mondialité

Mondialité is a term used in francophone social theory to describe the condition of the world as a single, interlinked arena in which social, economic, political, and cultural processes cross national boundaries. It emphasizes the simultaneity of local and global dynamics and the way events at one place reverberate elsewhere, making local contexts inseparable from global networks.

The concept arises from reflections on globalization and world-systems theory, shifting attention from globalization as a process to the lived reality of a world that is immediately present in everyday life. It is associated with a move toward planetary thinking, cosmopolitan governance, and recognition of transnational entanglements, while also acknowledging power asymmetries and the uneven distribution of risks and resources.

In practice, scholars use mondialité to analyze climate politics, migration, digital infrastructures, supply chains, and cultural flows, highlighting how knowledge, capital, and actors operate on a planetary scale. Critics argue that the term can gloss over local particularities or nostalgia for the nation-state, while others view it as a useful vocabulary for capturing the complexity of contemporary world-systems. Mondialité thus denotes both a descriptive stance about the global condition and a normative invitation to think and act in more cosmopolitan, interdependent terms.