ABSTRACT
Notions such as globalization and cultural hybridity have become the buzzwords of much current debate in the social and human sciences. Their prominent position reflects the significant transformations that occurred in the global-local interface in the late twentieth century. Cultural and national borders have become increasingly blurred as jet transport, satellite communication and electronic information technology have ‘shrunk’ the world. Flows of people, information, cultures, commodities and capital bring about a more immediate and direct articulation of local and global spaces, and a disruption of place as a self-evident reference for cultural distinctiveness and belonging (Giddens 1990; Bhabha 1994; Eriksen 1994; Morley and Robins 1995; Waters 1995).
