Global Political Economy

"Southern Africa seems to be a remote region. Far away from stock market crashes, bank runs and toxic assets, one might assume at first sight that the financial crisis would hit the developing and least developed countries less hard. Yet, reality tells a more ambivalent story, as Southern African states have been affected in different ways and have found specific ways of dealing with the consequences of the financial crisis. This article explores implications of the financial crisis on the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a supranational community in Southern Africa, which has undergone  liberalization  and restructuring processes during the last decade. Factors such as
  trade policy norms (liberal trade policies versus protectionist trade policies),
  economic diversification and integration (world market versus  regional markets, namely South-South cooperation),
  political and regulative capacity (good governance versus weak governance)
shape the vulnerability, capability and  performance of SADC states and  allow for certain policy strategies  –  be it  State Keynesianism, South-South  cooperation, incrementalism or regional integration. The cases of South Africa, Angola and Botswana serve as examples for different forms of managing, regulating and interpreting the financial crisis and its consequences."

"This paper is located in what is referred to as policy critique within the theoretical framework of International Political Economy (IPE) which, by origin, seeks to problematize issues of policy. In 1994, celebrated Brazilian economist, Reinaldo Gonsalves produced an important thesis and model
on how to measure a country’s global insertion. At that time, Gonsalves could not have foreseen the influence of the Internet on global trade or on domestic trade policies. As such, the issue of global digital connectivity now presents itself as another pillar to measure global insertion. By examining regional Caribbean policy in this regard, this is an opportunity to advance Gonsalves’ model
stimulate further on the opportunities associated with global digital connectivity."

As this Special Issue demonstrates, the literature on Global Value Chains (GVCs), Global Production Networks, and Global Commodity Chains continues to provide important insights into the governance and organization of production and distribution networks. The continuing promise of these investigations is that knowledge of processes of information sharing enables developing countries to compete in the world economy, and for the wealth arising from production to better reflect where value is created. This commentary piece suggests that GVCs (hereafter ‘value chains’) co-exist with what we call Global Wealth Chains (GWCs or ‘wealth chains’). This co-existence undermines many of the development objectives articulated in research on value chains. We define Global Wealth Chains as linked forms of capital seeking to avoid accountability during processes of pecuniary wealth creation. By accountability we mean fiscal claims, legal obligations, or regulatory oversight. Global Wealth Chains are commonly located in offshore jurisdictions, but these places are not only the Caribbean islands we imagine as ‘tax havens’, but also include London, Amsterdam, and Singapore, among many others. Further, wealth chains are articulated not only through sovereign spaces but also within financial products such as hybrids and derivatives.

"In the face of globalization’s massive social and economic transformations and the resulting persistent inequality, activists, labor organizers, and advocacy NGOs are seeking and creating change beyond the confines of formal state politics and across national borders. Given the breadth of local issues activists face, the ways they define the problem and seek redress vary widely. This book provides a unique perspective on these efforts, gathering into one volume concrete examples of the implementation of different strategies for social change that highlight the challenges involved. This provides useful lessons for those involved in social change, as well as for those studying it. Contributors to the volume are scholars and practitioners around the world, and they draw on strong connections with people working in the field to improve working conditions and environmental standards of global production systems. This allows readers to develop a more comprehensive and grounded understanding of strategies for social change. Contributors draw upon different ways of creating change, which include corporate social responsibility schemes, fair trade regimes, and community radio. By providing insight into the potential and limitations of actions taken at different levels, the book encourages a critical perspective on efforts for social change, grounded in an understanding of how conditions around the world can affect these activities.

Edited by Shae Garwood, Sky Croeser and Christalla Yakinthou"

In this paper I will critically examine whether it is true or not that the contemporary global transformation brings forth a transnational state (TNS) which is dominated by a territorially independent transnational capital class (TCC). My central argument will be that, from an Open Marxist/Canadian School of IPE-perspective, Robinson and other supporters of the ‘transnational’ departure overstate the role and abilities of a TCC which leads to a misleading conclusion concerning class relations and state authority in the process of neoliberal globalisation. First of all, I am going to provide some theoretical/terminological background to the (Neo-)Gramscian approach submitted by Cox et al. to establish the base: This includes the important role of agency in the constitution of hegemony and the formation of a historic bloc. Subsequently, I present key arguments of Robinson’s enhanced thesis including his crucial notion that we are currently living in epochal times of a transition from a world economy (nation-state phase) to a global economy (transnational phase). Finally, I am going to contest his precipitated assumptions by providing critical counter-arguments concerning the relation of social forces and the state and by reviewing his rather dissatisfactory methodology.

This book argues that unreasonable dogmatic beliefs are expressions of socially structured patterns of prejudice. Specifically, prejudice is explained as being produced and dispersed within the confines of the political structures governing the manner in which material human needs are created and met. Classifying various dimensions of prejudice (philosophical, epistemological, psychological, sociological, political, and cultural), the book conceptualises the relation between dogmatic thinking and these facets of human existence. Criticising and comparing a wide range of theories and factual data relating to the growth and expression of prejudice, the book is a theoretical discussion of problems surrounding the production of cultural norms, the psychological effects of filial systems and relations between the sexes, the constitution of modern capitalist society, and elementary principles of political democracy. Drawing on feminism, whiteness studies, Marxist theories of racism and imperialism, psychoanalysis, critical theory, and cultural studies, the author examines the constraints placed upon individuals', groups', and nations' propensity for scientific and rational thinking.

Radhika Desai's book 'Geopolitical Economy: after Globalisation, Empire and US Hegemony' (see links for more information) defines a new theoretical framework for the analysis of the multipolar world that is now emerging from the chaos of the economic crisis that began in 2007. In this section I group presentations and papers that provide background, elaboration and news relating to this topic. This will include material that I have not myself authored but consider important and relevant - it is a kind of 'likes' section or, perhaps more accurately 'Recommendations'