ABSTRACT
Globalization refers to the movement of capital, people, commodities, ideas, feelings, and practices across national borders. And though human history is filled with these encounters—even before the concept of nations existed— they have increased in both speed and volume in recent decades. This has largely been due to advances in communication and transportation technologies through which time and space have become compressed (Harvey 1989), as well as to new regulatory frameworks that allow capital to move more freely across borders. Since the end of the Cold War [www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/], impediments to capital flows have steadily evaporated. American multinational corporations have spearheaded this process in their search for inexpensive raw materials, cheap and compliant labor, and new markets, enabling the American Dream to become a globally circulating imaginary. Neoliberals see globalization as the inevitable advance of freedom and the culmination of world history. Critics warn, however, of the flattening of cultural difference, planetary destruction, and the violent imposition of free markets on vulnerable populations (Hardt and Negri 2000; Stiglitz 2002; Harvey 2007). Wal-Mart exemplifies both the promise and the perils of neoliberal market integration, and thus provides an ideal vantage point from which to critically examine the optimistic rhetoric of globalization.
