Globalization, capitalism and the market: Beyond ahistorical and flat-earth arguments

Capitalist production, trade, and market relations are driving forces of contemporary globalization. (1) While globalization cannot be reduced to its economic dimension as some economists have been prone to do, there is no doubt about the central importance of capitalist exchange and production in the extension of social relations across world-space. (2) Ideas and practices as diverse as consumerism, entertainment, liberalism, cosmopolitanism, tourism and sport are now so bound up with processes of globalizing production and exchange that it is difficult to extricate broader social relations from their grip. It seems that everything can now be conceived of in terms of goods and services that can be sold (commodification) or processes that are organized to offer a return on investment (capital accumulation). (3) Each of these processes has spread across the globe