ABSTRACT
Although globalization is a multifaceted process manifesting itself in such forms as global tourism and the global reach of nuclear, environmental, and health risks, it has arguably been the emergence of a global economy and a global information system that has been of particular importance for the creation of a global world. A global economy has emerged that has become institutionalized through global capital markets and globally integrated financial systems, global trade, and global production networks. Global capitalism can thus be analyzed as creating the space for the formation of a plurality of collectivities, such as "new social movements" that can become the carriers of a "politics of difference" based, for example, on gender or sexual identities. Centralization and hierarchization of power within states and through states in the international system are steadily replaced by the pluralization of power among political, economic, cultural, and social actors, groups, and communities within states, between states, and across states.
