Roland Robertson

A sociologist and theorist of globalization. His theories have focused significantly on a more phenomenological and psycho-social approach than that of more materialist oriented theorists such as I. Wallerstein or F. Jameson. For Robertson, the most interesting aspect of our globalized (post?)modernity is the way in which, for people around the world, a global consciousness has evolved. He lays down a progression of "phases" that capture the central aspects of different era in global history. He asserts that we have entered the 6th phase, that of Global Uncertainty.

His main works are Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture and the edited volume Global Modernities. His contributed article in the latter introduced the Japanese business term glocalization into Western social science discourse.

-Jon McIntyre Cornell Universtiy Dept of Anthropology