Here is more and more agreement on the fact that globalisation is an extremely complex phenomenon; it is the interactive co-evolution of multiple technological, cultural, economic, institutional, social and environmental trends at all conceivable spatiotemporal scales. Hence, Rennen and Martens [6] define contemporary globalisation as an intensification of cross-national cultural, economic, political, social and technological interactions that lead to the establishment of transnational structures and the global integration of cultural, economic, environmental, political and social processes on global, supranational, national, regional and local levels. Although somewhat complex, this definition is in line with the view on globalisation in terms of deterritorialisation and explicitly acknowledges the multiple dimensions involved.
However, the identification of all possible health effects of the globalisation process goes far beyond the current capacity of our mental ability to capture the dynamics of our global system; due to our ignorance and interdeterminacy of the global system that may be out of reach forever[7]. In order to focus our conceptual framework, we distinguish-with the broader definition of globalisation in mind-the following important features of the globalisation process: (the need for) new global governance structures, global markets, global communication and diffusion of information, global mobility, cross-cultural interaction, and global environmental changes
Conceptual model for globalisation and health http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/figures/1744-8603-1-14-2.gifWe have identified (the need for) global governance structures, global markets, global communication and the diffusion of information, global mobility, cross-cultural interaction, and global environmental changes as important features of globalisation. Based on Figure 1 and Table1, it can be concluded that these features all operate at the