Technology and globalization: The European payments system as a case of non-globalization

This paper shows that in the design of European EFTPOS payment networks the dominant influences on network design were national; these included national banking industry structures, regulatory regimes, retail industry structures and cultural attitudes to debt. Time was no sign of the technology itself driving globalization - on the contrary, the network technology is 'configurable' and appears subject to shaping by many distinct national-social contexts, Where there was some movement to 'globalization', understood as a process of standardization of the service provided through the technology across national frontiers, it derived from the explicit social objectives of the European Commission and was not an inevitable result of the 'technology' itself. The argument is widened to show that much of the evidence for the overall 'trend' to globalization may be reinterpreted as the result of a process of 'industrialization' in certain parts of the world. In conclusion, the very existence of the assumed 'trend' to globalization may be questioned, while technology does not 'drive' globalization, but may be 'shaped' by social agencies like the European Commission that have an interest in fostering its own versions of the globalization process.