SINCE THE ESSAYS IN THIS BOOK WERE FIRST PRESENTED AT AN INTER-national symposium in upstate New York in 1989, there has been a phenomenal growth of interest in the subject of globalization. Yet, relatively little of the literature on this topic has addressed the many complex questions arising from the impact of globalization on specifically cultural issues or, indeed, of culture (s) on the processes of globalization, however those two very problematic concepts are interpreted. 1 If this is one good reason for bringing out a second North American edition of this book, another is the continued relevance of the many powerful arguments and different perspectives raised by its various contributors. Encouraged, therefore, by the positive reception accorded the first edition, the enthusiastic support of editor Micah Kleit at the University of Minnesota Press, and, in a more pragmatic sense, the somewhat furtive circulation of its predecessor, 2 I start this preface to the revised edition.