The State of Globality in a (Post)-COVID World

Abstract

Abstract This article assesses the current state of globality in light of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. It opens with a concise survey of influential meanings and uses of “globality” in extant global studies literature. Offering clarifications and definitions of two pertinent keywords – “globality” and “globalization” – this overview provides a careful conceptual delineation of these two concepts as a prerequisite for determining their causal relation: globalization (the process) shapes globality (the condition). It is argued that the widening disjunctures and cleavages among the major globalization dynamics are transforming the hitherto dominant form of globality. Yielding a plausible response to the crucial question of how globality itself has been transformed by globalization, the clarification of the major structural dynamics linking the disjunctive processes of space-time compression to the restructuring of the mutable condition of worldwide interconnectedness facilitates a comprehensive assessment of the current state of globality. The article ends with a brief speculation on the future of globality and the prospects for overcoming the negative social impacts of disjunctive globalization.