Globalization and new strategies of ruling in developing countries

Abstract

Aihwa Ong, Globalization and New Strategies of Ruling in Developing Countries Debates about globalization are a wake-up call for anthropologists to develop new approaches to the study of culture and society. There is a classical anthropological tradition concerned with the study of social function and organization on any scale, but we need new categories to analyze the strategic aspects of contemporary global interconnectedness. I will address the impact of economic globalization on the respatialization of state sovereignty, and the reterritorialization of capital, both processes that participate in the valorization of culture and civilization in SE Asia. In particular, I consider how the interactions between economic globalization, state, and society have produced new economic entanglements, social spaces, and political constellations. This paper will answer three commonly asked questions about globalization: a) What fundamental changes affect the state? b) What is the impact of the market agenda on national and social spaces? c) Does globalization or its crisis intensify political activism? © Éditions de l'EHESS.