Globalisation and regionalisation from a spatial perspective

Abstract

Much of the debate on globalisation has been framed in dichotomous terms which juxtaposes the national state, a fixed territorial unit, to a world increasingly characterised by global flows which disregard boundaries. I suggest an alternative approach which goes beyond ‘common sense’ notions of space and views it as a social construct consisting of multiple, temporally coexistent layers connected by zones of ambiguous permeability. Using this perspective, the interplay of regionalisation and globalisation is viewed as the often contradictory efforts of specific social forces to formulate new spatial arrangements which seek to ameliorate the spatial limitations of the national state while maintaining some of the advantages offered by limited permeability between regions.