CALLING FOR A PRACTICE TURN IN GLOBAL HISTORY: PRACTICES AS DRIVERS OF GLOBALIZATION/S

Ever since the spatial turn, historians have faced major challenges regarding how to write and research global history in general and the history of globalization in particular. The four major challenges analyzed in this article are (1) the challenge of polyphony, (2) how to determine the subject of global history beyond geographical definitions, (3) the dynamic of homo‐ and heterogenization accompanying the term “globalization/s,” and (4) how to grasp the relation between the micro level of individual actions and the macro level of global structures. The challenge of polyphony stems from the growing awareness of how Eurocentric perspectives have far too long obscured academic history‐writing with inappropriate presuppositions. The same goes for other (unreflected) area‐centrisms. A biased narrative for only one voice has to make way for a polyphonic narrative that meets the requirements of an up‐to‐date global history. Accordingly, this article suggests that neither geographically defined units nor the relation between given entities should be at the center of global history. Indeed, global history should deal with the “relationing” and the “making of” entities—one of which turns out to be “the global.” This article then proposes using the term “globalization” in the plural, but also reflects on its dependence on the singular. Closely connected to the pluralization of globalizing processes is the challenge of bridging convincingly between the micro level of individual actions and the macro level of global structures without disavowing the contingency and the heterogeneity of the individual. Several theories, such as practice theory and actor–network theory, can be used and modified to address these challenges, especially in determining the relation between macro‐ and microdynamics. I argue that practice theory offers one possible solution to these four challenges by combining both the heterogeneity of the micro level and the comprehensive narrative of global changes.     

"全球地域化"思想及对区域发展的意义

本文认为罗伯逊"全球地域化"范式有六个核心概念,"全球场域"、"普遍主义-特殊主义"是在论述全球与地方的互动关系; "特殊性空间"、"寻找基本教义"、"存心怀旧"和"地域化"则建构了这一范式的基本分析框架.罗伯逊的"全球地域化"是一种批判性的全球化,也是一种"和而不同"的全球化.由于这一范式包含了自上而下的"全球地域化"和自下而上的"地域全球化"的双向过程,且已经形成了一套完整的分析框架,从而实现了对"全球化"与"本土化"两极化论争的真正超越.对区域发展也具有极为重要的启示意义.     

Between universal spaces and unique places: heritage in Universal Studios Singapore

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a case of Singapore's latest theme park, the Universal Studios Singapore (USS). While theme parks are commonly perceived as money-making entities providing entertainment to the masses, the study argues that heritage is an equally important dimension of a commercial theme park's development, identity and profile. As a heritage-rich environment, the USS is a tourism landscape shaped simultaneously by the forces of corporate heritage and local cultural considerations. ‘Glocalization’ – the interaction of global and local forces – offers a conceptual insight into understanding how themed environments are created and marketed as tourism destinations welcoming to all and yet distinctive to its community and locality. Caution, however, is also sounded as to whether an international attraction can or should ever be ‘too local’ at the risk of diluting its global brand name and broad-based appeal.     

European cross-scale spatial planning and territorial frames in the Italian Median Macroregion

This article describes the preliminary outcome of interdisciplinary research that arises from a study by the Italian Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport and the Abruzzo Region (IT) on local development processes in central Italy, and specifically in the Median Macroregion, whose results have been extended to European context. It concerns the European spatial planning, specifically the study of an original interpretative model of European space, called Territorial Frames – TFs, a particular multi-scale infrastructural mesh that connects the ‘local’ territories with ‘global’ ones and that can represent the activating element of processes and policies of spatial development of settlements, of processes of valorization of the productive, naturalistic and landscape sectors. This new model interfaces with the territorial reticular component through the concept of polycentrism, also projecting evolution, and with that of the governance of development projects, using the potential of European Macroregions. The main objective of the research is to feed the topic of spatial planning, oriented to the integration between territories through a cross-scale approach, and to the activation of new processes of sustainable territorial development, with reference to the economically disadvantaged inner areas in a context of Macroregional governance.     

Penetrating the ‘black‐box’ of ‘remembrance day’ playlist: bereavement and the induction mechanisms of glocalization – a study in cultural sociology

This article examines the musical repertoire broadcast on Israeli state radio stations on Remembrance Day. Commencing with the first Remembrance Day, Israeli radio stations have refrained from broadcasting songs that do not contribute to the glorification of the military mythology or failure to reinforce the consensual perception of national loss. In view of globalization – it might be assumed that Remembrance Day songs would undergo changes in tune with the times. From a musical point of view, new songs that belong to what Regev and Seroussi classify as ‘globalizing Israel’ penetrated into the nationalist arena. But, following Inglehart and Baker, these songs, despite their seemingly secular façade, remain limited hegemonic enclosures organized around the core of founding values. Apparently, this is an example of the process of glocalization of culture. The article seeks answers to the strategies employed to accommodate these new songs to the traditional ideology of the classical Remembrance Day songs and examines whether the mechanisms of legitimacy that enable the inclusion of new voices on Remembrance Day, can be identified. We argue that their choice is not arbitrary and that they illustrate the manner by which voluntary cultural entrepreneurs (musical editors) are co‐opted in the postnational condition.