ABSTRACT
We are living in a world in which the local, national, and transnational are increasingly intertwined, whether it be the production of commodities, social movements, or ideas and values in Hong Kong, New York, or Moscow. Consumer products are assembled in one country from parts and raw materials produced in many others, and then marketed internationally; global capital and investment move through transnational corporations capable of coordinating massive amounts of information about new sites of production with new markets. Networks of coordinated production are now competitive alternatives to more traditional, “vertically” organized, hierarchical corporations. These networks are producing global classes of “symbolic analysts” and “information professionals” that link Bangalore to Palo Alto and Taipei. The forces behind this internationalization are increasingly outside direct state control, and yet they form the dynamic edge for changes all over the world.
