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Glocalisation

Glocalisation (or glocalization) is a portmanteau of globalization and localization. By definition, the term “glocal” refers to the individual, group, division, unit, organisation, and community which is willing and is able to “think globally and act locally.” The term has been used to show the human capacity to bridge scales (from local to global) and to help overcome meso-scale, bounded, "little-box" thinking. The term 'glocals' is often used to describe a new social class: expat managers who travel often and switch homes often, and are therefore both global and local.

A variety of usages

In various uses, glocalisation has entailed elements of the following:

Including and combining local, regional, and global, or micro-meso-macro, as one dimension, the magnitudes or scale dimension. Manfred Lange used the term "glocal" in late 1989 during preparations for the Global Change exhibition, and presented a poster on local and global change. [more below and external links]
Using electronic communications technologies, such as the Internet, to provide local services on a global or transregional basis. Craigslist and Meetup are examples of web applications that have glocalised their approach.
Individuals, households and organisations maintaining interpersonal social networks that combine extensive local and long-distance interactions.
The establishment of local organisation structures, working with local cultures and needs, by businesses as they progress from national to multinational, or global businesses. As has been done by many organisations such as IBM.
The creation or distribution of products or services intended for a global or transregional market, but customised to suit local laws or culture.
The declaration of specified locality - a town, city, or state - as world territory, with responsibilities and rights on a world scale: a process that started in France in 1949 and originally called Mundialisation.

Development of the concept

One origination of glocalization came in the 1980s from within Japanese business practices. It was also used in the Global Change Exhibition (opened May 30th, 1990) in the German Chancellery in Bonn by Manfred Lange, the director of the touring exhibit development team at that time.

He described the interplay of local-regional-global interactions as "glocal", showing the depth of the space presented and drawn. The System Earth poster of Spatial and Temporal Scales presented the scales involved.

Although the "glocalisation" term was not printed on the original exhibit's poster itself,

, as this was considered "newspeak", it was used often when presenting the exhibition and ensuing the Local and Global Change Exhibition, "Geotechnica", Cologne 1991

Glocalization was subsequently (and independently) developed in the English-speaking world by the British sociologist Roland Robertson in the 1990s, the Canadian sociologists Keith Hampton and Barry Wellman in the late 1990s, and Zygmunt Bauman. Hampton and Wellman have frequently used the term to refer to people who are actively involved in both local and wider-ranging activities of friendship, kinship and commerce.

Very often localisation is a neglected process because globalization presents an omnipresent veneer. Yet, in many cases, local forces work to attenuate the impact of global processes. These forces are recognisable in efforts to prevent or modify the plans for the local construction of buildings for global corporate enterprises. For example, Thomas L. Friedman in The World is Flat talks about how the Internet encourages glocalisation, such as encouraging people to make websites in their native languages.

Several NGOs are working to develop glocalisation, including the Glocal Forum (active since 2001) and the nascent Glocal University.

The glocalization approach suggests that reconsidering frames of references and order schemas is useful for both global and local research and management. Indeed, global and local are really two sides of the same coin as a place may be better understood by recognising the continuum nature of glocalisation.