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How can globalisation be studied in a way that transcends the divide between material and ideational accounts? How has it resonated and dominated in different national contexts? What role have national political economies and domestic institutions played in those processes? This book sheds light on these issues by scrutinising the nexus between globalisation and national institutional settings. Refusing to simply take globalisation as a given, it explores how concrete practices by political actors have produced and reproduced the phenomenon of globalisation over time. Drawing on a comparative analysis of discourses, policies and strategies deployed by key institutional actors in Greece and Ireland, the book interrogates the nature of the interplay between global dynamics and domestic politics. In so doing, it offers insights into the emergence of globalisation as a hegemonic discourse, as well as into the theory of hegemonic discourse itself. Indeed, the book invites us to think differently about the nature of globalisation and the hegemonic within world politics and economics by placing human agency back at the forefront of international political economy.
13 Civilising globalisation Political economy is a mere skeleton unless it has a little human covering and filling out, a little human bloom upon it, and a little human warmth in it. (Charles Dickens, Household Words) Out of Africa Expectations could not have sunk lower than when Kofi Annan took up his position as secretary general of the United Nations in January 1997. The organisation had rarely lived up to its promise and, with the spread of globalisation, was wallowing in irrelevancy. In a quiet revolution, Annan turned the UN around, showing that its value
The ascent of globalisation captures the sweeping drama of postwar globalisation through intimate portraits of twenty of its key architects. These profiles provide insights into what inspired these pioneers of globalisation — the beliefs they each imbibed in their youth, the formative experiences that shaped their ideas and their contributions to the global architecture. Engaging anecdotes and telling personal details, many of which have never been told, enliven each of the stories, as well as the behind-the-scenes dramas that accompanied the creation of institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, UN and World Trade Organization and the informal governance structures that are part of the postwar global architecture.
Their legacies are critically examined, both their successes and their disappointments: a global financial system that is fragile and unstable; an international trading system that is unfair; the unintended consequences of largely unregulated transnational capital; and dysfunction that plagues institutions like the European Union and the United Nations. The book ends by examining what implications the flawed architecture may have for the future of globalisation.
Globalisation-from-above and globalisation-from-below The relationship between globalisation and migration is complex, in terms of both history and theory; so also are the interrelations between the discourses on globalisation and migration and the artistic phenomena that the Introduction subsumed under the categories of global art and migratory aesthetics. This chapter seeks to draw up an outline of how ‘globalisation’ and ‘migration’ have been articulated in Western discussions of contemporary art since the 1990s, and how the two discourses intersect. The
3396 Producing globalisation 29/9/09 11:16 Page 104 4 Globalisation discourse in Ireland As argued in chapter 2 the decade of the 1990s signified a turning point for the Irish political system. The well-established ‘Fianna Fáil versus the rest’ political pattern – which had dominated the Irish political life for approximately fifty years (1948–89) – ceased to define Irish politics and gave way to a ‘new politics of coalitionmaking’ (Mair, 1999). Moreover, the turn from the 1980s to the 1990s witnessed the significant empowerment of the socio-economic role
3396 Producing globalisation 29/9/09 11:16 Page 145 5 Facets of globalisation discourse The aim of this chapter is twofold. First it offers a comparison of the communication of globalisation discourse in Greece and Ireland. Thus it summarises, juxtaposes and compares the main findings of chapters 3 and 4. Second, it analyses how the differences between Greece and Ireland can be explained, and draws some general conclusions on the materialisation of globalisation discourse. Globalisation discourse in Greece and Ireland: a comparison The main political
3396 Producing globalisation 29/9/09 11:15 Page 66 3 Globalisation discourse in Greece The study of the materialisation of globalisation discourse in Greece aims to examine the effect that this discourse had in the reproduction of the Greek public discourse and politico-economic system. Some broader contextualisation might be helpful here. It was argued in chapter 2 that 1990 could be considered a turning point for Greek politics. In the same framework it can also be argued that 1996 signified both the consolidation of this turning point and a new
6 Globalisation at work: unheard voices and invisible agency T he contemporary problematic of globalisation has encouraged a particular mode of knowledge to dominate explanations of social change. Academic and popular discussion of all matters ‘global’ have predominantly asked ‘what is happening’ type questions. It has become almost common sense to seek to explain the nature of the beast itself, making reference to technological and market structures as the driving forces of change. In this formulation the everyday lives of people are positioned passively
Globalisation and identity: the challenge of a globalising world Introduction In previous chapters we have referred to elements of the history of the various nations in the region, and the effect of local histories in shaping the possibilities of both art and civic practice. Our concern is with the question of whether art can provide new models for cultural, social and political understanding in a globalising world, or for understanding political and cultural identities. Historian Jörn Rüsen writes that ‘aesthetics break [sic] through the practical constraints
The ‘globalisation’ concept has become ubiquitous in British politics, as it has in many countries of the world. This book examines discourse on foreign economic policy to determine the impact of globalisation across the ideological landscape of British politics. It critically interrogates the assumption that the idea of globalisation is derivative solely of neo-liberal ideology by profiling the discourse on globalisation of five political groups involved in making and contesting British foreign economic policy between 1997 and 2009: New Labour, International Financial Services London, the Liberal Democrats, Oxfam and the Socialist Workers Party. In addition to the relationship between neo-liberalism and globalisation, the book also explores the core meaning of the idea of globalisation, the implications for the principle of free trade, the impact on notions of the state, nation-state and global governance, and whether globalisation means different things across the ideological spectrum. Topically, it examines how the responses to the global financial crisis have been shaped by globalisation discourse and the value of ideology as an analytical concept able to mitigate debates on the primacy of material and ideational explanations in political economy.