There is an ongoing inquiry concerning the nature and role of globalization in terms of social processes, economic development, culture and tourism, and last, but not least, as it relates to spatial change. Although globalization has been an active field of research in the social sciences, which is reflected by the large number of studies being published on this issue since the early 1990s (Dicken 2003:7), its complexity and dynamics suggest a whole range of issues that remain unaddressed. Even the term "globalization" itself remains undefined, since it appears as a "buzzword" that carries quite different meanings. According to Baumann (1998), globalization is multidimensional and thus necessarily vague: "All vague words tend to share a similar fate
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