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Re-Envisioning Socialism

Author : Prabhat Patnaik
Publisher : Tulika Books
ISBN 13 : 9788189487966
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (879 download)

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Book Synopsis Re-Envisioning Socialism by : Prabhat Patnaik

Download or read book Re-Envisioning Socialism written by Prabhat Patnaik and published by Tulika Books. This book was released on 2016-01-08 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The papers in this volume are informed by a perception that can be summarized as follows. A capitalist economy is a self-driven or 'spontaneous' system. State intervention in its functioning, driven by political compulsions, tends to make it dysfunctional. This necessitates either further interventions, leading to a transcendence of the system itself, or a progressive slide-back to the pre-intervention state. To say this is not to suggest that capitalism does not need the state. It does, not only for the maintenance of capitalist property relations and for providing it with the external, precapitalist surroundings that are necessary for its functioning; but also for accelerating, through its intervention, its immanent tendencies. But state intervention that is contrary to its immanent tendencies makes capitalism dysfunctional, setting up a dialectics either of subversion of or subservience to the logic of capital. It follows that all the shibboleths of capitalism, namely freedom, democracy and individual subjectivity, are actually unachievable under capitalism. They can be realized only if the spontaneity of the economic terrain is broken through the coming into being of socialism, where the nature of property relations is such that people can shape their economic lives through collective political intervention. The case for socialism arises precisely because capitalism is not a malleable but a spontaneous system.

Envisioning Socialism

Author : Heather Gumbert
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 0472120026
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (721 download)

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Book Synopsis Envisioning Socialism by : Heather Gumbert

Download or read book Envisioning Socialism written by Heather Gumbert and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2014-02-10 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Envisioning Socialism examines television and the power it exercised to define the East Germans’ view of socialism during the first decades of the German Democratic Republic. In the first book in English to examine this topic, Heather L. Gumbert traces how television became a medium prized for its communicative and entertainment value. She explores the difficulties GDR authorities had defining and executing a clear vision of the society they hoped to establish, and she explains how television helped to stabilize GDR society in a way that ultimately worked against the utopian vision the authorities thought they were cultivating. Gumbert challenges those who would dismiss East German television as a tool of repression that couldn’t compete with the West or capture the imagination of East Germans. Instead, she shows how, by the early 1960s, television was a model of the kind of socialist realist art that could appeal to authorities and audiences. Ultimately, this socialist vision was overcome by the challenges that the international market in media products and technologies posed to nation-building in the postwar period. A history of ideas and perceptions examining both real and mediated historical conditions, Envisioning Socialism considers television as a technology, an institution, and a medium of social relations and cultural knowledge. The book will be welcomed in undergraduate and graduate courses in German and media history, the history of postwar Socialism, and the history of science and technologies.

Capital and Imperialism

Author : Utsa Patnaik
Publisher : Monthly Review Press
ISBN 13 : 1583678905
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (836 download)

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Book Synopsis Capital and Imperialism by : Utsa Patnaik

Download or read book Capital and Imperialism written by Utsa Patnaik and published by Monthly Review Press. This book was released on 2021-03-02 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive survey of capitalism's colonialist roots and uncertain future Those who control the world’s commanding economic heights, buttressed by the theories of mainstream economists, presume that capitalism is a self-contained and self-generating system. Nothing could be further from the truth. In this pathbreaking book—winner of the Paul A. Baran-Paul M. Sweezy Memorial Award—radical political economists Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik argue that the accumulation of capital has always required the taking of land, raw materials, and bodies from noncapitalist modes of production. They begin with a thorough debunking of mainstream economics. Then, looking at the history of capitalism, from the beginnings of colonialism half a millennium ago to today’s neoliberal regimes, they discover that, over the long haul, capitalism, in order to exist, must metastasize itself in the practice of imperialism and the immiseration of countless people. A few hundred years ago, write the Patnaiks, colonialism began to ensure vast, virtually free, markets for new products in burgeoning cities in the West. But even after slavery was generally abolished, millions of people in the Global South still fell prey to the continuing lethal exigencies of the marketplace. Even after the Second World War, when decolonization led to the end of the so-called “Golden Age of Capitalism,” neoliberal economies stepped in to reclaim the Global South, imposing drastic “austerity” measures on working people. But, say the Patnaiks, this neoliberal economy, which lives from bubble to bubble, is doomed to a protracted crisis. In its demise, we are beginning to see—finally—the transcendence of the capitalist system.

