List of Figures vii

List of Tables ix

Preface xi

1 Globalization 1

2 Discourse 27

3 Commodities 57

4 Labor 99

5 Money 139

6 Law 181

7 Governance 227

8 Space 279

9 Health 337

10 Responses 389

Glossary 417

Index 473

"Sparke models inquiry into taken-for-granted concepts or events through rich understanding and questioning. More importantly, he reframes spatial theory as the starting point of social studies conversations about globalization. Rather than accept the inevitability of globalization, he depicts the inevitability of inequity. He examines how inequities become actualized in lives through geopolitical and geoeconomic infrastructure. He encourages us to reconsider the relationships between disciplines, contending that disciplined inquiry enables simplistic understanding. He allows geography and spatial theory to be a way of understanding the world, a lens that resonates across the social studies. The book importantly segments a variety of explanatory moments to allow readers without a strong economics background to understand economic principles. It is a lack of economic understanding that makes global policy discussions unintelligible to the general public. In the process, he ultimately constructs the globally minded citizen. While his brand of global thinking (and citizenship) has a problematic Western perspective, it also utilizes a critical lens that requires awareness of these contradictions and their implications for ourselves and others. The spatial thinking highlighted throughout this review relies on thinking across the disciplines to attend to how, where, and why places are constructed independently and interdependently across scales and time. Rather than assuming that places are knowable, rejecting the three myths encourages questions about what has been made invisible, how new places come to exist, the kinds of interactions that occur therein, and how they reify and amend cultural and other discourses." (Theory & Research in Social Education, 19 February 2015)

"Finally, a globalization text that takes its subject
seriously yet simultaneously explores the myths that surround it.
Matt Sparke relates the two 'levels' or ways of
thinking about globalization as a material phenomenon and as a
political project. This not only makes for a refreshingly novel
take on globalization, one that other introductory books manifestly
fail to achieve as they go one way or the other... it does so in an
accessible manner."--John Agnew,
UCLA

"This text is written by an extremely well qualified
geographer who has experienced globalization in all its
multi-faceted dimensions and has taught generations of his students
about its inherent tensions and divisions. Its coverage is
extensive and yet detailed; its well-researched content constantly
challenges us to think critically about globalization; and its
end-of-chapter exercises are great fun to work with. These are all
the hallmarks of a superb text. I recommend it
wholeheartedly!"--Henry Yeung, National University
of Singapore

"Written with passion, lucidity, and rigor, [this is a]
rare text, making accessible to a generation of globally-oriented
students the complex and urgent debates about globalization and the
empirical and analytical research that can inform such
debates."--Ananya Roy, University of California,
Berkeley

Matthew Sparke is Professor of Geography and International Studies at the University of Washington, where he also serves as the Director of the undergraduate program in Global Health. He has authored over 60 scholarly publications, including the book In the Space of Theory (2005), but he is also dedicated to teaching about globalization as well as writing about it. He has multiple awards for his work as a teacher, including the lifetime Distinguished Teaching award from the University of Washington.

M. Sparke, University of Washington, Seattle, WA