Understanding Globalization: The Social Consequences of Political, Economic, and Environmental Change

A study of how political and economic changes affect people's lives in different settings around the world. Globalization, the author argues, is not completely new. Instead, the current wave of globalization builds on international institutions created just after World War II and was given new impetus by policies introduced in the 1970s and 1980s. This new edition contains five new chapters: an introductory chapter which surveys different theories of globalization, including critical and feminist perspectives on current debates; a chapter on the globalization of production and its impact on work and gender in the United States, Western Europe and Japan; a chapter on development strategies in poor countries, examining the expansion of export manufacturing, tourist industries, and the growing traffic in women; a chapter on the growth and globalization of the environmental movement, with a critical explanation of its successes and failures; and a chapter on division and war in Yugoslavia, explaining the reasons behind successive, brutal wars in the region.