What is globalization?

There are different definitions that emphasize different ways to understand and explain globalization. However, the common theme in these definitions is the idea that there is an increased connectedness and integration across space and time. How this connectedness is understood is a disputed issue. George Ritzer and Anthony Giddens, for example, view globalization as a process in which there is a multi-dimensional flow of people, objects, and information and in the social structures that integrate this flow. Others understand this connectedness to be a condition that is an effect of organized globalized political and economic processes. An example of the latter approach may be seen in Wallerstein's world-systems theory that emphasizes the political and economic dimensions of globalization and its effect on dependency relations between core and periphery states.
Further Reading: The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Sociology by George Ritzer (chapter 29)