Globalization Peter Beyer states at the very outset of his book Religion and Globalization that the effect of globalization is the confrontation between diverse social and cultural phenomena that earlier have been clearly separate and separated. Globalization then provides with an arena where these diversities preside side by side. On the other hand globalization produces a new common context, or metaculture, that diminishes the differences between cultural phenomena. The cultural confrontations also highlight the constructivist nature of cultures, something that nevertheless does not prevent them from providing social identity. The resulting conflict, in this case, is then not so much against rival cultures and identities, although people may formulate it as such, as against the corrosiveness of the system itself.
Religion promotes globalization by opposing it.
I will return to these general characteristics later, but let me first give you an introduction to the field in which I operate, before I turn to how it might be understood in the light of globalization theory. The point of departure for my research is the islamic concept of da'wa . As you all know this is something of an equivalent to the Christian concept of mission. Both concepts indicate a duality of on the one hand a theological principle of a divine Call, Invitation or Assignment to mankind, and on the other hand a social practice where the theological principle is preformed. There are, however, obvious differences between the concepts.