Introduction

Abstract

During the last few decades, human dynamics, institutional change, political relations and the global environment have become successively more intertwined. While increased global economic integration, global forms of governance, globally inter-linked social and environmental developments are often referred to as globalisation, there is no unanimously-agreed upon definition of globalisation. It means different things to different people. Depending on the researcher or commentator, it can mean the growing integration of markets and nation-states and the spread of technological advancements (Friedman, 1999); receding geographical constraints on social and cultural arrangements (Waters, 1995); the increased dissemination of ideas and technologies (Albrow, 1996); the threat to national sovereignty by trans-national actors (Beck, 2000); or the transformation of the economic, political and cultural foundations of societies (Mittleman, 2000).