German Title: Globalisierung, Kommunikation und Raumkonzepte in der Globalgeschichte

In: Wenzlhuemer, Roland (Hrsg.): Global Communication. Telecommunication and Global Flows of Information in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century. Special Issue of Historical Social Research. Köln, Center for Historical Social Research 2010, pp. 19-47

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Abstract

To study changing patterns of communication, interactions and transfers is a principal focus of global history. Such shifting connectivity patterns produce new spaces that co-exist with and are complementary to geographic space. The creation, transformation and interaction of these spaces become a central object of study in global history if we want to understand processes of globalization – such as the alleged “shrinking of the world”. At the same time, practitioners of global history constantly struggle with spatially delineating their field of study. Therefore, global history needs a new understanding of space that provides a framework for both – looking at space as an object of study as well as clearly identifying and demarcating the field of study. In this article, I propose an abstract, multi-layered and strictly relativistic understanding of space that will help the global historian to better master both challenges.