Critical Theories of Globalization: An Introduction

Critical Theories of Globalization: An Introduction

Chamsy El-Ojeili

Language: English

Pages: 272

ISBN: B00A17II6K

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


This highly accessible text provides a comprehensive overview of globalization and its consequences. Exploring the insights of a wide range of critical theorists, this book argues that debates about globalization cannot be divorced from struggles for emancipation or from the contradictory realities of contemporary society. Clearly organized around thematic chapters designed to provoke student inquiry, the book demonstrates how the views of critical theorists are crucial to understanding the global processes shaping the world today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Japan, Sweden, Australia, France, and the United Theorizing Globalization: Introducing the Challenge 41 Kingdom is above or close to 80 years of age, while it is less than 40 for persons living in Rwanda, Zambia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and the Central African Republic. While GDP per capita in Norway, the US, Denmark, Switzerland, and Ireland is above $30,000, it is below $1,000 for Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Yemen, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Norway, Australia, Sweden, the US, and

very broad theoretical orientation that includes a variety of different approaches and perspectives, with often contrasting analyses of contemporary phenomena. Despite this diversity there are two primary ways of identifying and defining critical theory and its concerns. The first and perhaps most widely recognized version of critical theory is that associated with the body of work developed by members of ‘the Frankfurt School’ or the Institute for Social Research, established in Frankfurt, Germany

for instance, through the 1980s and 1990s, as unemployment and insecure employment grew, union power declined, and neoliberal restructuring saw states seeking to reduce welfare spending (Faux and Mishel, 2000): there was, for example, an increase in poverty of 60 per cent in the UK, and 40 per cent in Holland, and an increase in inequality of more than 16 per cent for the US, the UK, and Sweden Economic Globalization 79 (Castells, 1998; UNDP, 2000). By the mid 1990s, there were over 100

the UNGA and global civil society; expanding membership of the Security Council so as to make it more representative of the international community today; and creating a standing Human Rights Council that would be directly elected by the UNGA. According to Annan (2005: 5), these (and even broader) reforms are driven by ‘rapid technological advances, increasing economic interdependence, globalization and dramatic geopolitical change’. As Annan (2005: 53) notes, ‘At no time in human history have

Crime, 2005b). And conventional weapons, particularly small arms and light weapons, are the major items exchanged in the global arms market, which is subject to minimal control and provides for massive illicit weapons trafficking. The illegal arms trade is an enormous industry, with clearly destructive and destabilizing consequences. It is estimated that there are 639 million small arms and light weapons in circulation globally – one for every 12 people in the world (UN Chronicle, 2001) – and up

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