One of the keywords of our time, ‘globalization’ frames how we understand our interconnected world. An ambiguous signifier carrying multiple meanings, the term is usually used to refer to the extension and intensification of social relations across the world. Many works have been authored that deal with various aspects of globalization. However, it is surprising that no critical history of the concept has yet provided a historical mapping of its conceptual origins, evolution, and genealogical lineages.

This book investigates the meaning formation of ‘globalization’ by featuring interviews with twelve prominent academic pioneers of the new trans-disciplinary field of Global Studies, who were central in forging the ‘career ‘of the concept of ‘globalization’. Together with an introductory chapter, these interviews clarify how and why a previously obscure scholarly concept suddenly exploded in the public discourse of the 1990s. In particular, the interviews trace the processes by which economistic discourses of free market economics became the basis for the influential association of the meaning of ‘globalization’ with the dominant neoliberal framework of the 21st century.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Globalizations.