ABSTRACT
Two developments in the later twentieth century ushered in a new era of globalization – that is, an era of intensifying contacts and interactions among societies literally around the world. The most obvious development, and with direct impact on children and youth, was technological: satellite TV broadcasts facilitated global communications, including networks like MTV crucial in dispensing at least a version of international youth culture; in 1990, the introduction of the Internet created an unprecedented means of contact which many young people seized upon in societies otherwise as different as the United States and Iran. The second development was political: the decision of first China, then Russia to open to new kinds of international contacts. The Cold War ended; multinational companies expanded their outreach amid growing inducements to create market-based economies.
