ABSTRACT
Globalization, heralded as a “wonderful thing” leading to global prosperity and a unified planet, and a “terrible thing” bringing environmental collapse and the breakdown of local cultures, remains a highly contentious term. Its meanings are multiple and ambiguous, its effects the source of heated debate among scholars and media pundits. Although the term globalization is overused, we cannot avoid it if we hope to engage seriously in contemporary scholarly and public debates. Globalization, most broadly, is the integration of nation-states, cultures,
economies, markets, and diverse peoples, into a global network or system. Many theorists emphasize the economic aspects and claim that globalization is the harnessing of local, national, and regional markets to the global through trade, flows of capital, technology, and financial investments. Beyond this general definition, it can mean:
1 An economic agenda that traverses the world, promoting market economies and enhancing trade in the service of capital growth;
2 an ideology representing values, cultural norms, and practices, seen by some as a superior worldview and by others as cultural hegemony;
3 a corporate structure and mechanism that may supercede the rule of nation-states and challenge or even threaten democracy;
4 a global village, the consequence of vast cultural exchanges, communication technologies, transportation, migrations, and a wide array of global interconnections, including the globalization of ideas; or
5 a grassroots globalization or globalization from below as witnessed in antiglobalization or pro-democracy movements emerging in resistance to economic and cultural globalization.
