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Abstract

I have come to expect a great deal from Harm de Blij over the years and he has always delivered. So, when I was presented the opportunity to review this new look at globalization from the de Blij perspective I jumped at the chance. The purpose of The Power of Place is to examine the many assertions of a flattening of the earth; of the globalization we are constantly being told is leading us to a loss of regional cultures. So how does de Blij accomplish this task considering the flattening of the earth has been widely recognized as gospel? First he introduces us to some terminology; “globals,” “locals” and “mobals”, and the concept of “rough” landscapes. The vast majority of people around the globe are locals, people who will live and die in the same general area in which they were born. These people do not participate in global culture in any substantive way, and some not at all. For these people, the world will never be flat. Some of the locals will, for various reasons, leave their village or countryside and become urbanites in search of jobs; these are the mobals. For them the world is slightly more flat. The globals, well, we are them. Every country has its share of each, just in different proportions. For the globals the world is, indeed, increasingly becoming flatter. But since the overwhelming majority of the world is made up of locals, the world for the overwhelming majority of the world is far from flat. Instead it is rough. There are many hills, valleys, and mountains on the globalization landscape out there.

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