Over the last two decades global integration has accelerated. The volume of foreign direct investment, trade, and capital movements has grown exponentially. At the same time, changes in communications technology and cheaper travel have led to the growing compression of time and space (Giddens, 1999). The changes associated with economic globalization have had a profound influence on societies, social classes and individuals. For some, contact with the global economy is manifested primarily through growing levels of trade and investment. For others, it comes mainly through the implementation of structural adjustment policies. While the long-term consequences of these transformations remain deeply contested in the extant literature, much of the currently available data suggests that at least for the time being many of these changes have had a deep and negative influence on many socio-economic classes (Rodrik, 1997; Hurrell and Woods, 1999; Mittleman, 2000; Milanovic 2005). In particular, in many developing countries, social inequalities have grown and many have struggled to survive in the new economic environment.