ABSTRACT
The article describes the changes in the spatiality of the world in the course of globalization. To this end, three relevant globalization theories are analyzed with regard to the constitutions of the spatiality of the world. It is shown that despite their different perspectives, the network society (Castells), the world risk society (Beck), and the empire (Hardt/Negri) design the world as a smooth space (Deleuze/Guattari). This spatial design of the world is distinguished from World System Analysis (Wallerstein), which constitutes the world as striated space. The smoothing of the space of the world serves as a starting point and precondition for new striations of the world, which is determined as “refiguration”. While the division of the world into territories was the dominant principle of modernity, the subdivision of the world currently no longer follows a hegemonic principle. Different spatial figures such as trajectories, networks, places. and territories now represent equal modes of subdivision. The production of space has empirically become increasingly dynamic and situational.
