Making Global Society
Making Global Society
Barry Buzan proposes a new approach to making International Relations a truly global discipline that transcends both Eurocentrism and comparative civilisations. He narrates the story of humankind as a whole across three eras, using its material conditions and social structures to show how global society has evolved. Deploying the English School's idea of primary institutions and setting their story across three domains - interpolity, transnational and interhuman - this book conveys a living historical sense of the human story whilst avoiding the overabstraction of many social science grand theories. Buzan sharpens the familiar story of three main eras in human history with the novel idea that these eras are separated by turbulent periods of transition. This device enables a radical retelling of how modernity emerged from the late 18th century. He shows how the concept of 'global society' can build bridges connecting International Relations, Global Historical Sociology and Global/World History.
- Provides an original, clear and compact overview of human history, offering a method for countering Eurocentrism in social science and history
- Delivers a comprehensive account of how English School concepts and understandings about society can be expanded and developed in order to study global history
- Reveals a new way of understanding modernity as a transition process between two eras that is possibly not yet complete, encouraging readers to think from a different and more coherent analytical perspective
Reviews & endorsements
‘With his usual incisive analytical aplomb, Barry Buzan’s book constructs one of the grandest canvases ever produced for rethinking IR and IPE through effecting a brilliant synthesis of English School theory with Global Historical Sociology/World History and Global IR. By creating a ‘big picture’ grand theory of the long run rise of global society, this book builds on but advances much further his pioneering agenda-setting book (with Richard Little), International Systems in World History.’ John M. Hobson, University of Sheffield, UK
‘A summing up of the entire emergence of inter-polity, inter-state and international relations by a master of his trade. Gives the reader something to think with, and, even more importantly, something to think on.’ Iver B. Neumann, Director, The Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway
‘This is the book that fans of English School have been waiting for, and only Barry Buzan could have delivered it. His tour de force Making Global Society: A Study of Humankind Across Three Eras helps the reader see both world history and IR theory with new eyes.’ Ayse Zarakol, University of Cambridge
‘With characteristic ambition and erudition, Buzan tells the sweeping story of the rise and evolution of modern global society. Over the last two decades, Buzan has been a leading figure urging scholars of international relations to move beyond Western-centric approaches to forge a truly global discipline … The strength of Buzan’s approach is its universality, weaving the complex evolution of modern society into a single story. He ominously speculates that today’s cascading environmental crises could bring to an end modern civilization and the quest for human betterment.’ G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs
Product details
August 2023Paperback
9781009372183
400 pages
228 × 152 × 27 mm
0.76kg
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- Part I. Laying the Foundations for a Global Society:
- 2. Pre-prelude – the hunter-gatherer era
- 3. Prelude – the era of conglomerate agrarian/pastoralist empires 2310BC to 1800AD
- Part II. The Transition to Modernity and the Making of Global Society:
- 4. Material conditions
- 5a. Social structure I – CAPE instructions carried forward into the transition
- 5b. Social structure II – institutions new with the transition
- 6. Where are we within the transition from CAPE to modernity
- Part III. Deep Pluralism: More Transition or Modernity Proper?:
- 7. Material conditions
- 8. Social structure
- Part IV. Conclusions:
- 9. Conclusions.
