Inclusion/exclusion and a theory of world society

• Grant number: 21/12742-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: April 01, 2022
• End date: September 30, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Leopoldo Garcia Pinto Waizbort
• Grantee: José Vitor Silva Barros
• Supervisor: Rudolf Stichweh
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universität Bonn, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/02568-0 - Inclusion/exclusion in world society: a study on the relation between inequality, functional differentiation, and the construction of a systemic theory of world society, BP.MS

Abstract

In the 21st century, it is self-evident that global processes impact our daily lives, with communications going far beyond national boundaries, sharing, stabilizing or destabilizing forms and meanings throughout the planet in what can be described as world society. However, although the phenomena 'world society' is an empirical reality, there are not many theories/sociologies of world society available, even if they are progressively needed to guide research on the global stage. The proposal of internship herein aims to study one of the few available theories that tackle such issues, namely Rudolf Stichweh's systemic theory of world society. Nevertheless, even if its merits are recognized, the research aims to reconstruct its formation vis-à-vis one of its major criticisms, i.e even if Stichweh's theory have devoted significant effort to produce a theory of inclusion/exclusion within itself, it would still be inadequate to apprehend contemporary global stratification dynamics. The question thus would be how wecould understand and not understand global exclusion mechanisms as of this theory of world society, especially in regard to its core concepts, the Eigenstrukturen and the inclusive revolutions. The importance of this research lies not only on engaging with one of sociological theory's most contemporary issues (the search for a global sociology), but also by engaging the theory though lenses of one of global South's largest problems (inequality), as well as by addressing it not just in a reconstitute manner, but in an adaptive fashion, dialogically apprehending it as of its criticism. (AU)