Globalization in Practice

In short, punchy essays by distinguished researchers from across a range of disciplines, this book provides a new way of understanding globalization, moving away from the standard accounts of global forces, economic flows, and capitalist dynamics, to show how ordinary practices and artefacts are crucial elements and symbols of globalization.

Nigel Thrift, Vice-Chancellor, University of Warwick,Adam Tickell, Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Birmingham,Steve Woolgar, Professor of Marketing and Head of Science and Technology Studies, Said Business School,, University of Oxford,William H. Rupp, Administrative Officer, University of Warwick

Nigel Thrift is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick. He joined Warwick from the University of Oxford where he was made Head of the Division of Life and Environmental Sciences in 2003 before becoming Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research in 2005. He has been the recipient of a number of distinguished academic awards including the Royal Geographical Society Victoria Medal for contributions to geographic research in 2003, Distinguished Scholarship Honors from the Association of American Geographers in 2007 and the Royal Scottish Geographical Society Gold Medal in 2008. He was made a Fellow of the British Academy in 2003 and received an Honorary LLD from the University of Bristol in 2010. His current research spans a broad range of interests, including international finance; cities and political life; non-representational theory; affective politics; and the history of time.

Adam Tickell is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Transfer) and Professor of Geography at the University of Birmingham and has worked at the Universities of Leeds, Manchester, Southampton and London. He received his BA and PhD from the University of Manchester. He was editor of Transactions, Institute of British Geographers, has co-edited books on economic geography with Trevor Barnes, Jamie Peck and Eric Sheppard and has authored numerous papers on his areas of interest.


Steve Woolgar is Chair of Marketing at the Said Business School, University of Oxford, Head of the Science and Technology Studies group at InSIS (Institute for Science, Innovation and Society), and is a Professorial Fellow of Green Templeton College. He has published widely in social studies of science and technology, social problems and social theory, including Laboratory Life: the construction of scientific facts (with B Latour, Princeton), Science: the Very Idea (Routledge), Knowledge and Reflexivity (Sage), The Cognitive Turn: sociological and psychological perspectives on science (with S.Fuller and M.de Mey, Kluwer), Representation in Scientific Practice (with M. Lynch, MIT), The Machine at Work: technology, organisation and work (with K.Grint, Polity), and Virtual Society? Technology, cyberbole, reality (OUP).

William H. Rupp received his doctorate from the University of Warwick and holds degrees from the University of Toronto and Wilfrid Laurier University. Currently, he is engaged with Warwick's Widening Participation work and is responsible for a major outreach programme. He also served as assistant editor to The European World 1500-1800 (ed. Beat Kumin; Routledge 2009 with 2nd ed. forthcoming).