A Theory of Imperialism

Author : Utsa Patnaik
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231542267
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis A Theory of Imperialism by : Utsa Patnaik

Download or read book A Theory of Imperialism written by Utsa Patnaik and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In A Theory of Imperialism, economists Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik present a new theory of the origins and mechanics of capitalism that sounds an alarm about its ongoing viability. Their theory centers on trade between the core economies of the global North and the tropical and subtropical countries of the global South and considers how the Northern demand for commodities (such as agricultural products and oil) from the South has perpetuated and solidified an imperialist relationship. The Patnaiks explore the dynamics of this process and discuss innovations that could allow the economies of the South to achieve greater prosperity without damaging the economies of the North. The result is an original theory of imperialism that brings to light the crippling limitations of neoliberal capitalism. A Theory of Imperialism also includes a response by David Harvey, who interprets the agrarian system differently and sees other factors affecting trade between the North and the South. Their debate is one of the most provocative exchanges yet over the future of the global economy as resources grow thin, populations explode, and universal prosperity becomes ever more elusive.

How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century

Author : Erik Olin Wright
Publisher : Verso Books
ISBN 13 : 1788739558
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (887 download)

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Book Synopsis How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century by : Erik Olin Wright

Download or read book How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century written by Erik Olin Wright and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is wrong with capitalism, and how can we change it? Capitalism has transformed the world and increased our productivity, but at the cost of enormous human suffering. Our shared values—equality and fairness, democracy and freedom, community and solidarity—can provide both the basis for a critique of capitalism and help to guide us toward a socialist and democratic society. Erik Olin Wright has distilled decades of work into this concise and tightly argued manifesto: analyzing the varieties of anticapitalism, assessing different strategic approaches, and laying the foundations for a society dedicated to human flourishing. How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century is an urgent and powerful argument for socialism, and an unparalleled guide to help us get there. Another world is possible. Included is an afterword by the author’s close friend and collaborator Michael Burawoy.

Envisioning Socialism

Author : Heather Gumbert
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 0472900951
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (729 download)

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Book Synopsis Envisioning Socialism by : Heather Gumbert

Download or read book Envisioning Socialism written by Heather Gumbert and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2018-05-09 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Envisioning Socialism examines television and the power it exercised to define the East Germans’ view of socialism during the first decades of the German Democratic Republic. In the first book in English to examine this topic, Heather L. Gumbert traces how television became a medium prized for its communicative and entertainment value. She explores the difficulties GDR authorities had defining and executing a clear vision of the society they hoped to establish, and she explains how television helped to stabilize GDR society in a way that ultimately worked against the utopian vision the authorities thought they were cultivating. Gumbert challenges those who would dismiss East German television as a tool of repression that couldn’t compete with the West or capture the imagination of East Germans. Instead, she shows how, by the early 1960s, television was a model of the kind of socialist realist art that could appeal to authorities and audiences. Ultimately, this socialist vision was overcome by the challenges that the international market in media products and technologies posed to nation-building in the postwar period. A history of ideas and perceptions examining both real and mediated historical conditions, Envisioning Socialism considers television as a technology, an institution, and a medium of social relations and cultural knowledge. The book will be welcomed in undergraduate and graduate courses in German and media history, the history of postwar Socialism, and the history of science and technologies.

The Value of Money

Author : Prabhat Patnaik
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231519214
Total Pages : 279 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis The Value of Money by : Prabhat Patnaik

