Introduction

Abstract

For most individuals, the term globalisation means the integration of separate national markets into a single global marketplace with cross-border flows of goods, capital and people. Some social analysts argue that this process is a recent phenomenon, from the viewpoint of seeing the world as a single place inhabited by a single humanity, sharing common conceptions of rights and identities, and global economic integration. But is globalisation new? If we take the central features of globalisation: the expansion of trade; the growth and spread of investment and capital; the relocation and reorganisation of production; the diffusion of new technologies; and the cross-border migration of people, globalisation is not new.