Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper deals with the causal and moral responsibility of globalization scholars in relation to the real-world process of globalization, with special emphasis on what I call the ?LSE School?, which consists most prominently of Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and David Held. These three scholars do not only form a relatively coherent school of thought within globalization studies, but they also share a relatively common political outlook rooted in cosmopolitanism and Third Way politics. The aim of the paper is, therefore, to reconstruct the ?LSE School? as a tradition within globalization studies and to chart its intellectual development and political impact, before asking a wider question about the causal and moral responsibility of such globalization scholarship. In short: To what extent are globalization scholars responsible for globalization? Responsibility can be understood here in two major ways. First, ?responsible? in a causal sense: To what extent are globalization scholars ?singing into existence? (Steve Smith) the process of globalization, or at least a particular kind of globalization? How is the real-world process of globalization constituted, constructed or conditioned by globalization scholarship? Second, ?responsible? in a moral sense: Especially if globalization scholars are indeed causally responsible for globalization, what follows for their moral responsibility? And if they are also morally responsible, what kind of political consequences follow from that? How can (or should) ?responsible globalization scholarship? look like? In the end, this paper concludes that globalization scholars such as the ?LSE School? do indeed have a causal responsibility for globalization because theory always implies practical consequences (words are actions, too, as speech act theory tells us). However, the moral responsibility of globalization scholars is not symmetrical to their causal responsibility. Rather, we should distinguish two consequences of moral responsibility: while globalization scholars ?are? morally responsible, we should not necessarily ?hold? them responsible by attributing blame or regulating scholarship, for there is a delicate balance between academic autonomy and moral responsibility.