Theory Culture And Society

As the journal Theory, Culture & Society approaches its 25th Anniversary in 2007, members of the TCS editorial board along with colleagues in East and South-East Asia and other parts of the world, have started out on a new ambitious undertaking: the New Encyclopaedia Project. The TCS special issue 'Problematizing Global Knowledge' (volume 23 (2-3) March-May 2007) is our first venture in 'encyclopaedic explorations' which outlines our concern to begin to rethink knowledge under the impact of globalization and digitalization. The issue features 152 entries and supplements on a range of topics gathered under the headings: metaconcepts, metanarratives and meta-sites and institutions. Specific topics covered include clusters on classification, language, time, space, the body, science, aesthetics, culture, technology, networks, media, life, globalization, civilization, religion, modernity, the university, the public sphere.
The issue has been made possible through the tremendous response from scholars in and around TCS (Barbara Adams, Sean Cubitt, Jonathan Friedman, Karin Knorr Cetina, Scott Lash, Stephen Mennell, John Milbank, Roland Robertson, Boaventura Sousa Santos, Bryan Turner, Nigel Thrift, John Urry, Andy Wernick, Pnina Werbner, Vikki Bell, Rob Shields and others), along with social and cultural theorists from the United States (Jeff Alexander, Michael M J Fischer, Mark Hansen, George Marcus, Aihwa Ong, Paul Rabinow Gayatri Spivak and others) as well as scholars from various parts of the world (Chua Beng Huat, Li Shiqiao, Fan Jingua , Shunya Yoshimi, Susantha Goonatilake, Shiv Visvanathan, Maria Esther Maciel, Mackenzie Wark). All of these contributors share our concern to begin the process of rethinking global knowledge for a new generation of scholars, who face very different and much more difficult conditions of intellectual and academic life, but are keen to engage in dialogue.
As we move into the 21st century, it is clear that the boundaries, limits and classification of our world are shifting. Cultures no longer seem to have the same level of stability as before. The uncertainty as to what we should know about an enlarged world has become crystallized through two processes: As we move into the 21st century, it is clear that the boundaries, limits and classification of our world are shifting. Cultures no longer seem to have the same level of stability as before. The uncertainty as to what we should know about an enlarged world has become crystallized through two processes:
* Globalization. One side-effect of the global economy has been the clashing of cultures. It may well be the case that we increasingly live in 'one world,' but many contradictory processes are taking place: not just the extension of English as the language of business, commercial law and international non-governmental organizations, but also the visibility of different cultures and traditions. We are becoming increasingly aware of different accounts of global history and various alternative modernities. Western account of the rise of modern times and the classification systems used in the social sciences and humanities are becoming challenged by counter-knowledges. This suggests we have to abandon many of our universalistic assumptions and instead start from a perspective which emphasises global variability, global connectivity, and global inter-communication .
* Digitalization. The new information technologies can store and retrieve vast amounts of data. Yet to have all the cultural representations and texts of the world immediately at hand in digital format, raises the problem of the structure and classification of the world. Especially so when many different forms and types of knowledge can be put into a vast database which can be traversed through hyperlinks and search engines. Yet who should construct the databases, hyperlinks and search engines: the state, the corporations, the university? A sort of order is emerging with the Internet, yet it is driven by many different and conflicting principles, with the commercial dot.com economy currently in the ascendant. We therefore have a problem, about how to classify, handle and access digital culture.
The title of the volume 'Problematizing Global Knowledge', indicates our commitment to address globalization and digitalization in terms of their consequences for knowledge. The contemporary mood is one of de-classification, as we encounter different systems of knowledge in the new global discursive space, our generalizations are challenged. Yet there is also potential for a re-classification of knowledge, the development of a set of new concepts, to more adequately address not only the new emergent social and cultural phenomena of 'the global age,' but also explore the new genealogies of knowledge as the different traditions clash.

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