ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that there has been a historic shift in the formation of world order, but contend that this has less to do with the demise of a bipolar political structure than with a reconfiguration of global economic relations. It is concerned less with watersheds, and more with continuity. The chapter discusses the characteristics of economic globalisation that began in the 1980s. It also discusses these at some length and with perhaps tedious statistical detail because the question of whether or not globalisation in the foreseeable future will gainfully engage the majority world is the most important question of author time. The chapter argues that it will not, and that globalisation should be comprehended as a qualitatively different phase of capitalism, one of involution rather than expansion. It indicates alternative policy responses on the part of international social work practitioners that are sensitive to the variations of exclusionary sources of injustice and conflict.
