ABSTRACT
How old is globalization or when did it begin? In view of the contemporary feel of many globalization eects, the question seems moot. The common understanding in media and in many scholarly accounts is to view globalization as a trend of recent decades. ‘The usual timescale in which “globalization” is considered is at minimum post-Cold War, at maximum post-Second World War’ (Wilkinson 2006: 69). A collection of articles on the 2008 crisis titled ‘Crises in the era of globalization’ adopts a contemporary perspective and refers to recent decades (Gills 2010). For several social science and humanities disciplines this is the relevant time frame for the accelerating density of global ows and eects. In economics, cultural studies, communication, media and lm studies, studies of marketing, international relations and much political science, the eective database of globalization trends runs from the 1970s or 1980s onward.
