ABSTRACT
In recent years ‘globalization’ has become a key term for organizing our thinking about contemporary changes in world economic geography. Processes of globalization are seen as leading to a profound geographical reorganization of capitalism and the role that particular geographic units, such as states or regions, play within the system. To date the processes of globalization have been studied mainly as transformations affecting developed countries and their highly specialized economic activities such as trade, finance and communications. In our view both the scale and scope of globalization have been exaggerated, and vast areas of the world, such as Africa, are either being excluded from globalization of production and finance or marginally affected by them. Africa’s continued experience with underdevelopment represents a countervailing trend to the spread of economic growth associated with versions of the globalization thesis.
