Demystifying Globalization: (Globalization and Governance)

Globalization has, within academic, political and business circles alike, become the buzz-word of the 1990s, conjuring an ever-growing diversity of associations, connotations and attendant mythologies. In this volume a distinguished array of international academics assess the contribution of the globalization thesis, in its various guises, to our understanding of social, political and economic change in contemporary societies. The authors cast a critical and, in large part, sceptical gaze over some of the often wildly exaggerated and wilfully extrapolated claims made in the name of globalization, whilst seeking to transcend the disciplinary shackles that have come to characterize, as they have come to limit, our understanding of the dynamic processes and mechanisms of globalization. They expose, challenge and demystify many of our intuitive assumptions about this complex and contested process, developing a distinctive 'third wave' perspective on the phenomena variously referred to as economic, political, social and cultural globalization.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Introduction: Demystifying Globalization; C.Hay & D.Marsh PART I: WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION? Unpacking Globalization: Approaches, Evidence and Data; A.Busch Izations of the World: Americanization, Modernization and Globalization; P.J.Taylor State Sovereignty, Globalization and the Rise of Soft Capitalism; N.Thrift PART II: GLOBALIZATION, REGIONALIZATION AND NATIONAL DIVERSITY Globalization and its 'Other(s)': Three 'New Kinds of Orientalism' and the Political Economy of Trans-border Identity; N.L.Sum Globalization and Regionalization in Central Europe: Positive and Negative Responses to the Global Challenge; A.Agh In, But Not Of the World? Japan, Globalization and the 'End of History'; J.Clammer Globalization and European Integration; D.Wincott Index

About the Author :
COLIN HAY is Professor of Political Analysis in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of a number of books including Re-Stating Social and Political Change, The Political Economy of New Labour: Labouring Under False Pretences?, Theorizing Modernity (with M. O'Brien and S.Penna) and Postwar British Politics in Perspective (with D.Marsh et al). DAVID MARSH is Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of numerous books including The New Politics of British Trade Unionism, Comparing Policy Networks, Theory and Methods in Political Science (with G.Stoker), Marxism and Social Science (with A.Gamble and T.Tant) and Postwar British Politics in Perspective (with J.Buller et al). He is the editor of the British Journal of Political and International Studies.

Review :
'With welcome scholarly care and attention, this hugely impressive book takes a step back from the often frenzied discussions about globalization. The result is an important volume that supplies both a comprehensive survey of debates about globalization and a series of penetrating interventions into that literature. It is a book that should become essential reading for all students of comparative and international political economy'. - Ben Rosamond, University of Warwick '...a welcome addition to the growing list of publications on the new global economy.- Constantine E. Passaris, Review of Political Economy