Politics Of The Global (Barrows Lectures)

Though presented often as an objective process, globalization is frequently analyzed from subjective perspectives that are closed to their own historical and geographical specificity. Refusing the false choice between objectivity and subjectivity, Himadeep Muppidi considers the production of the global as an intersubjective process involving the interplay of meanings, identities, and practices from historically different locations.

Muppidi illustrates how the politics of globalization are played out in two multicultural democracies, India and the United States—particularly rich examples given the increasing interactions between them in the areas of global economy and security. Software experts and skilled professionals flow from India to the United States; the United States outsources service sector jobs to India. Although they differ in their approaches to worldwide regulation of weapons of mass destruction, India and the United States cooperate in opposing terrorism. Treating globalization as an intersubjective process reveals the different political possibilities (e.g., colonial coercion, postcolonial ambivalence, and postcolonial co-option) that are opened by global relays of meanings, identities, and power. Muppidi concludes by exploring a variety of spaces and strategies for resisting the colonization of the global. Himadeep Muppidi is assistant professor of political science at Vassar College.