About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about histories of globalisation, and particularly different perspectives on when the process began, focusing in particular on: (i) Nayan Chanda’s periodisation, which locates the beginnings of globalisation in prehistory, when humans first left Africa; (ii) Roland Robertson’s model, which argues that globalisation emerged gradually across five phases – the germinal phase (1400s-1750s), the incipient phase (1750s-1870s), the take-off phase (1870s-1920s), the struggle for hegemony phase (1920s-1960s), and the uncertainty phase (since the 1960s); (iii) the supraterritoriality perspective, which emphasises the emergence of new transport and communications technologies from the mid-twentieth century.

About the lecturer

Professor Rafal Soborski is Professor of International Politics at Richmond, The American International University in London. His research focuses on the ideological, political and social dimensions of globalisation, including on globalism, anti-globalism and environmentalism. He is author of Ideology and the Future of Progressive Social Movements (2018) and Ideology in a Global Age: Continuity and Change (2013).