This chapter provides a systematic account of the causes of economic globalization. Within the global political economy (GPE) literature, economic globalization tends to be more precisely specified as ‘the emergence and operation of a single, worldwide economy’. This assists its measurement by reference to the intensity, extensity, and velocity of worldwide economic flows and interconnectedness, from trade, through production and finance, migration to information and data. Understood as a historical process, the concept of economic globalization also infers an evolving transformation or evolution in the organization and operation of the world economy. The chapter then reviews the principal theories of economic globalization, drawing upon the GPE literature. It develops a multi-theoretic account of economic globalization which captures its structural, conjunctural, and contingent causal factors. The chapter also demonstrates how this multi-theoretic framework is relevant to understanding the current crisis of economic globalization. It considers whether, in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, this crisis is the precursor to a period of accelerating deglobalization.
Chapter
10. The Logics of Economic Globalization
Anthony McGrew
Chapter
13. Karl Marx
Simon Choat
This chapter focuses on the works of Karl Marx from 1845 onwards, because it is in those works that the theories and concepts for which he is best known were developed. It begins by explaining Marx’s materialist conception of history, mainly through the manuscripts published posthumously as The German Ideology (originally co-authored 1845–1846 with Friedrich Engels) and the 1859 ‘Preface’. The chapter explores some of Marx’s main concepts, including mode of production, class struggle, and ideology. The chapter then turns to Marx’s critical analysis of the capitalist mode of production, especially as found in the Communist Manifesto (1848, with Engels) and Capital Volume One (1867). Finally, it examines Marx’s views on the state and contrasts them with those of his anarchist contemporaries. While acknowledging Marx’s weaknesses, especially with respect to the analysis of race and gender, the chapter defends his continuing relevance.
Chapter
12. Diversity in Pre-Capitalist Societies
Janet Bujra
This chapter reflects on a range of examples of pre-capitalist societies, chosen to illustrate the major arenas of colonial disruption, in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and to show how they worked. The empires which Europe created in Africa, Asia, and Latin America were merely the last (to date) in a long line of imperial ventures. There were few areas in the world which had not previously been subject to overlordship by external forces, sometimes to the suzerainty of successive powers. However, these old empires often functioned quite differently from the newer empires created by Europe. The growth of capitalism in Europe drove a need for closer control over the type and extent of production in areas under imperial domination. Whereas in previous empires merchants had merely served the demands of wealthy minorities for luxury goods (and in the process accumulated hoards of personal wealth), now these stocks of wealth began to go directly into the transformation of productive processes in Europe (the Industrial Revolution) rather than into consumption. Thus the emphasis was increasingly on raw materials or intermediate inputs to European industry.
Chapter
8. Unemployment and Making a Living
David Wield
This chapter describes the issue of unemployment and ways of making a living. Rather than simply being characterized by unemployment, in less developed areas work is often characterized by its complexity and diversity. The level of complexity is arguably increasing as all around the world there has been an increase in the diversity of ways of making a living, with more part-time wage work, more self-employed, and informal activities, and more flexible work systems. Often, rather than people being unemployed, a major issue is that many work extremely hard but at levels of low productivity, receiving low financial recompense, and thus remaining in relative poverty. They require opportunities for better quality and better remunerated work. Understanding of policy issues is improved by applying the concepts of commodity and subsistence production, reproduction, and waged and unwaged work, as well as an appreciation of how ways of making a living combine these types of work.
