ABSTRACT
The geography of globalization contains both a dynamic of dispersal and of centralization, the latter a condition that began receiving recognition only recently. The massive trends towards the spatial dispersal of economic activities at the metropolitan, national and global level which we associate with globalization have contributed to a demand for new forms of territorial centralization of top-level management and control operations. The rapid growth of affiliates illustrates this dynamic. By 1998 firms had about half a million affiliates outside their home countries. The sheer number of dispersed factories and service outlets that are part of a firm’s integrated operation creates massive new needs for central coordination and servicing. Thus the spatial dispersal of economic activity made possible by telecommunications and the new legal frameworks for globalization contribute to an expansion of central functions if this dispersal is to take place under the continuing concentration in control, ownership and profit appropriation that characterizes the current economic system.
