Abstract
Globalization is often regarded as a form of pressure from the outside world, which forces common values or institutions on the different localities having its own historical or cultural peculiarity. Yet globalization always has its own local basis, on which it actually embodies itself through competition, conflicts, and mobilization among various local actors. The author investigates these local foundations of globalization by focusing on socio-political processes of “single imaginary space” production at the local level. As this “imaginary space” tends to be produced under strong pressure from the global market, an economic way of thinking often prevails in the image-production of globalization at the local level. Economic rhetoric such as global competition among cities and regions is often employed as political symbols for local mobilization by growth-oriented actors to advance globalization-enhancing policies. Public sphere at the global level also requires a local basis. A perception of a “single imaginary space” should be created not just in a market-centered way but in a more pluralistic way.
