Global Shift: Reshaping the Global Economic Map in the 21st Century

`It just keeps getting better... If there was a word beyond definitive, then that would be the word I would be using here′ - Professor Nigel Thrift, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol

`Global Shift shatters our easy slogans about globalization, corporations, and nations with bold new insights... Peter Dicken has created a powerful conceptual framework not to be missed by those who hope to grasp the logic of this emerging global order′ - William E Halal, School of Business and Public Management, George Washington University

`Dicken identifies both states and transnational corporations as the two key actors in the multiple processes of restructuring and institutionalization that we usually call the global economy. In so doing he has written a political economy of globalization and produced a far more comprehensive account than is typically the case in books about the global economy, most of which tend to confine the analysis to firms and markets′ - Saskia Sassen, author of Global Networks, Linked Cities

This Fourth Edition of Global Shift - now a standard work on globalization - has been completely updated and thoroughly revised.

Students and tutors can return time and again to this volume which offers:

- a detailed account of the theories informing the globalization debate

- a comprehensive discussion of the interplay between transnational corporations, states, and changing technologies

- sectoral case studies, including services, each of which illustrates the processes of globalization in different ways

- a much-expanded discussion of inequality, development, environment, and governance

Global Shift provides the reader with the tools and information needed to assess key features of globalization and contains:

- examples drawn from around the world

- use of comparative examples and data

- over 250 especially commissioned maps, graphs, tables and diagrams

- notes for further reading at the end of each chapter

- an extensive bibliography

Preoccupation with the `global′ is an emblematic feature of our time. While much of the literature is stronger on hype than on reality, the totally revised and updated Fourth Edition of Global Shift takes a more balanced view of globalization. It identifies both the massive changes that continue to transform the world economy and affect local communities across the globe, and the complex processes involved. It focuses on the interrelated actions of transnational corporations and states within a volatile technological environment. Richly illustrated, this bestselling cross-disciplinary book provides a unique approach to one of the key issues of the new millennium.

Offering the reader all the tools needed to understand and critically assess globalization, Global Shift is the essential resource for all students in the social sciences. It is designed to be used for introductory, undergraduate and postgraduate courses in economic geography, sociology, political science and international relations, management and international business studies.