ABSTRACT
Globalization implies convergence and integration, yet it is accompanied by conflict and disintegration. The interdependent and aggregative nature of economic activity and the subordination of the political order to the economic function have conspired to create a new global information and communication infrastructure, enmeshed in a net strung together by billions of dollars in international trade and foreign investment, and weighted by social tensions and clashes among cultures whose values are unwittingly brought into question by abutting and interconnected economic and political purposes. Fueled by international trade and investment and enabled by an ever-increasing tide of international capital, multinational corporations, largely from the United States, Japan, Germany, and Switzerland, (Lodge, 1995, 4-5) have become intertwined in both coherent and inchoate modes with all manner of the world’s cultures.
