By the 1970s the term globalization gained currency in academic and corporate discourse as a means of describing the increasing interconnectedness of economies and cultures. Now an indubitable fact, globalization stirs attention across the political spectrum. While right-wing detractors are touting a protectionist vision of the (ethnic) nation-state, centrists retreat to shallow attempts to defend globalization as a peace-promoting, culture-enriching project. The contradictions brought about by globalization are also reflected in the legacy of the left. In the late 1990s and early 2000s left-wing groups mobilized an alter-globalization movement, which contended with social injustice and uneven distribution under capitalism, yet was unable to revive the internationalist political ambitions of the labor movement of the early twentieth century. In this context, an exhibition thematizing global interconnections is bound to navigate a political minefield. The exhibition Vernetzte Welten. Globalisierung im Fokus [Interconnected Worlds: Globalization in Focus] at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg (10 April–24 August, 2025) embraces the liberal celebration of multiculturalism while gesturing vaguely at the inequalities that capitalist globalization has perpetuated.
„The Missing Link: Linn Burchert and Alexandra Masgras review Vernetzte Welten, on view at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg“ weiterlesen