In contrast, the more realistic argument that geography has new life
through globalization may go like this. Distance, as measured in an
absolute sense, is indeed less important, but place, space, locality and
the relative distance between these things are not. ‘Global’ processes are
actually stretched ‘local to local’ processes, and they unfold in localities
that have a unique history and character. In the economic sphere, TNCs
choose to locate in particular places due to a complex mixture of local
characteristics in the destination area and factors specific to the firm
influenced by the nature of their source location. In culture, hybridity
becomes the new normality as ‘global’ trends mix with local ones to
create new cultures, for example, New Yorican salsa or Polynesian rock.
Geography is indeed transforming, both as a concrete reality and as a
discipline that seeks to analyse those changes, but it is not irrelevant.
This new, highly volatile unevenness makes geography – ‘the study of
spatial differentiation’ – more important than ever as the world fragments
and recrystallizes along new political, economic, social and cultural lines.