Introduction. Big History and Global History in the Field of Globalistics

One often maintains that our global world demands global knowledge. The need to see the processes of development holistically, in their origins and growing complexity, is fundamental not only for science but also for the human advance in general. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there was an explosive growth of scientific knowledge accompanied by a deep differentiation of disciplines. But scientists working in different fields may run the risk of losing sight of how each other's tireless work connects and contributes to their own. Thus, it is not surprising that in the twenty-first century we observe a vigorous development of multidisciplinary and integral disciplines among which one can name Global Studies, Global History, and Big History, each providing a connection between the past, present, and future.

The present volume is the fourth in the series of yearbooks with the title Globalistics and Globalization Studies¹. However, why Globalistics, not Global Studies? As we explained earlier, the notion of Globalistics first appeared in Russia, this is a translation of the Russian term globalistika; however, we believe it might be useful within the English Global Studies thesaurus. We are sure that the introduction of this term is justifiable, because it expresses the vision of systemic and epistemological unity of global processes, the presence of some relatively autonomous field with its own research subject. Morphologically this term is identical with such well-established designations of academic disciplines as Economics, Linguistics, Physics, and so on (for more details see Grinin, Ilyin, and Korotayev 2012b, 2013b, 2014b).

The subtitle of the present volume is Big History & Global History. What is Big History? Big History is a vast and extremely heterogeneous field of research which encompasses all the forms of existence and all timescales and brings together constantly updated information from the scientific disciplines and the humanities. The unique approach of Big History has opened up vast research agendas and suggests variety of forms. This discipline weaves together all the disciplines into a single narrative where interdisciplinary work is not only possible, but essential. As has been mentioned on a number of occasions, the rapidly globalizing world needs global knowledge that explains a unified global system (about Big History see Hughes-Warrington 2005; Nazaretyan 2005; Spier 2005; Christian 2005; Carneiro 2005; Markov, Korotayev, Grinin 2009; Grinin, Carneiro, Korotayev, and Spier 2011; Grinin and Korotayev 2009; Grinin, Korotayev, and Baker 2014). Thus, we may say that globalization itself becomes propulsion for Big History.

Finally, what is Global History? It is transnational or world history which examines history from a global perspective, making a wide use of comparative history and of the history of multiple cultures and nations. Many students of Global History also explore the trends often denoted as ‘historical dimension of globalization’. Moreover, according to Bruce Mazlish and Akira Iriye (Mazlish and Iriye 2005: 19), heart and novelty of Global History are constituted by history of globalization. So it is quite clear in what way Global Studies and Globalistics are connected with Global History (see also Little 2014; Grinin and Korotayev 2013).

Today, in the framework of individual disciplines one may observe a growing interest in interdisciplinary research which is believed to be one of the most effective ways to conceptualize and integrate our growing knowledge of the Universe, society, and human thought. In this respect, one may argue that Global Studies and Globalistics can be well combined with Global History and Big History. Such a multidisciplinary approach can give a more integrated vision of the systemic and epistemological unity of global processes. A deep symbiosis of ‘mega-paradigms’ like Big History, Global History, and Globalistics will open up research areas that are vital to the development of the twenty-first century thought and culture. We think this will also open wide horizons for the modern university education as it will help to form a global view of various processes and move further the limits of our studies. Such synthesis of knowledge can be achieved within Globalistics framework and can be useful for the students to understand the evolution of our planet within the context of the evolution of our Universe.

The volume is subdivided into three parts.

Part 1 (Globalization and Global Processes) comprises articles analyzing some peculiar aspects of contemporary global development such as Kondratieff waves (K-wave), the Cybernetic Revolution, and the causes of the crisis situation in Russia. Among other issued discussed in the articles of this section are democratization of countries within globalization context, the growth of world economy, migration processes at the global level, globalization of political processes in their dynamics and development and some other topical issues.

Part 2 (Global History and Modernity) touches upon such global problems as Universal Darwinism, human history, development of the trade relations in the ancient world, a new classification of early and modern polities, the ways of statehood and democracy formation, the international institutional system through the prism of evolutionary institutionalism, socio-political aspects and others. We believe that all the issues considered in this section are relevant and important within Global Studies.

