Introduction: Defining a Global Geography

The articles in this special issue provide a map for understanding the networks of transfers and relationships that make up the international web of globalization. Globalization involves a variety of links expanding and tightening a web of political, economic and cultural inter-connections. A variety of data indicate that we are undergoing a process of compression of international time and space and an intensification of international relations. Both popular accounts and more rigorous analysis tell us that there are increasing international connections taking place, that an expanding variety of goods and services are being exchanged across boundaries, that more and more people live their professional, family, and intellectual lives in more than one country, and that cultural autarky is no longer possible. Yet, individual data sources tell us little more than that. How fast are we integrating? What does the global web look like? Who is in the center and who is on the margins? How have these positions shifted over the past two decades? The following dozen studies explore these questions through systematic and historical data, and delve into the underlying structure of the apparent integration.