Alternative Capitalisms: Geographies of emerging regions

This book aims to examine the effects of globalization and economic and political transformations in those parts of the world which are now regularly referred to as 'emerging regions'. These are Latin America and the Caribbean, East Central Europe and the former Soviet Union and East Asia. This book breaks new ground in three areas. First of all it develops a critique of the use of the term "emerging regions" for geographers and social scientists and relates this to world-systems theory. Secondly, it explores the development trajectories and challenges of countries in this so-called emerging world, countries that will be crucial to the evolution of the world economy in the twenty-first century. Thirdly, it compares and contrasts the pathways of both economic and political change in the three world regions under focus. This is a unique approach in terms of books published in both geography and the social sciences. Within the context of the three world regions, the book combines historical and contemporary analysis of the evolving world-system. In these regions we are concerned to understand the historical expansion and extension of capitalism and how its contemporary forms of production, exchange and regulation are evolving. The authors believe that at the present time these processes have produced 'alternative capitalisms' - economic and associated developments which, while assuredly capitalist, differ in various ways from those typical of the capitalist West or 'core economies' of North America and Western Europe.

Table of Contents:
PREFACE PART ONE: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS Chapter 1: “EMERGING MARKET COUNTRIES†AND ISSUES OF GLOBALIZATION Chapter 2: CONCEPTUALIZING THE WORLD SYSTEM Chapter 3: CAPITALISM, IMPERIALISM AND THE EMERGING WORLD: AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW PART TWO: THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF ALTERNATIVE CAPITALISMS Chapter 4: CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION Chapter 5: CAPITALISM IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN Chapter 6: EAST ASIA: THE JAPANESE AND CHINESE DEVELOPMENT MODELS AND THEIR REGIONAL IMPACTS PART THREE: ECONOMIC DIMENSIONS OF CHANGE Chapter 7: TRADE LIBERALIZATION, ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION AND INTEGRATION Chapter 8: GEOGRAPHIES OF ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION Chapter 9: THE TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION AND EMERGING MARKET COUNTRIES Chapter 10: GEOGRAPHIES OF TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN EMERGING MARKET COUNTRIES Chapter 11: NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND THE GROWTH OF SERVICES PART FOUR: POLITICAL DIMENSIONS OF CHANGE Chapter 12: MODERNITY AND NATIONALITY Chapter 13: MODERNITY AND DEMOCRACY Chapter 14: CONCLUSION: ALTERNATIVE CAPITALISMS AND GLOBALIZATION BIBLIOGRAPHY

About the Author :
Robert Gwynne is Reader in Latin American Studies at the School of Geography & Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK Thomas Klak is Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, Miami Univeristy - Oxford, Ohio, USA Denis Shaw is Reader in Russian Geography at the School of Geography & Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK

Review :
'The book fills an important niche, providing students with a rich and detailed account of the challenges faced by emerging economies in terms of economic development and democratisation in a global economy that is increasingly dominated by the world's core countries. The authors show how economics, politics, culture and historical legacies are interacting to establish a variety of pathways to development - demonstrating that globalization is not imposing uniformity on the world but, rather, making for an increasingly complex and differentiated world. Geography matters.' Paul Knox, author of Geography of the World Econom