This book represents the first attempt to conceptualize the social and cultural impact of transnational enterprises on host nations and to provide empirical and analytical material on the subject. Well-known social scientists focus on three critical areas: social inequalities, knowledge systems, and lifestyles and values. Collectively, they advance

Social and Cultural Impact of Transnational Enterprises: An Overview -- Impact on Social Classes and Inequality -- Transnational Capitalism and National Disintegration in Latin America -- A Class Analysis of Multinational Corporate Expansion -- Women Workers in Multinational Corporations: The Case of the Electronics Industry in Malaysia and Singapore -- The Multinational Corporations and Inequality of Development -- Impact on Knowledge Systems -- The Impact of Transnational Book Publishing on Knowledge in Less-Developed Countries -- The Information Bedazzlement of Latin America -- The Impact of Transnational Corporations on Educational Processes and Cultural Change: An African Perspective -- The Role of Multinationals in Vocational Training -- Impact on Consumption Patterns and Values -- Breast-Feeding: The Role of Multinational Corporations in Latin America -- Sociocultural Investments and the International Political Economy of North-South Relations: The Role of Transnational Enterprises -- Cultural and Ideological Dependence: Building a Theoretical Framework