Abstract

The article draws out recent themes or meanings of globalization, as they play out in reiterations and variations across spatial locations within national borders. In the wake of deindustrialization in advanced economies—attributed to contemporary globalization, several communities experienced economic decline. At the same time, these communities witnessed a surge in immigrant populations in the nation. This essay underscores how economic discontents became fused with inflammatory ani-immigration rhetoric, issues of identity, language and a perceived national culture, to temper the public discourse about globalization. Entrenched ideologies of parochial nationalism challenge ideals of globalism and cosmopolitanism, more so, as state actors harness narrow nationalist sentiments for political gain. Yet, I argue, this particular view of globalization continues to be contested through hyphenated identities and global cultural connectivity of immigrant and cosmopolitan populations in the nation. Accordingly, the meaning of globalization is rendered polycentric and susceptible to cultural turns in the nation.