Part 3 (Big History Perspective) contains articles that address some issues from the realm of Big History, such as the evolution of Big History, modeling of biological and social phases of Big History, the development of the Universe, some common evolutionary laws and principles, collective learning as a key concept in Big History and other important issues.

References

Carneiro, R. L. 2005. Stellar Evolution and Social Evolution: A Study in Parallel Processes. Social Evolution & History 4(1): 136–159.

Christian, D. 2005. Macrohistory: The Play of Scales. Social Evolution & History 4(1): 22–60.

Grinin, L. E., Carneiro, R. L., Korotayev, A. V., and Spier, F. 2011. Introduction. Evolutionary Megaparadigms: Potential, Problems, Perspectives. In Grinin, L. E., Carneiro, R. L., Korotayev, A. V., and Spier, F. (eds.), Evolution: Cosmic, Biological, and Social (pp. 5–29). Volgograd: Uchitel.

Grinin, L. E., Ilyin, I. V., and Korotayev, A. V. 2012a. (Eds.). Globalistics and Globalization Studies. Volgograd: Uchitel.

Grinin, L. E., Ilyin, I. V., and Korotayev, A. V. 2012b. Introduction. Globalization, Globalistics and Global Studies. In Grinin L. E., Ilyin I. V., and Korotayev A. V. (eds.), Globalistics and Globalization Studies (pp. 5–8). Volgograd: Uchitel.

Grinin, L. E., Ilyin, I. V., and Korotayev, A. V. 2013a. (Eds.). Globalistics and Globalization Studies: Theories, Research & Teaching. Volgograd: Uchitel.

Grinin, L. E., Ilyin, I. V., and Korotayev, A. V. 2013b. Introduction. Global Studies from Theories to Teaching. In Grinin L. E., Ilyin I. V., and Korotayev A. V. (eds.), Globalistics and Globalization Studies: Theories, Research & Teaching (pp. 5–7). Volgograd: Uchitel.

Grinin, L. E., Ilyin, I. V., and Korotayev, A. V. 2014a. (Eds.). Globalistics and Globalization Studies: Aspects & Dimensions of Global Views (pp. 5–6). Volgograd: Uchitel.

Grinin, L. E., Ilyin, I. V., and Korotayev, A. V. 2014b. Introduction. Global Studies in Different Dimensions. In Grinin L. E., Ilyin I. V., and Korotayev A. V. (eds.), Globalistics and Globalization Studies: Aspects & Dimensions of Global Views (pp. 5–6). Volgograd: Uchitel.

Grinin, L. E., and Korotayev, A. V. 2009. Social Macroevolution. Genesis and Transformations of the World-System. Moscow: KomKniga/URSS. In Russian (Гринин Л. Е., Коротаев А. В. Социальная макроэволюция: Генезис и трансформации Мир-Системы. М.: ЛИБРОКОМ).

Grinin, L. E., and Korotayev, A. V. 2013. Origins of Globalization. In Grinin, L. E., Ilyin, I. V. and Korotayev, A. V. (eds.), Globalistics and Globalization Studies: Theories, Research & Teaching (pp. 8–35). Volgograd: ‘Uchitel’ Publishing House.

Grinin, L. E., and Korotayev, A. V., and Baker, D. 2014. Beyond Global Studies. The Introductory Lecture to Big History Course. In Grinin L. E., Ilyin I. V., and Korotayev A. V. (eds.), Globalistics and Globalization Studies: Aspects & Dimensions of Global Views (pp. 321–328). Volgograd: Uchitel.

Hughes-Warrington, M. 2005. Big History. Social Evolution & History 4(1): 7–21.

Mazlish, B., and Iriye, A. (eds.) 2005. The Global History Reader. New York – London: Routledge.

Little, D. 2014. Nation, Region, and Globe Alternative Definitions of Place in World History. Journal of Globalization Studies 5(1): 137–153.

Markov, A., Korotayev, A., and Grinin, L. 2009. Aromorphoses in Biological аnd Social Evolution: Some General Rules for Biological and Social Forms of Macroevolution. Social Evolution & History 8(2): 6–50.

Nazaretyan, A. P. 2005. Big (Universal) History Paradigm: Versions and Approaches. Social Evolution & History 4(1): 61–86.

Spier, F. 2005. How Big History Works: Energy Flows and the Rise and Demise of Complexity. Social Evolution & History 4(1): 87–135.