Rethinking the Global and the National

• Published in: Theory, Culture & Society
• Main Author: Wang, Horng-luen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2000
• Subjects: General Social Sciences; Sociology and Political Science; New Ground; First Nations
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02632760022051338; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/02632760022051338

This article explores the interplay between the globalization process and the nation/nation-state by examining the case of contemporary Taiwan. Globalization is analyzed along four dimensions: flows of people, flows of culture, economic globalization and international/transnational institutions. Along each dimension, it is found that globalization has had a profound impact upon how cultural and political elites imagine their nation, leading to rising aspirations for nationhood and nation-stateness. Meanwhile, nation-building efforts have deepened Taiwan's embeddedness in globalization, where globalization itself is being employed, both by the state and non-state elites, as a strategy to construct the nation. Three implications suggest that the relationship between `the global' and `the national' be reconceptualized. First, nations and nationalism can be better comprehended against a global/international backdrop, as national identity to a large extent depends upon the imagined or real approval of other nations. Second, there emerges a new strategic alliance between the global and the national, in the sense that globalization gives new ground upon which the nation can be (re)formulated. And finally, by reinforcing certain institutional prerogatives of nations and nation-states, globalization may also lead to an increased desire for nationhood and nation-stateness in cases where the latter two have not been fully realized.