0 the action or process of breaking something into small parts or of being broken up in this way: --
A schistocyte is a red blood cell undergoing fragmentation.
He claimed that social fragmentation was a by-product of the internet.
It was partly the fragmentation of the opposition which helped to get the Republicans re-elected.
1 a situation in which an industry or business activity has many companies but no one company is more important than the others: --
The article argues that the fragmentation of the systems has contributed to the failure of structural adjustment programmes to achieve their desired ends.
The 'vertical separation and fragmentation' option was victorious.
In that context, the present fragmentation of proprietary rights to genes would simply be untenable.
This may be another pathway in competition to the fragmentation reaction already discussed.
For the constructionists, then, ethnic multiplicity - or fragmentation - does not pose a problem but is rather a cause for celebration.
This is not to say, however, that state multiculturalism reinforces ethnic fragmentation, thwarting a broader class-based project of transformation that would arise in its place.
The authors start with a convincing exposition of the fragmentation and poor co-ordination that bedevils many services for older people.
Stills extracted from the installation's video output, demonstrating the layering and fragmentation of various images with moving text.