Globalization and its discontents are of prime concern in the world today, and central in the concerns of a number of scholarly disciplines. Yet few grasp that long-range systems of interaction, enabling transfers of goods, biota, people, ideas, and identities, have a deep history, which should resonate in the present. There is limited agreement on even the most basic concepts, to the point where rival interpretations merely talk past each other.  This project attempts to historicize and re-conceptualise globalization, bring the key disciplines together, and better understand its intimate mechanics and implications for the present.

This project is led by James Belich in Oxford and brings together leading scholars from Oxford, Princeton, Osaka, Kolkata, Leiden and Konstanz, supported by an advisory committee.

The project is funded by a Leverhulme Trust International Network grant.