ABSTRACT
Much has been written about the negative effects and implications of globalization. It has had undeniably mixed consequences for a wide range of regions, economies and societies. If globalization could be personified, he or she would probably be indifferent or hostile to regional uniqueness, historical values, cultural differences and social vulnerabilities. But globalization is more complex than any single characterization or personification. While greater homogeneity appears to be an inevitable consequence of globalization, so also are billions of less predictable consequences at all scales. Globalization is arguably neither essentially good nor essentially bad, but certainly unpredictable. It is an unfolding experiment with transformative results, and by the time globalization was perceptible enough to have a name, it was already irreversible. To a great extent, memories and remnants of a pre-globalized world are fading fast in the rear-view mirror.
