For more than twenty years globalization has been a prominent topic in the social sciences and humanities because it deals with processes that impact all societies at the international, national, and local levels. Controversies and conflicting approaches have dominated this field of studies. To understand the variety and strength of different approaches, the editor asked many of their leading exponents to outline their own ''research framework''.Contributors include 20 distinguished scholars in the fields of sociology, anthropology, history and political science. These writings have been organized into four sections: theoretical perspectives and cultural globalization, economic globalization, political globalization, and methodological approaches. The extensive coverage and the interdisciplinary flavor of the volume makes it suitable for a large interdisciplinary audience.