Globalization--to use word that now designates growing openness of national markets to international trade--is often viewed as last stage in advent of market economy, whether one exalts or deplores this development. (1) Although economic facets of globalization are already widely studied, a scientific approach to its cultural dimensions is only beginning to develop. Unfortunately, term globalization is often a cliche, a sort of catchall term that evokes, rather than explains, current transformations, with McDonaldization of world being most evident aspect of culturar globalization. Globalization designates multifaceted process of homogenization, which brings cultural practices into conformity with what we think of as the Western model. This homogenization contains several aspects. The propagation of lifestyles, clothing, music, and consumer products from West is most visible and striking. But aside from McDonald's and Coca-Cola effects, uniformizatio n also progresses under guise of culture, (2) and, even more subtly, through propagation of a set of norms and values such as human rights, democracy, market economy, and protection of environment, which are imposed in all corners of earth. This Davos is direct consequence of economic globalization, and term refers not only to a style of economic operations but also to a lifestyle. This is why yuppie-style is not just a formula: it corresponds to real modes of consumption, leisure, and family life, giving rise to a whole series of related services. Although main traits of this art of living are Western, its messengers and representatives come from diverse cultures and societies. (3) Faculty Club culture is another aspect of cultural homogenization, brought about by other social groups and defined by spread of Western values and ideologies. For example, if members of Davos sell state-of-the-art computers to population of India, representatives of this club culture--intellectuals, professors, journalists, cultural operators--will promote virtues of a market economy, protection of environment, and Western-style feminism more widely. But homogenization alone does not come close to describing phenomenon of cultural globalization. Because of growing gap between economy and and and politics--a trend that is only beginning to be understood theoretically--it is no longer possible to think of globalization chiefly as growth of a unique culture. The coherent and policed images of modernity projected by West are increasingly challenged and contested by alternative cultural forms. This is why we are witnessing a proliferation of political crises linked with clashes of values, norms, and images. But if conflict of values is omnipresent, it is still reductive to consider these alternative cultural forms as antimodern, as exclusively reactionary and in tension with West. (4) To understand cultural dimension of globalization, we must situate question of in context of sociological theory, particularly with regard to relationships between and social structure. (5) The globalization question has historically been linked to Marxist and neo-Marxist debate over capitalist development. (6) Since classical sociology in general adopted a national and statecentric approach, sociologists are now faced with new challenge of producing work that integrates global dimension. (7) In this context, nonreified approaches to society in works of Norbert Elias and Georg Simmel offer a heuristic path in that they emphasize social processes and modes of socialization. In these conditions, globalization is no longer viewed in terms of all or nothing: it is neither a complete disaggregation of existing social systems nor a complete integration of social systems into one single form, homogeneous and coherent. …