We live today in an interconnected world in which ordinary people can became instant online celebrities to fans thousands of miles away, in which religious leaders can influence millions globally, in which humans are altering the climate and environment, and in which complex social forces intersect across continents. This is globalization.

In the fifth edition of his bestselling Very Short Introduction Manfred B. Steger considers the major dimensions of globalization: economic, political, cultural, ideological, and ecological. He looks at its causes and effects, and engages with the hotly contested question of whether globalization is, ultimately, a good or a bad thing. From climate change to the Ebola virus, Donald Trump to Twitter, trade wars to China's growing global profile, Steger explores today's unprecedented levels of planetary integration as well as the recent challenges posed by resurgent national populism.

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Manfred B. Steger is Professor of Sociology at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa and Global Professorial Fellow at Western Sydney University. He also served as a globalization consultant for the U.S. Department of State. He is the author or editor of twenty-seven books on globalization and social theory, including The Rise of the Global Imaginary (Oxford University Press, 2008); the award-winning Globalisms: Facing the Populist Challenge, 4th ed. (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020); and Globalization Matters: Engaging the Global in Unsettled Times (with Paul James, Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Preface to the fifth edition
List of abbreviations
List of illustrations
List of maps
List of figures
1. What is globalization?
2. Globalization in history
3. The economic dimension of globalization
4. The political dimension of globalization
5. The cultural dimension of globalization
6. The ecological dimension of globalization
7. Ideological confrontations over globalization
8. The future of globalization
References
Index