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[caption id="attachment_142" align="alignleft" width="300"] Road sign in Nouadhibou, Mauritania © Armelle Choplin, 2009[/caption]This special issue addresses the inconspicuous geography of globalization, constructed through invisible transnational connections. To bring these spaces out of the shadows, it is essential to shift our gaze from the center towards the spatial as well as the social margins. This rescaling also needs to be rethought in order to grasp the complex interactions between the local and the global.Finally, the various studies in this special issue reveal three types of interstitial spaces on which this inconspicuous globalization is based: routes, secondary cities, and market places. Thus, a broad and vast research fields opens up before us, whose main lines we sketch out below. Armelle Choplin and Olivier PliezThe Inconspicuous Spaces of Globalization Saïd Belguidoum and Olivier PliezYiwu: The Creation of a Global Market Town in China Hélène Mainet and Sylvain RacaudSecondary towns in globalization: Lessons from East Africa Sylvain RacaudChasing a Pair of Chinese Sandals: Markets and Trade Routes in Cameroon Yann Philippe TastevinThe Indian Auto Rickshaw in Egypt: An Ethnography of Transnational Trade Connections Anke HagemannFrom Flagship Store to Factory: Tracing the Spaces of Transnational Clothing Production in Istanbul &#160;