ICES wishes to conduct further innovative and challenging research on key facets of globalization in a southern perspective. There is indeed growing awareness of the phenomenon widely known as ‘globalization’ which Arjun Appadurai encompasses in the idea of a ‘world of flows’. This complex phenomenon is not only about greater connectedness, integration and homogenisation but also involves disconnectedness, fragmentation and diversity. ICES has addressed these issues in various ways through its current work on diasporas and its sustained interest in social movements but it seems crucial today for it take the lead in engaging with the global in cutting edge theoretical studies as well as in more grass root studies in the anthropological vein. Given the fact that concepts such as ‘globalization’ or global civil society are contested and sometimes contradictory the proposed studies will unpack and question their relevance and suitability through detailed case studies. Are these useful concepts to think with? What are their cultural and political presumptions?

While granting that many of the positions held by anti-globalization activists may well be valid, ICES shares the view that globalization is not simply the McDonaldization of the post-colonial landscape,where the metropolis endlessly carves out its own image upon new cultural sites, though in some instances this may happen. But global flows do at times succeed in heightening local identities rather than vitiating them or re-shaping them uncritically in line with Euro-American norms and practices. Further, global flows are not confined to movements from the metropolis to the post-colony, but may involve deflections from the latter to the former as in the role played by Caribbean reggae and rap in the US/UK-based commercial music industry, the Indian kurta in Euro-American summer-wear and the pashmina in winter-wear, and the ubiquitous presence of Chinese stir-fry dishes and curry in British student cuisine. It may also entail flows from one part of the tri-continental world to another, as well as from one part of the metropolis to another.

Global flows also create hybridities, the coming together of social forms on a single site. These hybridi-zations may be creative, engaging the viewer and spurring him/her out of their comfort zones into constructive action, or they may be destructive, alienating the viewer, or creating a space for violence.

This programme will explore such anxieties of the vitiation of ethnic, class and gender-identity as well as the creative energy generated by symbols of globalization such as the electronic media, the popular music industry, the influx of western figurative styles and nudism in visual art, theatre and dance.  In the context of an on-going civil war in Sri Lanka, it will also look at the effects of global discourses of violence/terror which impacts on the way both the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and separatist militants act out their military encounters, which in many ways become a clash of opposed practices of masculinity.  Finally, it will look at the very different ways in which some colonial sports such as cricket and rugby have become the site of heightened discourses of national identity and the construction of masculinities.

Building on insights gained in the on-going ICES project on Globalization, national identity & violence: Exploring South Asian masculinities in the new millennium which explores the nexus between global flows, discourses of terror/violence and local practices of masculinity, ICES’ goal over the next five years will be to both engage in fieldwork-based research contributions to the ongoing debate on globalization as well as making theoretical interventions. The purpose is to create a body of knowledge both at a theoretical and empirical level that will contribute to the international debates on globalization and lead to a reconsideration of protocols of inquiry that are too often taken for granted in the North.