Global Influences and Interdependencies

Since the 1980s, theories of globalization have offered a comprehensive model for ‘explaining the world’. In recent years, however, there has been a shift in focus from epistemic categories such as ‘the global’ or ‘connectivity’ to deglobalization and disconnection. Despite notable changes in international politics, trade, migration, and transnational communication, this shift is only partially supported by the facts. Against the backdrop of these contradictory developments, the contributions to this volume argue that globalization and deglobalization processes have run in parallel for centuries and continue to do so. Through detailed case studies of cities and regions in Europe, the Americas, and Africa, they illustrate how global processes have had far-reaching local and regional effects and feedback loops. While cities and regions have benefited from and helped shape global trends in various ways, they have also been areas in which the negative effects of globalization have become apparent. The concept of the 'dialectic of interdependence' summarizes these diverse trends and offers new perspectives to researchers and practitioners of history and urban studies.