ABSTRACT
There is no reason to believe that liberal globalization is ineluctable. Contrary to much of the evolutionary imagery or technological determinism which is often invoked to explain it (for example Friedman, 1999a: 7-8, 18, 285), globalization has been neither spontaneous nor inevitable; it has been the political project of an identifiable constellation of dominant social forces and it has been, and continues to be, politically problematic and contestable. Indeed, the very idea that there have been significant tendencies in the world political economy which might usefully be described as “globalization” is vigorously contested. This chapter will sketch out a case claiming that although it may be possible to exaggerate the extent and significance of globalization, real material processes are underway which are creating new possibilities for meaningful transnational social relations. How, or indeed whether, these possibilities are realized will depend upon the outcomes of current social struggles, struggles in which the meanings assigned to “globalization” are central.1
