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Introduction.

Globalisation is an idea of our time, highly contested and widely accepted at the same time. It relates to the economy, politics, culture, society, and generally, with everything we deal with in our everyday lives. Globalisation has been widely theorised by different schools of thought and each takes its own approach and reaches different conclusions. Held et al (1999) separate the theorists of globalisation into three different schools the hyperglobalisers, the sceptics and the transformationalists. Each of these schools represent a different account of globalisation and a different interpretation of it as a social phenomenon. I will not attempt to summarise the different views of each school[1] but some of their different perspectives have to be taken into account since they represent different political trends and thoughts on globalisation.

One important argument is brought forward by the sceptics. Drawing on statistical evidence of world trade from the nineteenth century which shows that in fact there is only a slight rise on trade today compared with the Gold Standard era, the sceptics argue that globalisation is not a new phenomenon, but a return to the levels of trade before the great depression. Therefore they argue that globalisation is only a process of intense internationalisation (or transnationalisation) (see Held et all, 1999: 155-171). However, I will not consider globalisation as such, because globalisation deals not only with economic relations but also with cultural, political, social and environmental issues (see Lash and Urry, 1994: 279-312). It is not a coincidence that the concept of globalisation took off during the time of the information revolution[2]. Even the first traces of globalisation deal, directly or not, with the circulation of information. The circulation, or sometimes imposition, of culture through religions and empires (which imposed information) in the pre-modern era is an example...