Download or read book The Value of Money written by Prabhat Patnaik and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-02 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why is money more valuable than the paper on which it is printed? Monetarists link the value of money to its supply and demand, believing the latter depends on the total value of the commodities it circulates. According to Prabhat Patnaik, this logic is flawed. In his view, in any nonbarter economy, the value we assign to money is determined independently of its supply and demand. Through an original and provocative critique of monetarism, Patnaik advances a revolutionary understanding of macroeconomics that highlights the "propertyist" position of Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes. Unlike the usual division between "classical" economists (e.g., David Ricardo and Marx) and the "marginalists" (e.g., Carl Menger, William Stanley Jevons, and Léon Walras), Patnaik places "monetarists," including Ricardo, on one side, while grouping propertyist writers like Marx, Keynes, and Rosa Luxemburg on the other. This second group subscribes to the idea that the value of money is given from outside the realm of supply and demand, therefore making money a form in which wealth is held. The fact that money is held as wealth in turn gives rise to the possibility of deficiency of aggregate demand under capitalism. It is no accident that this possibility was highlighted by Marx and Keynes while going largely unrecognized by Ricardo and contemporary monetarists. At the same time, Patnaik points to a weakness in the Marx-Keynes tradition namely, its lack of any satisfactory explanation of why the value of money, determined from outside the realm of supply and demand, remains relatively stable over long stretches of time. The answer to this question lies in the fact that capitalism is not a self-contained system but is born from a precapitalist setting with which it interacts and where it creates massive labor reserves that, in turn, impart stability to the value of money. Patnaik's theory of money, then, is also a theory of imperialism, and he concludes with a discussion of the contemporary international monetary system, which he terms the "oil-dollar" standard.

Four Futures

Author : Peter Frase
Publisher : Verso Books
ISBN 13 : 1781688141
Total Pages : 134 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (816 download)

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Book Synopsis Four Futures by : Peter Frase

Download or read book Four Futures written by Peter Frase and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the utopias and dystopias that could develop from present society Peter Frase argues that increasing automation and a growing scarcity of resources, thanks to climate change, will bring it all tumbling down. In Four Futures, Frase imagines how this post-capitalist world might look, deploying the tools of both social science and speculative fiction to explore what communism, rentism and extermininsm might actually entail. Could the current rise of the real-life robocops usher in a world that resembles Ender's Game? And sure, communism will bring an end to material scarcities and inequalities of wealth—but there's no guarantee that social hierarchies, governed by an economy of "likes," wouldn't rise to take their place. A whirlwind tour through science fiction, social theory and the new technologies are already shaping our lives, Four Futures is a balance sheet of the socialisms we may reach if a resurgent Left is successful, and the barbarisms we may be consigned to if those movements fail.

Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis

Author : Ludwig von Mises
Publisher : VM eBooks
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 766 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis by : Ludwig von Mises

Download or read book Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis written by Ludwig von Mises and published by VM eBooks. This book was released on 2016-11-24 with total page 766 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Socialism is the watchword and the catchword of our day. The socialist idea dominates the modem spirit. The masses approve of it. It expresses the thoughts and feelings of all; it has set its seal upon our time. When history comes to tell our story it will write above the chapter “The Epoch of Socialism.” As yet, it is true, Socialism has not created a society which can be said to represent its ideal. But for more than a generation the policies of civilized nations have been directed towards nothing less than a gradual realization of Socialism.17 In recent years the movement has grown noticeably in vigour and tenacity. Some nations have sought to achieve Socialism, in its fullest sense, at a single stroke. Before our eyes Russian Bolshevism has already accomplished something which, whatever we believe to be its significance, must by the very magnitude of its design be regarded as one of the most remarkable achievements known to world history. Elsewhere no one has yet achieved so much. But with other peoples only the inner contradictions of Socialism itself and the fact that it cannot be completely realized have frustrated socialist triumph. They also have gone as far as they could under the given circumstances. Opposition in principle to Socialism there is none. Today no influential party would dare openly to advocate Private Property in the Means of Production. The word “Capitalism” expresses, for our age, the sum of all evil. Even the opponents of Socialism are dominated by socialist ideas. In seeking to combat Socialism from the standpoint of their special class interest these opponents—the parties which particularly call themselves “bourgeois” or “peasant”—admit indirectly the validity of all the essentials of socialist thought. For if it is only possible to argue against the socialist programme that it endangers the particular interests of one part of humanity, one has really affirmed Socialism. If one complains that the system of economic and social organization which is based on private property in the means of production does not sufficiently consider the interests of the community, that it serves only the purposes of single strata, and that it limits productivity; and if therefore one demands with the supporters of the various “social-political” and “social-reform” movements, state interference in all fields of economic life, then one has fundamentally accepted the principle of the socialist programme. Or again, if one can only argue against socialism that the imperfections of human nature make its realization impossible, or that it is inexpedient under existing economic conditions to proceed at once to socialization, then one merely confesses that one has capitulated to socialist ideas. The nationalist, too, affirms socialism, and objects only to its Internationalism. He wishes to combine Socialism with the ideas of Imperialism and the struggle against foreign nations. He is a national, not an international socialist; but he, also, approves of the essential principles of Socialism.

