ABSTRACT
The twentieth century glided to an end upon the well-greased crest of a plentiful supply of global energy (crude oil) and riding on the back of the rapid rise of a technological infrastructure that radically altered how everything – and everybody – was connected. It is no understatement to say that the twenty-rst century was reached through the revolutions of energy and communications that transgured sociocultural life, predominantly in the developed Western nations (the “rich north”), and which brought the whole world so much closer together. Pathways of interrelations and interdependencies grew far and wide and set the world stage for an almost unprecedented spread of mobile “bodies”: commerce, trade, culture, language, entertainment, travel, leisure activities, and even war were all transformed by a world that opened up to a new level –an international embrace – of global civilization and citizenry.
