Challenges Of Globalization

This book critically examines the responses of the working classes of the world to the challenges posed by the neoliberal restructuring of the global economy. Neoliberal globalisation, the book argues, has created new forms of polarisation in the world. A renewal of working class internationalism must address the situation of both the more privileged segments of the working class and the more impoverished ones. The study identifies new or renewed labour responses among formalised core workers as well as those on the periphery, including street-traders, homeworkers and other 'informal sector' workers. The book contains ten country studies, including India, China, South Korea, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Canada, South Africa, Argentina and Brazil. It argues that workers and trade unions, through intensive collaboration with other social forces across the world, can challenge the logic of neoliberal globalization.

People passionately disagree about the nature of the globalization process. The failure of both the 1999 and 2003 World Trade Organization's (WTO) ministerial conferences in Seattle and Cancun, respectively, have highlighted the tensions among official, international organizations like the WTO, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, nongovernmental and private sector organizations, and some developing country governments. These tensions are commonly attributed to longstanding disagreements over such issues as labor rights, environmental standards, and tariff-cutting rules. In addition, developing countries are increasingly resentful of the burdens of adjustment placed on them that they argue are not matched by commensurate commitments from developed countries. Challenges to Globalization evaluates the arguments of pro-globalists and anti-globalists regarding issues such as globalization's relationship to democracy, its impact on the environment and on labor markets including the brain drain, sweat shop labor, wage levels, and changes in production processes, and the associated expansion of trade and its effects on prices. Baldwin, Winters, and the contributors to this volume look at multinational firms, foreign investment, and mergers and acquisitions and present surprising findings that often run counter to the claim that multinational firms primarily seek countries with low wage labor. The book closes with papers on financial opening and on the relationship between international economic policies and national economic growth rates.

This is a must-read volume on globalization in which some of the foremost scholars in the field discuss the latest issues. Truly providing a global perspective, it includes authorship and discussions from the Global North and South, and covers the major facets of globalization: cultural, economic, ecological and political. It discusses the historical developments in governance preceding globalization, the diverse theoretical and methodological approaches to globalization, and analyzes underdevelopment, anti-globalization movements, global poverty, global inequality, and the debates on international trade versus protectionism. Finally, the volume looks to the future and provides prospects for inter-civilizational understanding, rapprochement, and global cooperation. This will be of great interest to academics and students of sociology, social anthropology, political science and international relations, economics, social policy, social history, as well as to policy makers.

Put quite simply, the twin impacts of globalization and environmental degradation pose new security dangers and concerns. In this new work on global security thinking, 91 authors from five continents and many disciplines, from science and practice, assess the worldwide reassessment of the meaning of security triggered by the end of the Cold War and globalization, as well as the multifarious impacts of global environmental change in the early 21st century.

Relationships between social policy and human development are the subject of much research and theorizing. The literature in this area, however, examines these issues strictly within national contexts. What influence will international agendas such as NAFTA, the World Summit for Social Development, and Habitat II have? Transnational Social Policies specifically addresses the worldwide trend for national policies on human and social development to be increasingly influenced by agendas that are international, or "transnational," in nature. In doing so, the book examines the underlying international developmental, ethical, economic, and political issues shaping national policies in health, education, and employment in the developing world. This book's focus on the "transnational" character of the social policy debate makes it a truly unique and original contribution to the literature. It will appeal to the academic community, worldwide, in international development, public policy and administration, and social work; policymakers, researchers, and practitioners in the field of public (social) policy; and the international community of individuals and organizations working in international social development.

Two prominent features of the current global economy are the world-wide recession brought about by the recent financial crisis, and the emergence of major economic powers from within the developing world such as Brazil, China and India. The former represents the failure of global regulatory policies and macroeconomic imbalances between surplus and deficit countries; the latter is symptomatic of a partial shift in economic power towards developing nations, who are often collectively labelled the global South. The macroeconomic imbalances are unsustainable in the longer run as they mean greater absorption relative to income in deficit nations; they require corrective action and international policy coordination. Reducing imbalances also requires large developing countries to raise their domestic consumption and also imports from the rest of the world and international financial institutions to operate as a lender of last resort. Furthermore, the engines of global growth, especially for developing countries, may no longer lie solely in the traditional developed country markets in the USA, Europe and Japan, known collectively as the global North. Rather South-South trade is growing rapidly, and that could be an engine of growth for the global economy, including both developed and developing countries. The various chapters in this edited volume address issues surrounding global imbalances and the prospects for growth in developing countries propelled by South-South interaction. This book should be of interest to students and researchers focussing on political economics, international economics, globalization, global imbalance and the world-wide recession after 2008.

In the mid nineteenth century a process began that appears, from a present-day perspective, to have been the first wave of economic globalization. Within a few decades global economic integration reached a level that equaled, and in some respects surpassed, that of the present day. This book describes the interpenetration of the German economy with an emerging global economy before the First World War, while also demonstrating the huge challenge posed by globalization to the society and politics of the German Empire. The stakes for both the winners and losers of the intensifying world market played a major role in dividing German society into camps with conflicting socio-economic priorities. As foreign trade policy moved into the center stage of political debates, the German government found it increasingly difficult to pursue a successful policy that avoided harming German exports and consumer interests while also seeking to placate a growing protectionist movement.

"Globalization has been the ""buzzword"" in international political and academic discourse since the 1990s. It is used as a general descriptor of a world in which borders are becoming less and less important, while transnational flows of capital and goods, but also of ideas and people, cultural norms and values, crime, war, and viruses are increasing.If globalization's dynamics are to be fully understood, a reasonable critique is to be formulated, and realistic political proposals to meet the challenges of globalization are to be developed, this complex phenomenon must be dissected. Challenges of Globalization brings together prominent authors of different national backgrounds. They look beyond the buzzword to provide a genuinely ""global"" view of globalization. The editors' introduction provides a ""roadmap"" through the globalization debate and shows the connections between the different aspects covered in detail in the various contributions.This volume deals with two major issues: first, the economic, societal, ecological, and political consequences of globalization, including--but also going beyond--the identification of globalization's ""winners and losers"" worldwide; and second, solutions that have emerged from the current political debate to cope with the various challenges. These include the creation of new global governance structures, fostering a ""global civil society"" that might enhance the democratic legitimacy of global governance, and strategies to be implemented at national and regional levels, allowing states to adapt in ways that make liberalization compatible with development in poor countries and enable the rescue of the welfare state in rich countries.Challenges of Globalization serves as a multi-dimensional and accessible introduction to the globalization debate, and will be of particular interest to academics, policymakers, and international agencies."