Re-envisioning the Chinese Revolution

Author : Ching Kwan Lee
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780804758536
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (585 download)

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Book Synopsis Re-envisioning the Chinese Revolution by : Ching Kwan Lee

Download or read book Re-envisioning the Chinese Revolution written by Ching Kwan Lee and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive study of contemporary memories of China's revolutionary epoch, from the time of Japanese imperialism through the Cultural Revolution. This volume examines the memories of a range of social groups, including disenfranchised workers and rural women, who have often been neglected in scholarship.

Creating an Ecological Society

Author : Fred Magdoff
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1583676309
Total Pages : 387 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (836 download)

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Book Synopsis Creating an Ecological Society by : Fred Magdoff

Download or read book Creating an Ecological Society written by Fred Magdoff and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2017-05-29 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aiming squarely at replacing capitalism with an ecologically sound and socially just society, Magdoff and Williams provide accounts of how a new world can be created from the ashes of the old. They show that it is possible to envision and create a society that is genuinely democratic, equitable, and ecologically sustainable. And possible--not one moment too soon--for society to change fundamentally and be brought into harmony with nature. --From publisher description.

Envisioning Real Utopias

Author : Erik Olin Wright
Publisher : Verso Books
ISBN 13 : 1789601452
Total Pages : 536 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (896 download)

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Book Synopsis Envisioning Real Utopias by : Erik Olin Wright

Download or read book Envisioning Real Utopias written by Erik Olin Wright and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rising inequality of income and power, along with recent convulsions in the finance sector, have made the search for alternatives to unbridled capitalism more urgent than ever. Yet few are attempting this task-most analysts argue that any attempt to rethink our social and economic relations is utopian. Erik Olin Wright's major new work is a comprehensive assault on the quietism of contemporary social theory. A systematic reconstruction of the core values and feasible goals for Left theorists and political actors, Envisioning Real Utopias lays the foundations for a set of concrete, emancipatory alternatives to the capitalist system. Characteristically rigorous and engaging, this will become a landmark of social thought for the twenty-first century.

Accumulation and Stability Under Capitalism

Author : Prabhat Patnaik
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780198288053
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis Accumulation and Stability Under Capitalism by : Prabhat Patnaik

Download or read book Accumulation and Stability Under Capitalism written by Prabhat Patnaik and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this book is to provide an altogether different view of the functioning and resilience of the capitalist system. Its argument is that the existence of a periphery of less developed countries provides a buffer that allows relatively crisis-free and non-inflationary growth in the capitalist core. The analysis unifies two fields that are normally separate: models of growth and stabilization policy in advanced economies and the economics of open, developing economies. Consequently, Patnaik embraces both a thorough analysis of modern fiscal, monetary, and inflation policy in advanced capitalist economies and the constraints that systematically hinder development in less developed countries. His model's great strength is that the interconnections between these two spheres are firmly established and are, indeed, shown as fundamental to our understanding of either 'the North' or 'the South'. Accumulation and Stability under Capitalism uses macroeconomic principles to solve problems currently addressed with microeconomic tools, establishing macroeconomics as a framework for analysing phenomena as wide-ranging as migration, imperialist systems, technological change, and labour markets. In the tradition of Keynes, Harrod and Domar, Marx, Luxemburg, and Kalecki, it offers an alternative path to the choice-theoretic models that have appeared to be the only modern analytical path.

The Idea of Socialism

Author : Axel Honneth
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1509512152
Total Pages : 88 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (95 download)

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Book Synopsis The Idea of Socialism by : Axel Honneth

Download or read book The Idea of Socialism written by Axel Honneth and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-12-27 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of socialism has given normative grounding and orientation to the outrage over capitalism for more than 150 years, and yet today it seems to have lost much of its appeal. Despite growing discontent, many would hesitate to invoke socialism when it comes to envisioning life beyond capitalism. How can we explain the rapid decline of this once powerful idea? And what must we do to renew it for the twenty-first century? In this lucid, political-philosophical essay, Axel Honneth argues that the idea of socialism has lost its luster because its theoretical assumptions stem from the industrial era and are no longer convincing in our contemporary post-industrial societies. Only if we manage to replace these assumptions with a concept of history and society that corresponds to our current experiences will we be able to restore confidence in a project whose fundamental idea remains as relevant today as it was a century ago the idea of an economy that realizes freedom in solidarity. The Idea of Socialism was awarded the Bruno Kreisky Prize for the Political Book of 2015.

