Held and McGrew: The Global Transformations Reader

Held, D. & McGrew, A., 2000. The global transformations reader.

The meaning of globalization is not universally held. It is seen by some to be increased interdependence, by others to be improved networking and transportation technology and by others to be increased interconnectedness.

“It (globalization) is characterized by four types of change. First, it involves a stretching of social, political and economic activities across frontiers, regions and continents. Second, it is marked by the intensification, or the growing magnitude, of interconnectedness and flows of trade, investment, finance, migration, culture, etc. Third, it can be linked to a speeding up of global interactions and processes, as the development of world-wide systems of transport and communication increases the velocity of the diffusion of ideas, goods, information, capital and people. And, fourth, the growing extensity, intensity and velocity of global interactions can be associated with their deepening impact such that the effects of distant events can be highly significant elsewhere and specific local developments can come to have considerable global consequences…Globalization, in short, can be thought of as the widening, intensifying, speeding up, and growing impact of world-wide interconnectedness." (Held and McGrew 2000:67-8)

Held and McGrew also distinguish two schools of thought in the globalization debate: the globalists and the skeptics. The globalists believe that the world is changing, that the stretching, intensification, speeding up, growing extensity, intensity and velocity are all creating a very different world. The skeptics, on the other hand, do not believe that anything substantively new is coming about from the above changes associated with globalization. Two groups of people that Held and McGrew explicitly highlight who fall into the globalization skeptics are IR Realists and Marxists (Held and McGrew 2000:3-42).


Marxism and Realism are grouped together under the umbrella of globalization skeptics because they both rely on underlying assumptions about power that do not allow for much flexibility. For the Realist, power lies in the state. Globalization, from this perspective, may be changing the nature of state interaction, but it is not making any inroads onto the state monopoly on power. Realism, as a theory of IR, is very rigid and does not easily allow for substantive change, structural or otherwise. It is not possible that institutions or regimes that are not nationally controlled to exert any power over the sovereignty of the state.


Marxism is considered a globalization skeptic because the theory ultimately believes that capital drives power, be that power political, business or other. Traditional Marxist scholarship does not see a radically different world emerging with the increased intensity and speed of world-wide interconnectedness. They see the continued, historic drive of capital to accumulate, for that is the logic of capitalism. As globalization skeptics, Held and McGrew claim that Marxists do not allow for substantive global change. The drive for globalization is ultimately controlled by the logic of capital and class relations.