ABSTRACT
For at least two decades, both the academic literature and the popular media have been obsessed with globalization. In the process, a New International Division of Labour (NIDL) has been created. But while the World Bank (1995: 1) announces that: ‘these are revolutionary times in the global economy’ and the ILO (1995: 68-69) declares that: ‘globalization has triumphed’, it is less obvious what precisely has changed. Certainly, the world is still not f lat (Friedman, 2005) and while many parts of the world participate actively in the NIDL, others still play a rather peripheral role. What few really understand, although many claim to, is what effect the NIDL is having on our lives. Perhaps the only certain answer is that it depends on who you are and where you live; some people are doing very well in the NIDL whereas others are most certainly not.
