Skip to Main Content

Geography

Start your research in geography with the best available resources curated by the subject librarian.

A short definition for globalization

The increase in the volume, scale, and velocity of social (and environmental) interactions. Globalization is not new, pre-dating colonialism. Ash (2004) TIBG 29, 2 describes globalization as a politically driven project, led by the US government, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and the G8. Jackson (2004) TIBG 29, 2 prefers to think of ‘globalizing’ rather than ‘globalized’, suggesting that globalization ‘might be better thought of as a site of struggle rather than as a foregone conclusion’. The strong globalization thesis stresses the primacy of global economic forces over national/domestic political ones, emphasizing the decline of the social democratic politics and the limitations of national governments; see Weiss, in G. Ritzer and Z. Atala, eds (2010), who contrasts it with weak globalization. Tickell and Peck in J. Peck and H. W. Yeung, eds (2003) argue that globalization is not a monolithic phenomenon, but produces its own geography.

Globalization operates on a number of scales; Swyngedouw in G. Clark et al. (2000) refers to the changes in the relationships between geographical scales, which create ‘a new scalar migration, especially of the poor’. Taylor (2007) GaWC Res. Bull. 238 claims that, generally, globalization is associated with a rescaling argument in which national domination of social practice is dissipating upwards to the global, and downwards to the local. Ash (2004) TIBG 29, 2 believes that globalization is creating a ‘new, topologically and hierarchically structured economic space which is substantially different from the hitherto dominant world system based on territorially organized and state-regulated economies’. But globalization impinges differently on different places, and in locally specific ways (see OECD (2001) Devolution and Globalization); in Dicken’s view (2004, TIBG 29, 1) bounded political places matter—‘global changes are manifested most directly at the local level’ (P. Dicken 2003). Taylor in W. Dunaway et al., eds (2003) expects globalization to change ‘the existing state-centric view’ into a city-centric view of the world. ‘The global economy thrives on the specialized differences of countries, regions, and cities. But it does need homogenized standards…and…it also needs standardized built environments’ (Sassen (2008) Urb. Geog. 29, 2).   ...

Mayhew, S. (2015). Globalization. In A Dictionary of Geography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 May. 2023
 

In the Library's collections

Depending on its context, Globalization can be found throughout the Library's collection. However, there are specific call number ranges where you will find the most resources. The ranges include: JZ 1308, JZ 1317.5 through JZ 1320.7, HF 1385 and HF 1418.5. These ranges are located on Berry Levels 3 & 4. Some subject headings are listed below. Don't forget to check out the Related subjects lists whenever you do a subject search.

Introductory reading(s)

Each of the books contain at least one full chapter about Globalization in context with its main subject.

Selected book title(s)

Finding scholarly articles & journal title(s)

Articles and other writings about Globalization can be found in many publications. A note about searching for Globalization. Globalization can be spelled with a "z" or an "s." When searching for articles, be sure to either use both versions of the word or in different article indexes, you can substitute a "?" for the "z" and the "s." The "?" acts as a wildcard character making searching more comprehensive. Our collection includes several journals which look at Globalization exclusively. Below is a short list of some of the journal titles we have in our Library's collection. You can also the search box at the top of the page to find articles.