Thinking about the Local and the Global in the Algerian Context

This article poses questions arising from research on local and the global cultural flows in struggles for self-determination to draw attention to some complexities. While we may think in terms of a relationship between the local and the global, rather than a uni-directional flow from the global to the local, it is important to hold on to the way in which other relations, notably those of power, also impact on the way this relationship is constructed. In different contexts there are trends or hierarchies which may affect how the local relates to the global and the global impacts on the local. After briefly surveying theoretical debates about the local and the global, I ask whether our work on conflict and self-determination is suggesting any new ways of looking at this relationship. The argument is illustrated throughout with materials from a case study of Algeria drawing particularly on the media and migration.