Introduction and background: the global space industry

Abstract

Since the early 1970s, debates have raged throughout the social sciences concerning the process of ‘globalization’ an essentially contested term whose meaning is as much a source of controversy today as it was in the 1980s, when systematic research first began on the topic. Contemporary globalization research encompasses an immensely broad range of themes, from the new international division of labor, changing forms of industrial organization and processes of urban—regional restructuring, to transformations in the nature of state power, civil society, citizenship, democracy, public spheres, nationalism, politico-cultural identities, localities and architectural forms, among many others. Yet despite this proliferation of globalization research, little theoretical consensus has been established in the social sciences concerning the interpretation of even the most rudimentary elements of the globalization process (for example, its historical developments, causal determinants and socio-political implications).