Globalization. It’s the buzzword of a generation, but what does the term really mean? Ask a Chinese economist, a South African cinematographer, an American cultural anthropologist, and a Mexican migrant worker, and each is likely to give a different definition.

These many interpretations of a single concept inform the essay collection Global Babel: Questions of Discourse and Communication in a Time of Globalization (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007). The book is co-edited by Associate Professor of English Samir Dayal (pictured above). His partner on the project, Margueritte Murphy, has since left the Bentley English Department to serve as associate provost at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Undermining Meaning
Dayal and Murphy’s idea for Global Babel grew from a shared sense that there are at least as many ways to conceptualize globalization as there are academic disciplines and specialists.

“We thought we could do a useful service by bringing together voices from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds,” explains Dayal, noting that he does not consider himself an expert on globalization per se.

The term “globalization” generally refers to the intensification of international trade, communication, and cultural contact that dates from the early to mid-1990s. It is closely tied to advances in information technology, including the Internet and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The more the word gains currency, observe Dayal and Murphy, the less clear its meaning becomes.

“As with the Biblical Babel, there is no single ‘language’ of globalization,” says Murphy. “Here we mean not just language in the ordinary sense, but ways of talking about globalization, ways of describing what it is.”

The Good, the Bad, the Global
Historically, discussions of the topic inspire heated debate. Globalization is bad! (Remember the massive anti-globalization protests of 1999 at the World Trade Organization in Seattle?) Globalization is good! (Consider the immediate outpouring of worldwide aid for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.) Either way, says Murphy, a black-or-white approach misses the point and undermines the discourse. 

“We understand, talk about, and frame the issues of globalization depending on who we are,” she explains. “Our place in the nexus of relationships that is globalization – as a migrant worker, a member of a local nongovernmental organization, an employee in a sweatshop that produces goods for the American market, an official at the International Monetary Fund – affects our understanding of what precisely globalization is.”

Crossing Boundaries
Dayal and Murphy’s collaboration emerged from an English Department retreat in 2002, when the idea of working across academic specialties got them thinking. From the beginning, both editors were determined to enlist authors from a variety of disciplines, from around the world. Observes Dayal: “Above all, we wanted to include the best work submitted to us.”

The essays were penned by leading theorists, scholars and experts in the U.S. and abroad. Topics include Irish film in a global economy, feminist activism in post-Communist Poland, and global journalism and travel writing. Authors include several Bentley scholars, among them, Provost Bob Galliers, Professor of Marketing Raj Sisodia, and Dayal himself. A student, Ryan Dwyer ’09, contributed research as part of an independent study project.

“Globalization touches everybody’s life and affects almost every aspect of everyday life,” says Dayal. “But there are many questions about its effects and its futures that still, or increasingly, require analysis.”

In marshaling divergent opinions on and definitions of the concept, Global Babel starts the conversation.