The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered

Author : Samuel Farber
Publisher : Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 0807877093
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered by : Samuel Farber

Download or read book The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered written by Samuel Farber and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2007-09-06 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzing the crucial period of the Cuban Revolution from 1959 to 1961, Samuel Farber challenges dominant scholarly and popular views of the revolution's sources, shape, and historical trajectory. Unlike many observers, who treat Cuba's revolutionary leaders as having merely reacted to U.S. policies or domestic socioeconomic conditions, Farber shows that revolutionary leaders, while acting under serious constraints, were nevertheless autonomous agents pursuing their own independent ideological visions, although not necessarily according to a master plan. Exploring how historical conflicts between U.S. and Cuban interests colored the reactions of both nations' leaders after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista, Farber argues that the structure of Cuba's economy and politics in the first half of the twentieth century made the island ripe for radical social and economic change, and the ascendant Soviet Union was on hand to provide early assistance. Taking advantage of recently declassified U.S. and Soviet documents as well as biographical and narrative literature from Cuba, Farber focuses on three key years to explain how the Cuban rebellion rapidly evolved from a multiclass, antidictatorial movement into a full-fledged social revolution.

Re-envisioning the Everyday

Author : John Fagg
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271095822
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Re-envisioning the Everyday by : John Fagg

Download or read book Re-envisioning the Everyday written by John Fagg and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2023-10-03 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Often seen as backward-looking and convention-bound, genre painting representing scenes of everyday life was central to the work of twentieth-century artists such as John Sloan, Norman Rockwell, Jacob Lawrence, and others, who adapted such subjects to an era of rapid urbanization, mass media, and modernist art. Re-envisioning the Everyday asks what their works do to the tradition of genre painting and whether it remains a meaningful category through which to understand them. Working with and against the established narrative of American genre painting’s late nineteenth-century decline into obsolescence, John Fagg explores how artists and illustrators used elements of the tradition to picture everyday life in a rapidly changing society, whether by appealing to its nostalgic and historical connotations or by updating it to address new formal and thematic concerns. Fagg argues that genre painting enabled twentieth-century artists to look slowly and carefully at scenes of everyday life and, on some occasions, to understand those scenes as sites of political oppression and resistance. But it also limited them to anachronistic ways of seeing and tied them to a freighted history of stereotyping and condescension. By surveying genre painting when its status and relevance were uncertain and by looking at works that stretch and complicate its boundaries, this book considers what the form is and probes the wider practice of generic categorization. It will appeal to students and scholars of American art history, art criticism, and cultural studies.

Re-Envisioning Global Development

Author : Sandra Halperin
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135928045
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (359 download)

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Book Synopsis Re-Envisioning Global Development by : Sandra Halperin

Download or read book Re-Envisioning Global Development written by Sandra Halperin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Re-Envisioning Global Development offers an original conceptualisation of capitalist development from its origins to the present day. Most approaches to understanding contemporary development assume that industrial capitalism was achieved through a process of nationally organised economic growth, and that in recent years its organisation has become increasingly trans-local or global. However, Halperin shows that nationally organised economic growth has rarely been the case – it has only recently come to characterise a few countries and for only a few decades. This innovative text elaborates an alternative ontology and way of thinking about global development during the last two centuries – one linked, not to nations and regions, but to a set of essentially trans-national relations and connections. It argues that capitalist development has, everywhere and from the start, involved—not whole nations or societies–but only sectors or geographical areas within states. By bringing this aspect of historically ‘normal’ capitalist development into clearer focus, the book clarifies the specific conditions and circumstances that enabled European economies to pursue a more broad-based development following World War II, and what prevented a similar outcome in the contemporary ‘third world’. It also clarifies the nature, spatial extent, and circumstances of current globalising trends. Wide-ranging and provocative, this book is required reading for advanced level students and scholars in development studies, development economics and political science.