Glocalization is a term that arises from the combination "Composition (linguistic)") between globalization and localization and was initially developed in the 1980s within the business practices of Japan. The concept comes from the Japanese term "dochakuka" (derived from dochaku, “he who lives in his own land”). Although many references treat Ulrich Beck as the creator of the term and its disseminator, the first author to explicitly bring this idea to light is Roland Robertson.

Glocalization can be defined from an economic or cultural perspective:

As an economic term it refers to the person, group, division, unit, organization or community that is willing and able to "think globally and act locally." The concept implies that the company adapts to the peculiarities of each environment, differentiating its productions based on local demands.

At a cultural level, according to Antonio Bolívar Botía, Professor of Didactics and School Organization at the University of Granada, glocalization is the mixture that occurs between local and particular elements with globalized ones. It means that in a global world, in which we are witnessing a progressive elimination of borders at an economic, political and social level, the existence of cultural barriers increases, generated by people who defend their traditions from cultural globalization.

Stuighzky points out that the term is appropriate to refer to the localization of production in capitalism to the sphere of globalization.

Martín Hopenhayn also analyzes cultural globalization and the political tensions it currently generates. Glocalization serves as a tool for integrating globalization in the locality and has two consequential aspects: the tendency to subordination and the tendency to integration. It affirms that sociocultural differentiation becomes more visible within the national societies themselves and that in turn preserves the identities that recognize it.

According to Boaventura de Souza Santos in his book Towards a new common sense (1995), these are "globalized-localisms" and "localized-globalisms", which are often accompanied by social and political movements and other expressions of civil society. This is a happy hypothesis that favors our critical approach. The above laid the foundations for new practices of global citizenship that converge in what has already been baptized as “glocalization.” From a critical sense, according to Orlando Fals Borda, “glocalization” changes the “b” in “barbarian” to the “c” in “heart.”