Seeking Social Justice Through Globalization: Escaping a Nationalist Perspective

by Gavin Kitching

Book Overview

As demonstrations at meetings of world economic leaders have dramatically shown, the "globalization" of the world economy is now a subject of heated political debate. Generally supported for its positive benefits by neoliberals and attacked for its negative repercussions by the left, it is a multifaceted phenomenon, and even the term is much in dispute as both academic experts and political activists tend to define it in ways that best support...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0271022884
• ISBN13: 9780271022888
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A must read for all anti-globalization supporters

This is a well written, coherent book on the benefits of globalisation to developing countries and the reasons why it appears that globalizations fails these countries. It is a must read for all those anti-globalization supporters who argue that free trade hurts developing countries. The author is in no way a champion of conservative economics and was indeed for many years (and probably still is), extremely leftwing in many of his thoughts and ideas. Additionally, he has also spent a lot of time studying developement in Africa and hence, he writes with some authority as to what will benefit developing countries economically, which gives credibility to his work, unlike a number of other pro-globalization writers. Finally, this book comes across not as a rant against the right, demonising the evils of coroporations and their government lapdogs (in the vein of Naomi Klein and others), but rather as a well structured argument supporting the need for more globalization in the developing world. Nor is the book a Ra-Ra chant extoling the virtues of internet acess to Indian farmrs, in the frame of Thomas Friedman, but rather quietly chip away the rhetoric that oftern surrounds this topic and making a strong, pro-globalization, case. This book is a must read for those who are looking for reasons why globalizations helps developing countries and for those on the left who doubt its benefits.

Accurate title, wonderful book

It's a shame that this book doesn't appear to be that popular (judging by the lack of other reviews). This book is a refreshingly clear and coherent study of the modern phenomenon of "globalization". After wading through swamps of economic illiteracy and knee-jerk corporation-bashing from incoherent academics like Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky, it's a real treat to hear from a "leftist" who actually knows what he's talking about. The author's background is in development economics, and unlike most pampered first world'activists, he has spent many years in the most desperately poor places of the world. His stated priority is to advocate policies that will allow the poorest people of the world to improve their standard of living, and to anyone who doesn't understand the benefits of trade, his conclusion is surprising: We need MORE 'globalization', not less. For starters, we need completely free trade in agricultural products, a market in which the loudest defenders of "free trade" (ie the US) are notorious for their subsidies and tariffs. Whether all of the policy prescriptions are realistic or not is another matter (his recommendations for increased UN power already seemly sadly anachronistic given the current mood in the US), but it's a great and rare pleasure to read a coherent analysis of the modern economic system and a fairly scathing indictment of the fashionable 'anti-globalization' movement from someone with impeccable left-wing credentials.