Conscious of the need to highlight the endogenous nature of development and the variety of ways in which it can be brought about, the General Conference of Unesco has called for a study of the effects of the activities of the transnational corporations on the development process, especially in the Organization?s spheres of competence. If development is to be endogenous, the different societies concerned must retain their own identity, drawing their strength from their own specific forms of thinking, and acting and setting themselves goals that are consonant with those values and with the needs they feel and the resources they possess. This is the spirit in which this study has been undertaken. The study is based on an extensive bibliography, which calls on the findings of a large number of studies on the activities of the transnational corporations, including those carried out by Unesco and the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations. It takes stock of our knowledge of the socio-cultural impact of the transnational corporations? activities and is a starting-point in the bid to identify the effects they have more clearly.