ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION We live in a world in which there is a tremendous amount of contact and exchange across geographical borders. The goods we buy and consume are likely to be produced by workers many thousands of miles away working for a transnational corporation based outside the UK; the food we eat is likely to consist of a wide variety of different ‘national’ dishes, being airlifted to our shores from a galaxy of different locations; and our cultural references will probably be music, films, books and art from many different locations. Transport and communication technologies, combined with political efforts to erode existing barriers to transnational investment and trade, have stimulated the set of changes that we now call globalization. Whilst such transnational exchange is not new (as is particularly evident in the chapters looking at colonialism and postcolonialism in this book for example), contemporary globalization is characterized by an extension and deepening of connections across space. International links stretch wider and with more local intensity than has been the case in the past. As is already clear from many of the chapters in this book (such as those looking at the local-global, development and post-development, finance, production, consumption and culture), understanding globalization is critical to making sense of our contemporary world. Transnational relationships and the particular model of political-economy that has driven such changes are now integral to understanding economy, politics and culture right across the world. This chapter explores what is meant by globalization, and then goes on to look at the socio-political protest movement that has grown up to contest various aspects of globalization.
