Quantcast

Glossary


Globalizationsearch for term

Globalization

entails a “reconfiguration of geography, so that social space is no longer wholly mapped in terms of territorial places, territorial distances and territorial borders”. This term also has become a buzzword and much of the discussion about the term is confused and confusing. There appear to be at least five broad definitions of this term including:

- Globalization

as in internationalization
- Globalization

as liberalization
- Globalization

as universalization
- Globalization

as westernization or modernization
- Globalization

as spread of supraterritoriality

This last broad definition defines ‘globalization’ as “the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa”. (Giddens 1990). David Held et al (1999: 16) define globalization

as a “process (or set of processes) which embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions - assessed in terms of their extensity, intensity, velocity and impact - generating transcontinental or inter-regional flows and networks of activity”.