Book review

Abstract

R itty Lukose’s Liberalization’s Children is an excellent ethnographic exploration of the cultural politics of globalization in post-liberalization Kerala. It stands out in two ways. First, Lukose pays attention to the local dimensions of globalization, showing how it affects those generally considered to be on the margins of globalization. Second, she examines how young people experience globalization and its attendant cultural practices. As Sunaina Maira has said, “research on globalization has not intersected deeply enough with that on youth culture” (2004:205), and this book makes a valuable contribution to the small (but steadily growing) body of scholarship on youth and globalization. Lukose provides a broad perspective on globalization by examining it “as experience, as practice, and as discourse” (7). She also offers a muchneeded counter to the popular idea that the experience of globalization and liberalization is denied to some groups (such as rural people) while available to others (such as urban, cosmopolitan populations). Drawing on