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globalisation. This point is emphasised by Castells’s declaration that “[o]ur
world is, and our lives, are being shaped by the conflicting trends of
globalization [sic] and identity” 43 . This is because the information technology
revolution, and the structuring of capitalism, according to Castells, has
induced a new form of society, the network society 44 . According to M.
Burawoy (2000), as capitalism spread across the world, the truth of the local
moved outside itself in which people and ideas flow across the borders 45 .
The new world order has emerged devoid of visible structures and of an
obvious logic. The more general and pertaining feature of this new order is
the way national and cultural frontiers have been blurred. The role of the
nation states as containers of social and cultural identity has been
questioned and in some instances, undermined. The purification of space
and identity has been challenged by the trans-nationalism and cultural
hybridity inflicted by processes of globalisation (Eriksen 1994; Waters 1995;
Morley and Robins 1995; Friedland; and Boden 1995). According to
Anthony G. McGrew (1998), globalisation contributes to the “de-
nationalisation” of territorial space and so challenges the modern institution
of sovereign statehood based upon the principle of exclusive territorial
43 M. Castells, Information Age, p. 1.
44 Ibid, p. 1.
45 M. Burawoy, Global Ethnography: Forces, Cnnections, and Imaginations in a Postmodern
World, p. 1.
42