ABSTRACT
Can you remember when you first heard the term ‘globalization’ and in what context it occurred?
Barry Gills (BG):
It would have been at the beginning of the 1990s, around 1991 or 1992, possibly somewhat
earlier. I was working with some colleagues and we commented on what we saw as the for-
mation of what we called an ‘invisible college’. It included scholars from across a variety of
social sciences, who were eager to engage the concept seriously in their research. Around that
time, ‘globalization’ was also rising quickly in the public discourse. We agreed that the aca-
demic study of globalization was inherently a multidisciplinary endeavor that needed to coalesce
around more explicitly formulated ideas and topics.
