Contemporary processes of globalization have several integrating dimensions: technological, cultural, religious, economic, environmental, and political. It can also influence domestic policy issues or impose powerful values and wills on the less powerful and local communities in different parts of the globe. Globalization is notuniformly manifest around the globe. It is strongest in the U.S., Japan, Europe, and East Asia, followed by South America, Eastern Europe, and South Asia. In contrast, we see little in sub-Saharan Africa, the former Soviet Union, and Middle East especially in Iran. None of these is in itself good or bad. All should be understood as ambiguous, with potential for good and evil, but in the current phase of globalization what is especially more important in Iran is the human resources that should distinguish these faces and identify the potentials to pursue the good. However as the following research shows, the majority of Iranian population does not really understand globalization and its changing dimensions, drivers and interrelationships among them and those who think they know, mostly do not agree with a single global village and growing interdependence of people around the world. This can be a result of their unawareness and/or their perspective on the meaning of life astheir genders, ages and professions clearly indicates.
Isfahan University
