Preface.- Introduction: Rationale of the Book and Thematics of the Contributions, Ino Rossi.- PART ONE: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES.- 1. Globalization as an Historical and a Dialectical Process, Ino Rossi.- 2. Microglobalization, Karin Knorr Cetina.- 3. A Transnational Framework for Theory and Research in the Study of Globalization, Leslie Sklair.- 4. Global Systems, Globalization and Anthropological Theory, Jonathan Friedman.- 5. Structure Formation in World Society: The Eigenstructures of World Society and the Regional Cultures of the World, Rudolf Stichweh.- 6. Global Complexities, John Urry.- PART TWO: ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL PROCESSES.- A. Economic Integration and Disintegration, and Uneven Development.- 7. Trajectories of Trade and Investment Globalization, Christopher Chase Dunn and Andrew Jorgenson.- 8. Globalization and Uneven Development, Giovanni Arrighi.- 9. Globalization and Disintegration: Substitutionist Technologies and the Disintegration of Global Economic Ties, Robert K. Schaeffer.- B. World Governance, Terrorism and Democracy.- 10. Social Integration, System Integration and Global Governance, Margaret S. Archer.- 11. Globalization, Terrorism, and Democracy: 9/11 and Its Aftermath, Douglas Kellner.- PART THREE: STUDYING GLOBALIZATION: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES.- 12. Finding Frontiers in Historical Research on Globalization, Raymond Grew.- 13. Theoretical and Empirical Elements in the Study of Globalization, Saskia Sassen.- 14. Three Steps toward a Viable Theory of Globalization, James N. Rosenau.- 15. Situating Global Social Relations, Martin Albrow.- 16. Conclusion: Toward a Framework of Global Communication: Durkheim, Phenomenology, Post-modernism and the ‘Construction’ of Place and Space, Ino Rossi.- PART FOURTH: COMMENTARIES AND DISCUSSION.- 17. 'Globalization: In Search of a Paradigm', Janet Abu-Lughod.- 18. A 'New' Global Age, But Are There New Perspectives on It?, George Ritzer.- 19. 'Globalization' as Collective Representation: The New Dream of a Cosmopolitan Civil Sphere, Jeffrey C. Alexander.- 20. Rationalization and Globalization in neo-Weberian Perspective, Randall Collins.- 21. From Cosmopolitanism to a Global Perspective: Paradigmatic Discontinuity versus Continuity and Emergent Conceptualizations, Ino Rossi.- INDEX.-