Misthinking Globalisation: Twentieth-Century Paradigms and Twenty First-Century Challenges

Accounts of globalisation fail to distinguish the current globalisation from that which followed the industrial revolution. Before the industrial revolution most economic activity was local, with production and consumption bundled in the close geographic proximity. In the first globalisation, production and consumption unbundled on an unprecedented global scale as natural and man-made trade costs fell. In the second unbundling the production process itself is being unbundled globally, with traditional ‘made in’ labels losing meaning as supply chains become more and more complex.