Lying at various points on the continuum between extremes is the transformationalist thesis (see Table 2.1). Scholars in this group argue, often in very different ways, that globalization is real and is restructuring society profoundly (Castells, 1996; Giddens, 1990). This change extends from historical transitions which contrast with the hyperglobalist claim that globalization is an entirely new condition. Tranformationalists
argue that globalization is historically and geographically contingent, constructed by human action, and therefore has no predetermined outcome (Peet, 1991). The role of nation-states is altered, though not necessarily eroded. Novel policy responses are required given that traditional binaries such as international/domestic, internal/external
and global/local are collapsed (Rosenau, 1990; Sassen, 2000). In this context, Rosenau (1990) talks of the rise of ‘intermestic’ affairs.