Living in the Global

Abstract

Abstract ‘Globalization’ is now seen too often as an all-pervasive force in the modern world. Yet, even now, there is still considerable dispute over what the term might mean, let alone what it might portend (Robertson 1990; King 1991). Commentators seem willing to agree that the term must be linked in some way to the wilting of the idea of a cohesive and sequestered national economy and society (Giddens 1989). They seem willing to agree that a global economy and society now exists, and not just in embryonic form. They seem convinced that as a result of these changes, everyday life, in developed countries at least, has in some senses, changed, if only because no one can opt out of the changes taking place (Giddens 1991). Finally, commentators seem sure that there is a ‘dialectic’ between the global and the local, that in some sense what counts as the local has been transformed by globalization (Massey 1991).