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Technology is an underlying cause, probably the chief underlying cause, of the complex phenomenon of globalization. That much is virtually axiomatic among globalization theorists and social scientists generally. From at least early modernity to the present, global flows of people, commodities, ideas and information have expanded, and sped up. In recent times, trans-border social networks and international governance have become increasingly important. Political decision making is increasingly directed at management of the planet as a whole; the world of politics is increasingly Earth . All of these aspects of globalization (and others besides) depend on the development and deployment of technologies, and on the development and deployment of technoscientific knowledge.
Yet given the central role that technology plays in globalization, it is somewhat surprising that, at least up until recently, there has been relatively little contact between globalization studies and the philosophy of technology. Some such collaboration could be very useful for both areas of inquiry. Consider: Does technology develop according to a logic of its own, or does it simply appear that way from our perspective in the present? If technology is an autonomous force, then, to the extent that technology is the independent variable informing globalization, our ability to direct and control the processes of globalization may be limited, or even entirely illusory. Are technologies morally neutral tools subordinate to human will (as many people seem to suppose), or has technology become, for us moderns, a limiting and/or distorting way of encountering the world? If the former, we may need to look elsewhere for an explanation of why globalization so often appears to us as a virtually unstoppable, self-augmenting, quasi-autonomous force. If the latter, then we may have cause to wonder whether technological development--commonly understood to be an index of societal development and, some say, the global North's great gift to the global South--isn't instead a form of epistemological imperialism and a force for cultural homogenization.
Given the contemporary significance of such questions, this collection of essays...