This chapter begins by outlining some of the principles that guide the work of engaged theory. We then elaborate these principles to show how engaged theory can be understood as a form of critical theory. Engaged theory is critical, but not for criticism’s sake. It is committed to making a positive difference in the world. By mapping the complexity of our world—locally and globally—our approach is intended to contribute to the process of engaging sensitively and practically with that world. By recognizing the messiness of that world while drawing out broad patterns of practice and meaning, it provides a new way of understanding that complexity. The chapter shows how our approach works across different levels of analysis to discern patterns of practice and meaning. It responds to five key questions. First, how should globalization be conceptualized? Second, should globalization be equated with material interconnectivity? Third, what dominant forms has globalization assumed throughout history? Fourth, what is the relationship between globalization and relations of power, domination, and subjection? And fifth, what is the relationship of globalization theory to social practice?

Beyond fleeting newspaper headlines or passing academic fads heralding ‘globalization’s failure’, this book has advanced the case for the continued relevance of globalization in both theory and practice. At the same time, however, the stark reality of the Great Unsettling looms large. The world in the early twenty-first century faces significant disintegrative threats. The destabilization of familiar life-worlds is well underway. Deep social volatility is occurring on a scale and at a speed perhaps never before seen in human history. For example, global economic growth is uneven and plagued by contradictions, resulting in troubling consequences such as the seismic shift from secure long-term employment to precarious short-term work, increasing automation, and the rise of inequality within and between countries. An associated climate of insecurity and loss of identity has penetrated people’s consciousness down to its ontological core. These concluding reflections outline how the book has attempted to stretch the existing body of scholarship on globalization to examine the structural conditions and complex dynamics of global social formation under contemporary unsettled conditions.