ABSTRACT
In an opening address to nongovernmental organisations before the United Nations Millennium Summit on 6th September 2000, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared: ‘arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity’ (Crossette 2000). The subsequent three-day summit meeting brought together over a hundred of the world’s leaders in order to discuss the economic, political and cultural consequences of globalization, which Annan asserted should be ‘an engine that lifts people out of hardship and misery, not a force that holds them down’ (Crossette 2000). The summit’s intense focus on this process, topping the agenda for their first meeting in the new millennium, attests to the critical importance of globalization and its far-reaching impact on our contemporary moment.
