Global Sociology: The World as a Singular System

Over the years, sociology has exhibited a partly dialectical and partly alternating emphasis on the global and on the particular. Many early theorists emphasized the unity of mankind, or attempted to order civilizations according to various theories of history. Subsequently, there was a retreat to description and data collection, particularly in the United States; the rediscovery of other times and other places, but in a predominantly relativistic context; and the use of "systems" concepts to exaggerate the sovereignty of society. The renewed quest for generality appears to be partly an autonomous development within the scholarly discipline, as exemplified by "comparative analysis" and emphasis on common functional requisites. A seemingly more powerful influence has been the course of contemporary history, which is divisive in important and conspicuous ways, but has elements of unity, such as the universal quest for economic growth and political participation. Though the degree to which common structural features will emerge from somewhat common goals and the use of pooled techniques is an empirical question of great theoretical import, the methodological moral is drawn that our systems must at times cut across national frontiers and, indeed, here and there, become global.