Anth3021 | Globalisation | A Assessment Answers

Critical Analysis of both articles with a short compare and contrast covering the following: Does the subject matter have contemporary relevance?

Is there any controversy surrounding the text?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the choice of topic, the methodology, the evidence, and the author’s conclusions?

The overall question is: 'Is there a nation-state, secular or religious? What are the ethics of religion and the role of religions in it?'

Radhakrishnan (2004), in the article “Religion under Globalisation” discuss about the relationship between globalisation and religion. Th author begins with the fact that the nature and the way religion functions in the society have been noticed by people for ages. There exists a very close relation between religion and the society. Emile Durkheim, who is a French sociologist, decribes the role of religion in this article as "celebrating and sustaining the norms upon which the integration of society depends". This means that religion is the way through which the society can enjoy the different norms and sustain in life. The article states that among the different religions that exist in the world, Christianity is the majority and Confusianism the minorty.The article, moreover, discusses about the way that the religions of the world has gone global. Majority of the religion, especially Christianity and Islam, had become global years ago through the globalising force of war and violence. According to James Kurth in this article, globalisation is a revolutionary force which has the power to destroy the customs and the traditions followed by the people and also disrupt their peace and security. Religion so far had being the most exposed to the disruptive nature of globalisation. According to Potgieter, Van der Walt and Wolhuter (2014), globalisation is the reason of the unrest in the world because of the intolerance that has begun towards the different religious views of the people. The author concludes the article with three siggestions from three renowned authors on the way that the effect of globalisation can stop the revolution on religion.

On the other hand, Zygmunt (1998) talks about the effect that globalisation has on the nation-states. Author G.H von Wright states in the article that the nation-states are slowly crubling under the different forces which are existent across the boundaries of the different nations. The nation-states are the main sources from where effective political powers are initiated, however, due to the effect of these forces, the rational way of execution is slowly diminishing (Fjäder, 2014). The forces are difficult to identify since they are invisible in nature, moreover, even their identification would not be able to stop them. The concept of globalisation defined in this article is similar to that of the previous article. Both of these articles see globalisation as a force which has no control and initiatives different disorders in both religion and world affairs. The definition of 'the state' has also been given in this article by Max Weber, who says that the state is an agency or body whose aim is to control the others and often through extreme pressure. Both these articles discuss about the controversial topic of globalisation and its effects on the world and the religion. The subject matter of these articles is highly relevant to the current scenario of the world where globalisation has more adverse effects on the safety and security of the world and the views of the people towards religion than good. The authors have used real life scenarios to explain their views regarding the disruptive nature of globalisation.

References

Bauman, Zygmunt. Globalization: The human consequences. Columbia University Press, (1998): 55-76.

Fjäder, Christian. "The nation-state, national security and resilience in the age of globalisation." Resilience 2, no. 2 (2014): 114-129.

Potgieter, Ferdinand J., Johannes L. Van der Walt, and Charste C. Wolhuter. "Towards understanding (religious)(in) tolerance in education." HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 70, no. 3 (2014).

Radhakrishnan, Puthenveetil. "Religion under globalisation." Economic and Political Weekly (2004): 1403-1411.