The Routledge Handbook of Transformative Global Studies

 Editors: S. A. Hamed Hosseini, Barry K. Gills, James Goodman, Sara Motta

Chief Editor's Address/Affiliation:

Dr. S. A. Hamed Hosseini F., School of Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia.

Aims and Approach
In recent years, the fields of global studies and globalization studies have faced serious challenges as the result of deepening interrelated global crises and remarkably complex structural changes with highly diversifying impacts on different localities. There are many challenges: from the escalation of inter- and intra- national socio-economic disparities to growing gaps in access to technological advancements, from regional financial collapses and persisting economic stagnations to the greater polarization of global power structures, from the subordination of democratic institutions as well as mounting sectarian conflicts to the looming climate-induced mass population movements, from the paradoxical globalization of anti/de- globalist forces such as terrorist networks intermingled with never-ending state-led wars on terror to the recent ethno-nationalist populist backlashes and the looming threat of nuclear war, from increased complexities of the politics of climate change to social risks posed by monopolized Artificial Intelligence, just to name a few of the most striking challenges.

Such an unprecedented, perplexing series of transformations in the age of so-called victorious post-Cold War neoliberal globalism have occurred too fast to be satisfactorily comprehended, morally evaluated and practically prepared for. The chaotic nature of global transitions has now translated into our intellectual realms in the form of widening loopholes, diverging discourses, and increasingly controversial normative debates. However, contrary to this context, we can confidently speak of a unique ‘historical interregnum’ where more genuinely critical self-reflections, brave intellectual speculations about the imminent social trends, as well as greater transdisciplinary collaborations across theories and localities, are needed in order to catch up with the pace of unfolding events.

The ‘interregnum’ is a great transition period in human history - where the failures of the dominant paradigm of neoliberal economic globalization and (mal)development compel radical departures from the inherited patterns. What may come out of this period must become the subject of intellectual speculations rather than deterministic prophecies. This collection therefore has a focus on exploring emergent transformative ideas and praxes.

The Routledge ‘Handbook of Transformative Global Studies’ (‘Handbook’) is in part a radically critical response to the twin failures of neoliberalism and developmentalism. It is also a pioneering effort towards the discussion of alternative modes of livelihood and communal solidarity beyond dependence on carbon, capital, commodity and growth. The ideology and historical project of ‘neoliberal economic globalization’ has failed, and its future trajectory points to potentially deeper global crises in the 21st century. The ideological project of ‘development’, understood as limitless linear economic growth in a globalized capitalist economy, has also failed - and in practice has become highly destructive.  This handbook brings the failures of neoliberal globalism and developmentalism into a dialogue, drawing on the rich critical literature in both fields. It especially seeks to draw on studies of global processes such as world systems hegemony transitions, global polarizations and regionalizations, and investigations into the mobilization of post-neoliberal projects across localisms, cosmopolitanisms, and transversalisms.

The Handbook aims at promoting deliberation between diverse, fresh efforts at comprehending the shifting terrain of global studies, engaging emerging and established scholars from both Southern and Northern contexts. Contributors to this collection are well aware of the challenges and necessity to reshape the field under the new circumstances. The Handbook thereby pioneers in providing new analyses and theories of 21^st Century global changes, creating the longer perspective needed to proactively conceptualize historical events as they unfold.