ABSTRACT
Definitionally, 'globalization' and 'localization' are individually contested, as is the relationship between the concepts: however, both concepts are helpful and relevant to the interpretation of recent and externally-generated socio-economic changes impacting on local regions. Voizey and O'Riordan (2001, p.26) note that:
globalization through popular interpretations (journalistic and media representations) is a process of primarily economic, but also social and political change that encompasses the planet, resulting in greater homogeneity, hybridization and interdependence a global enmeshment of money, people, images, values and ideas that has entailed smoother and swifter flows across national boundaries. These processes are driven by technological advance, the growth of the informational sector, international cooperation, and processes of structural adjustment to a new global capitalist economic and political order headed by multinational corporations and international governmental institutions.
