Geography has a long global tradition' and this was evident before the rise of globalization as a concept in the social sciences. This puts geographers in a strong position in terms of placing globalization in historical perspective, Taylor ei al., (2002) trace the changing emphasis placed on the global and the"local through various stages of the discipline's evolution, Geography was founded as a tool for exploration of the globe, largely to support the needs of Western imperialism. Following the Second World War regional geography eclipsed this glohalism but this in turn was eclipsed in the 1960s hy a Te invigorated concern for the global. This new focus linked thrcc issues: first, the growing concern with the global physical and coological cnvironment: second, the work concerned with the international division oflabour and the role of multinational companies: and third. the increasing concern for global inequalities. With the rise of postmodernism in the 1980s concern for the local came to the fore once again(see Crang, 1999 Esteva and Prakash, 1998). As is evidenced in Figure 1.2 the recent evolution of the discipline is characterized by a significant engagement with global issues. The approach is ditterent this time however, sinc there is an ex ohjective ot linking global and local change, a the following paragraph elaboratcs(s for example Larncr and LcHeran, 2002)