GLOBALIZATION AND THE FAMILY: Introduction to the Special Issue of International Journal of Sociology of the Family

such way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice-versa (64). Which there is broad consensus about the centrality of global exchanges, observers have been quite divergent in their assessments of the character and consequences of globalization. For some, the primary feature of globalization is deterritorialization, marking what Scholte (2000) describes as a reconfiguration of geography, so that social space is no longer mapped in terms of territorial place, territorial distances, territorial borders (16). Others have placed particular emphasis the cultural dimensions of globalization, noting the growing volume of cultural interactions that globalization brings, and the attendant growth of reflexivity about identity and belonging. There has been much debate about the implications of globalization for local cultures. On the one hand, as exemplified by the McDonaldization thesis, globalization is associated with cultural homogenization, and the dominance of commodity-driven, Western-imposed world culture. On the other hand, as reflected in the hybridization thesis, there is the idea that local cultures do not just react, but rather interact with global forces in dialectical and reflexive ways. In reviewing theories of globalization, I am struck by the fact that the family is relatively invisible and very much secondary focus of concern in these discussions. For the most part, the family is understood as recipient of ~ globalization—a sphere that is acted on by globalizing forces. To put it in