious academic inquiries into multiple process of globalization in the early 1990s,
academics have remained divided on the utility of various methodological approaches, the value of
available empirical evidence for gauging the extent, impact, and direction of globalization, and, of
course, its normative implications. The failure to arrive at a broad scholarly consensus on the subject
attests not only to the contentious nature of academic inquiry in general, but also reflects the retreat
from generalizing initiated in the 1980s by the influential ‘poststructuralist turn’ away from ‘grand
narratives’