Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
underpinned by, the collapse of the national Keynesian state and its replace-
ment by a series of localities intent on auctioning themselves of
ff
regardless of
the costs.
Globalization as postmodern time-space compression
Globalization, the broadest label for postmodern time-space compression,
re
orts of capital in the form of transnational corporations to
render the world increasingly seamless and frictionless. Globalization is
typically de
fl
ects the e
ff
ned as the expansion in the scope, velocity, and impacts of inter-
national transactions such as trade, investment, migration, and communica-
tions. Typically, this process entails the increased integration of di
fi
erent
societies so that the consequences to action in one place spiral out to shape
others around the world. While globalization is obviously not new, the term
today is generally used to refer to the enormous round of postmodern time-
space compression that began in the late twentieth century. Virilio (1999),
ever-mindful of the role of war in unleashing time-space compression, points
to postmodern war as the culprit in the late twentieth-century annihilation of
space and time, including cruise missiles, unpiloted drones, and television
(e.g., CNN), which allows con
ff
icts such as the Persian Gulf and Iraq Wars to
be viewed in real time over the entire planet (Redhead 2004). In his view,
postmodern capitalism has reached the limits of time-space compression,
in which the ability to generate ever-continual increases in the speed of
transportation and communications su
fl
ers enormous diminishing returns.
The process of integrating the world is hardly the monopoly of corpor-
ations. In addition to corporations and transnational regulatory regimes,
large numbers of social movements cross national borders to engage in
numerous, complex, and sometimes contradictory e
ff
orts, including some
15,000 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), many of which are various
forms of human rights and environmental watchdog groups. Such institu-
tions often sidestep national political authorities to engage in “interstitial”
domains of action, of
ff
ering decentralizing, rhizomic, polynucleated systems
of power instead of the centralized bureaucracies of the nation-state. In
many cases, such groups may use the Internet to “jump scale,” turning local
issues into national or international ones. Their very existence as the core of
an emergent global civil society testi
ff
es to the degree to which the centrality
of the nation-state as the only legitimate vehicle of political action has been
undermined.
To claim that globalization is exclusively economic in nature ignores the
profound manner in which contemporary capitalism operates simultane-
ously as a political, cultural, and ideological force. For example, immigra-
tion is clearly a facet of globalization, with many ostensibly “non-economic”
aspects associated with it. Equally, one could point to the globalization
of education, disease, or terrorism. Some aspects of globalization that are
resisted most vehemently in parts of the world are its cultural dimensions,
fi
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