Introduction: The Corporate and Institutional Dynamics of FDI in the Global Economy

There has been a convergence of interest among geographers, planners, economists and political scientists in understanding an apparent tension between the way in which the world economy has become ever more closely integrated, yet economic activities remain tied to places as centres of production, consumption and political and cultural organisation. This tension has found expression in geographical literature in the use of terms such as ‘global-localisation’ (for example Cooke 1993) and ‘glocalisation’ (for example Swyngedouw 1992). The subtitle of this book makes use of one of these terms – ‘global-localisation’ – as a shorthand for a range of political and economic interactions at numerous spatial scales.