Abstract
The chapter starts with the challenge against methodological nationalism to envisage alternative ways to measure globalization. The first of them is based on the study of cities; the second on the study of individual experiences and persons. The chapter also draws a number of conclusions. In particular, on one hand it emphasises that the various approaches to the measurement of globalization should be viewed as complementary, not as antithetical, because each of them is able to grasp some aspects of the phenomenon but not its entirety. On the other hand, the chapter stresses that, despite the wide variety of instruments available, there are some features of globalization which, by their nature, seemingly evade any attempt at their measurement; features which, in the author’s opinion, are those most distinctive of globalization.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
This sum instead gives what Taylor (2004, p. 68) calls the “total service value” of a city.
- 3.
Taylor (2004, p. 69) reports that the score obtained by each city can be expressed in absolute form or, more conveniently, as a proportion of the overall value of all the connections identified (4,078,256), or again as a proportion of the largest individual connectivity value (in this case, the city at the top of the classification, London, assumes value 1). It is evident that, whatever solution is adopted, this does not alter either the relative order or the proportional relations among the cities in terms of Global Network Connectivity.
- 4.
In this case, however, the scores relative to the presence of each NGO in the various cities have been attributed using a scale from 0 to 4 rather than 0 to 5.
- 5.
One of the reports publishing the results of the 2010 Global Cities Index provides the respective values of the index for each city. These values range from a minimum of 0.25 for Chongqing to a maximum of 6.22 for New York (A.T. Kearney 2010, p. 3). However, it is not explained how these scores have been calculated.
- 6.
Beijing was 12th in 2008. It seems likely that the Chinese capital has been partly penalized by the introduction of the variable relative to level of censorship. However, this variable has limited weight on the overall value of the index.
- 7.
As said, the reference year for the data used by the Global Cities Index has not been stated by its authors. In light of analogous experiences, one can only hypothesise that there is a two-year delay between the moment of publication of the index and the year to which the data refer, which, for the first version of the instrument, can therefore be identified as 2006.
- 8.
I have emphasized ‘deliberate’ because consumers very often do not know the real origins of the products that they use: in the absence of such awareness, it is difficult to collect information useful for construction of the index.
- 9.
The following part of the section includes some passages from Caselli (2008).
References
Augé, M. (1992). Non-lieux. Paris: Seuil.
Beck, U. (2000). The cosmopolitan perspective: Sociology of the second age of modernity. British Journal of Sociology, 51(1), 79–105.
Beck, U. (2004). Der kosmopolitische blick order: Krieg ist frieden. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
Caselli, M. (2004). Some Reflections on Globalization, Development and the Less Developed Countries. CSGR Working Paper, 152.
Castells, M. (1996). The rise of network society. Oxford: Blackwell.
Cowen, T. (2002). Creative destruction. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
De Lombaerde, P., & Iapadre, P.L. (2007). International integration and societal progress: a critical review of globalisation indicators. Paper for II OECD World Forum on ‘Statistics, Knoledge and Policy: Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies (pp. 1–16).
Foreign Policy (2008). The 2008 global cities index. Novembre–December.
Friedmann, J. (1986). The world city hypothesis. Development and Change, 17, 69–83.
Giaccardi, C., & Magatti, M. (2003). L’io globale. Dinamiche della socialità contemporanea. Roma-Bari: Laterza.
Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self identity. Cambridge: Polity.
Hannerz, U. (1990). Cosmopolitans and locals in world culture. Theory, Culture & Society, 7(2–3), 237–251.
Holton, R. J. (2005). Making globalization. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Kearney, A. T. (2010). The urban elite. The A.T. Kearney global cities index 2010. Chicago: A.T. Kearney.
Kennedy, P. (2010). Local lives and global transformation. Towards world society. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kratke, S. (2002). Medienstadt. Opladen: Leske & Budrich.
Ley, D. (2004). Transnational spaces and everyday lives. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 29(2), 151–164.
Lloyd, P., Mahutga, C. M., & De Leeuw, J. (2009). Looking back and forging ahead: Thirty years of social network research on the world-system. Journal of World-Systems Research, 15(1), 48–85.
Ray, L. (2007). Globalization and everyday life. Abingdon: Routledge.
Robertson, R. (1992). Globalization: Social theory and global culture. London: Sage.
Sassen, S. (1991). The global city: New York, London, Tokio. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Sassen, S. (2000). New frontiers facing urban sociology at the Millennium. British Journal of Sociology, 51(1), 143–159.
Sassen, S. (2007). A sociology of globalization. New York: Norton.
Scholte, J. A. (2000). Globalization. A critical introduction. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Scholte, J. A. (2005). Globalization. A critical introduction (2nd ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Sen, A. (2002). Globalizzazione e libertà. Milano: Mondadori.
Sklair, L. (1999). Competing conceptions of globalization. Journal of World-Systems Research, 5(2), 143–163.
Taylor, P. J., Catalano, G. & Walker, D. R. F. (2002). Measurement of the world city network. Urban Studies, 39(13), 2367–2376.
Taylor, P. J. (2004). World city network. A global urban analysis. London: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Caselli, M. (2012). Alternative Approaches and Conclusions. In: Trying to Measure Globalization. SpringerBriefs in Political Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2807-3_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2807-3_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-2806-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-2807-3
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)