Encyclopedia of Sociology

CONVERGENCE THEORIES

rapidly among nations worldwide through the
agency of international organizations, networks of
scientists and professionals, and other forms of
association. Although not referring specifically to
convergence theory, this world society and culture
approach makes a strong case for the emergence
of widely shared structural and cultural similari-
ties, many of which hold out the promise of im-
provement, among otherwise diverse nation-states.

The rapid growth of telecommunications and
computing technology, especially apparent in the
emergence of the Internet as a major social and
economic phenomenon of the 1990s, presents yet
another aspect of globalization that holds pro-
found implications for possible societal conver-
gence. However important and wide-ranging, the
precise patterns that will ultimately emerge from
these technological innovations are not yet clear.
While new computing and communication tech-
nologies compress the time and space dimensions
of social interaction (Giddens 1990), and have the
potential to undercut national identities and cul-
tural differences along the lines envisioned by
McLuhan’s (1960) ‘‘global village,’’ the same for-
ces of advanced technology that can level tradi-
tional differences may ultimately reinforce the
boundaries of nation, culture, and social class. For
example, even as the computers and related com-
munication technologies become more ever more
widely disseminated, access to and benefits from
the new technologies appear to be disproportion-
ately concentrated among the ‘‘haves,’’ leaving the
‘‘have nots’’ more and more excluded from partici-
pation (Wresch 1996). Over time, such disparities
might well serve to widen differences both across
and within nations, thus leading toward diver-
gence rather than convergence.

Finally, interest in convergence has also been
given a boost by various political developments in
the 1990s. In particular, the twin developments of
the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and
the Soviet Union and the progressive weakening
of economic and political barriers in Europe are
notable in this regard. The demise of state social-
ism has revived interest in the possibilities of
global economic and political convergence among
advanced industrial societies (see, for example,
Lenski et al. 1991, p. 261; Fukuyama 1992). Al-
though ongoing economic and political turmoil in
the ‘‘transition to capitalism’’ in the former Soviet

Union during the 1990s may cast serious doubt on

the long-term prospects for convergence, develop-

ments have clearly moved in that direction with

astonishing speed.

The continuing movement toward unification

in Europe associated with the European Union

(EU, formerly the European Community) repre-

sents another significant case of political and eco-

nomic convergence on a regional scale. The gradu-

al abolition of restrictions on trade, the movement

of labor, and travel among EU nations (and not

least of all the establishment of a single currency in

1999), and the harmonization of social policies

throughout the EU, all signal profound changes

toward growing convergence in the region that

promises to continue into the twenty-first century.

CONCLUSION

The idea of convergence is both powerful and

intuitively attractive to sociologists across a range

of backgrounds and interests (Form 1979). It is

difficult to conceive of an acceptable macro theory

of social change that does not refer to the idea of

convergence in one way or another. Despite the

controversy over, and subsequent disillusionment

with, early versions of convergence theory in the

study of modernization, and the often mixed re-

sults of empirical studies discussed above, it is

clear that the concept of societal convergence (and

convergence theories that allow for the possibility

of divergence and invariance) provides a useful

and potentially powerful analytical framework with-

in which to conduct cross-national studies across a

broad range of social phenomena. Even where the

convergence hypothesis ultimately ends up being

rejected, the perspective offered by convergence

theories can provide a useful point of departure

for research. Appropriately reformulated, focused

on elements of the social system amenable to

empirical study, and stripped of the ideological

baggage associated with its earlier versions, con-

vergence theories hold promise to advance the

understanding of the fundamental processes and

regularities of social change.

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