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Who really runs the global economy? Who benefits most from it? The answer is a triad of 'governance institutions' - The IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. Globalization massively increased the power of these institutions and they drastically affected the livelihoods of peoples across the world. Yet they operate undemocratically and aggressively promote a particular kind of neoliberal capitalism. Under the 'Washington Consensus' they proposed, poverty was to be ended by increasing inequality. This new edition of Unholy Trinity, completely updated and revised, argues that neoliberal global capitalism has now entered a period of crisis so severe that governance will become impossible. Huge incomes for a small number of super-rich people produced an unstable global economy, rife with speculation and structurally prone to crises. The IMF is in disgrace, the WTO can hardly meet anymore and the World Bank survives as a global philanthropist. Is this the end for the Unholy Trinity?
Widely adopted, this unique text critically evaluates the leading theories of international economic development, from classical economic and sociological models to Marxist, poststructuralist, and feminist perspectives. No other book provides such comprehensive coverage or links the theories as incisively to contemporary world events and policy debates. Reexamining neoliberal conceptions of economic growth, the authors show what a more just and democratic form of development might look like today. New to This Edition: Revised to reflect evolving global economic realities Updated with the latest concepts and empirical data Additional chapter on classical and neoclassical economics Increased coverage of real-world policy issues Now more accessible to undergraduates.
The world is caught in the mesh of a series of environmental crises. So far attempts at resolving the deep basis of these have been superficial and disorganized. Global Political Ecology links the political economy of global capitalism with the political ecology of a series of environmental disasters and failed attempts at environmental policies. This critical volume draws together contributions from twenty-five leading intellectuals in the field. It begins with an introductory chapter that introduces the readers to political ecology and summarizes the books main findings. The following seven sections cover topics on the political ecology of war and the disaster state; fuelling capitalism: e...
Liberation Ecologies brings together some of the most exciting theorists in the field to explore the impact of political ecology in today's developing world. The book casts new light on the crucial interrelations of development, social movements and the environment in the South - the 'bigger' half of our planet - and raises questions and hopes about change on the global scale. The in-depth case material is drawn from across the Developing World, from Latin America, Africa and Asia. The issues raised in contemporary political, economic and social theory are illustrated through these case studies. Ultimately, Liberation Ecologies questions what we understand by 'development', be it mainstream or alternative, and seeks to renew our sense of nature's range of possibilities.
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Two decades after the publication of the seminal Models in Geography, edited by Richard Chorley & Peter Haggett, this major collection of specially commissioned essays charts the new human geography from the perspective of political economy. Providing surveys of recent trends in theory, bibliographic guides to the literature, and pointers to advances and frontiers in thinking, the book ranges from cultural to economic and urban geography. The authors explore the connections between political economy and geographical thought in each area, with the emphasis lying on the processes of material production and social reproduction.
In Global Capitalism (originally published in 1991), Richard Peet surveys the various approaches made by social theory towards seeing history in terms of its regional dynamics. He reviews environmental determinism, modernization, dependency, and world systems theories, and argues that the most capacious and dynamic model continues to be historical materialism. The volume presents a broad outline of global development through time, analysing primitive communism, lineage societies and the various kinds of tributary modes, and providing a closer examination of capitalism in terms of the phases and forms of its past and present. The author defends the centrality of structural Marxism to theories of global development and argues that its ideas can be furthered by the partial synthesis of other perspectives, such as the feminist critique. This book assumes no previous knowledge of the theories surveyed. It introduces complex material in an understandable form and will be valuable both to development professionals and to anyone interested in societal change.
This work looks at how contemporary global economic policies are made: by which institutions, under what ideologies, and how they are enforced. The author reveals the central roles played by organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank in supervising the livelihoods of over 2.5 billion people. He shows that neoliberal economic policy is enforced by a few thousand unelected and unaccountable experts in the North and has failed to deliver tolerable living conditions for the poor. The book argues for a new geographic theory of power, exercised through dominant institutions, concentrated in hegemonic power centers. It seeks to transform the existing geography of policy-making power by exposing its structures, centers and mechanisms, critiquing its intellectual foundations, uncovering its un-democratic justifications, and passionately supporting its opponents. The conclusion makes a further positive contribution by exploring policy alternatives that point the way forward.
First published in 1987, International Capitalism and Industrial Restructuring counters the idea that industrial restructuring is a relatively problem-free stage in the evolution to a post-industrial society. The editor argues that the permanent loss of eight million manufacturing jobs in the advanced industrial countries over the past ten years has had extremely serious effects on people, economies, and societies, and that it is a major cause of economic recession. The six million jobs gained in the newly industrializing countries pay low wages, expose workers to hazards, destroy local cultures, and fail in generating integrated development for the Third World. Many outstanding articles are included, drawn from a wide variety of radical journals, with introductions that set the scene and pose challenging questions. All students and researchers concerned with industrial restructuring in the capitalist world will find the book valuable as a radical critique of widespread current economic problems.