Thinking Globally in an Age of Competing Sovereignties

Recent scholarship has documented the transition from globalization to deglobalization as a recurring historical pattern (1). The accelerating process of deglobalization intensified following the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent geopolitical tensions (2). This raises pressing concerns about global challenges in a world characterized by multiple, competing sovereignties of a new type-heterogeneous hybrid assemblages of material objects, ideas, institutions, and structures (3). Are we witnessing genuine deterritorialization of the world or a reconfiguration of integrated global capitalism through reterritorializing "decoupling" and "derisking" strategies?

This series of public roundtable discussions aims to establish an intellectual framework for future elaborations on deglobalization and global studies in the epoch of "sovereignties."

We invite submissions of abstracts of programmed remarks for future roundtables (up to 150 words) addressing theoretical perspectives and conceptual frameworks for:

• Deglobalization
• Sovereignty
• Evolution versus rupture in integrated world capitalism
• Global political ecologies
• Methodological approaches to addressing transnational challenges (human and nonhuman migration, epidemiology, environmental pollution, etc.)
• Emerging world order(s) as well as other relevant aspects of the trend in question.

Please send an abstract accompanied by your brief bio to [email protected]. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis and scheduled for a session of the discussion series following the submission.

Please be informed that we intend to arrange for an academic peer-reviewed publication of the proceedings of these events.

References

1. Van Bergeijk PAG. Deglobalization and resilience: A historical perspective. Int Sociol. 2024;39(4):403–25.

2. Babić M. The geoeconomic turn in international trade, investment, and finance. Politics Gov . 2024;12(1):8092.

3. Davis DE, Müller F. Hybrid sovereignty assemblages: From liberal to illiberal and beyond [Special Issue]. Territ Polit Gov. 2025;13(6).