Dislocating globalisation: power, politics and global change

This article analyses two related political processes associated with globalisation. It begins by rejecting claims that globalisation is an inevitable and technologically-determined process and goes on to describe the ways in which political influence, such as that of powerful governments and major lenders, is used to facilitate and intensify the globalisation process. To understanding this fully, it is important to examine the effects of 'discourses' or theoretical representations of the global economy, since powerful discourses of an apparent globalisation help create the conditions in which further globalisation can occur. This article goes on to look at the ways in which resistances to globalisation have, through everyday struggles, attempted to refute the 'inevitability' of the globalisation process. These resistances are usually place-bound, but also seek to create alliances around the globe using the same technologies utilised by corporate and inter-state agencies.