Globalization And Localization Analysis

Globalization is a process, or sometimes even referred to as a project, which definition is hard to grasp. Where the Oxford dictionary defines it as ‘the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale’, there are still many academic and public debates on the meanings, outcomes and interpretations of globalization. The definitions vary in historical depth, scope, as well as in the identification of key causes and processes of globalization. In order to develop an understanding of the many domains, layers and conceptual connections involved in globalization processes, a number of definitions, influential views on background and perspectives with respect to pervasiveness

Together with technological change and economic growth, geographical expansion causes an interaction between globalization and localization. Naturally, the geographical aspects of globalization are the most interesting for human geographers. When focusing on the geographical perspectives, one immediately notices that every human geographer has his/her own view on the subject. However, a few general patterns recur more often, which can be considered as main school of thoughts. In order to systemize the heterogeneous understandings of globalization, ‘an entirely appropriate classification of globalization theories differentiates three courses of analysis of this multidimensional phenomenon’ (Stefanović, 2008 p. 264). This classification is developed by Held and his colleagues (2007), who distinguish between the sceptics, the hyperglobalists and the transformationalists. As most human geographers can be categorized under either one of these schools, this research will be discussed

5). Manuel Castells is a sociologist who can be seen as a transformationalist and indeed sees globalization as the future, replacing nation states and borders. In his perspective, globalization is equated with modernity, a consequence of technological change and the information revolution. Castells has written a paper in 2008 on globalization, networking and urbanization in which he summarises ‘the main features and underlying causes of the spatial dynamics of the global network society’ (Castells, 2008 p. 2737). In his paper, he states that spatial transformation is a fundamental dimension of the new social structure and explains the concept of the space of flows. According to him, the understanding of contemporary urbanisation should start with the study of network dynamics as the networking form of territorial arrangements extends to the intrametropolitan structure (2008, p. 2737). When critically evaluating Castell’s perspective, it is noticeable that Castell does not seek to explain the concept of globalization, but societal change in general. ‘Castell’s work will continue to play a central role in future thinking about globalization’ (Jones, 2010 p. 70), but there are some