What globalisation means to us

Sociology uses the sociological imagination: the skill of linking an individual's life with the wider society, and the local with the global. Globalisation is the perfect example: a decision in Geneva or a factory in China can change a family's life in a Bihar village.

From 1 April 2001, India removed all quantitative restrictions on imports: limits on how much of a product could be brought in. Shops began to sell Chinese pears and Australian apples.

For rich urban consumers, this meant more choice. For many producers, it meant a crisis of livelihood. WTO rules required such opening, and Indian farmers now competed with cheaper or subsidised imports.

Examples from the book of people who lost work:

• Women silk spinners in Bihar lost work when cheaper Chinese and Korean silk yarn came in.
• Fish workers lost out to big foreign fishing vessels allowed into Indian waters.
• Women gum collectors in Gujarat lost work to cheaper gum imported from Sudan.
• Rag pickers lost some work because of imported waste paper.

So the same policy can help one group and hurt another. Globalisation does not affect every section of society in the same way.

The question sociology asks is not simply 'Is globalisation good or bad?', but 'Good or bad for whom?'