What was globalization?

Abstract

This contribution draws on world-system, Marxist, and feminist theories to argue that globalization is a stage in the evolution of the capitalist world-system, with distinct geographic, class, and gender features. Although there is some merit in redefining ‘globalization’ to enable its extension back to ancient history, this contribution situates ‘globalization-from-above’ and ‘globalization-from-below’ in a particular stage of world capitalist development, highlights female labour in social reproduction, and ends by speculating as to whether aspects of this stage may be on the decline.