Economic Globalization

Abstract

Economic globalization is without doubt the most commented upon, debated, and controversial of topics within the literature on globalization. Economic globalization appears spectacular, and its consequences seem most tangible. In fact, it often seems that economic globalization is the driving force behind the various changes bound up with culture and politics in the contemporary world, as well as being the principal concern of the alternative globalization movement. Consequently, it is often suggested that contemporary globalization is a historical moment in which the economic attains autonomy from, and exerts its weight upon, other spheres such as politics, society, and culture. In this chapter we examine how this purported economic autonomy is, above all, tied up with questions of inequalities in wealth and power – between MNCs and citizens, between countries in the North and countries in the South, between the connected and the unconnected, and between employers and employees.