GLOBALIZING SYSTEMS, GLOBAL CULTURAL MODELS AND RELIGION(S)

The social-scientific discussion on globalization has produced several versions that reflect tension and ambiguity in the object itself: glo bal society. A number of polarities operate within the literature to e xpress this tension, among them the distinction between global and loc al, modern and traditional, postmodern and modern, system and life-wor ld West and non-West and so forth. The article uses the difference bet ween instrumental system and cultural model to outline both the basic structures of global society and how the various polarities, while app earing as oppositions, are actually better seen as mutually conditioni ng ways of constructing difference and identity in global society. The examples of such relations between nations and state and between reli gions and religion serve to illustrate the argument. A short conclusio n points to possible research projects for refining and testing the ma crotheoretical model.