'Globalization' is a word that is currently much in use. This bookis an attempt to show that there is far more to globalization thanits surface manifestations. Unpacking the social roots and socialconsequences of globalizing processes, this book disperses some ofthe mist that surrounds the term. Alongside the emerging planetary dimensions of business, finance,trade and information flow, a 'localizing', space-fixing process isset in motion. What appears as globalization for some, meanslocalization for many others; signalling new freedom for some,globalizing processes appear as uninvited and cruel fate for manyothers. Freedom to move, a scarce and unequally distributedcommodity, quickly becomes the main stratifying factor of ourtimes. Neo-tribal and fundamentalist tendencies are as legitimateoffspring of globalization as the widely acclaimed 'hybridization'of top culture - the culture at the globalized top. A particularreason to worry is the progressive breakdown in communicationbetween the increasingly global and extra- territorial elites andever more 'localized' majority. The bulk of the population, the'new middle class', bears the brunt of these problems, and suffersuncertainty, anxiety and fear as a result. This book is a major contribution to the unfolding debate aboutglobalization, and as such will be of interest to students andprofessionals in sociology, human geography and cultural issues.