Globalization and Governance

A Matriz do Poder. Uma visão analítica da Globalização e da Anti-Globalização no Mundo Contemporâneo

by Sandra Rodrigues Balão

Published by MGI Ed.

2011 The three anthropological approaches to neoliberalism, in International Social Science Journal, Vol 61 (202) : 351–364.

by Mathieu Hilgers

International Social Science Journal, Volume 61, Issue 202, 2011: 351–364.

For around fifteen years now, anthropology has been engaged in the study of neoliberalism. What contribution does the... more For around fifteen years now, anthropology has been engaged in the study of neoliberalism. What contribution does the discipline have to make to a debate largely monopolized by economics and political science? To answer this question, the present article returns to the major texts and highlights the three perspectives from which anthropology has approached neoliberal expansion: culturalist, systemic and the approach based on governmentality. Each has its own epistemological presuppositions and a specific conception of anthropology, globalization and neoliberalism. The article highlights the relevance and limitations of these approaches.

2012, « The Historicity of the Neoliberal State », in Social Anthropology, volume 20, n° 1, pp. 80-94

by Mathieu Hilgers

Debate with Loic Wacquant “Three Steps to a Historical Anthropology of Actually Existing Neoliberalism." Social Anthropology, 20, 1, with responses in the next issue: Jamie Peck, Nick Theodore, and Neil Brenner, Stephen Collier, Daniel Goldstein, Johanna Bockman, Don Kalb...

Governance in a globalised world

by Richard Woodward

Published in J.Michie (ed.) The Handbook of Globalisation (2nd edition), (Edward Elgar 2011)

Age Concern: The Future of the OECD

by Richard Woodward

Published in World Today 62, 8-9, 2006

Life apparently begins at 40. But, as American
journalist Helen Rowland wryly observed, ‘so
do fallen... more Life apparently begins at 40. But, as American
journalist Helen Rowland wryly observed, ‘so
do fallen arches, rheumatism, faulty eyesight,
and the tendency to tell a story to the same
person, three or four times’. Such sentiments
might resonate in the Parisian corridors of the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development which celebrates its 45th
anniversary at the end of September. Rival
institutions, evolving geopolitics, hostility from
nongovernmental organisations and the
absence of a precisely defined mission have
marred the Organisation’s fifth decade and left
it struggling to justify its place in theworld. A
possible role as the secretariat for the G8
group of countries could offer direction.
Ironically, when the Organisation and many of
its member states are advocating longer
working lives to forestall looming pensions
crises, it is being touted in some quarters as a
candidate for early retirement.

Fifty More Years? Reform and Modernisation of the OECD

by Richard Woodward

Political Insight Vol 2, 2, September 2011

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is a vital, if frequently unnoticed, cog in the machine of... more The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is a vital, if frequently unnoticed, cog in the machine of global governance. On the organisation’s 50th anniversary this article assesses whether the OECD’s reform programme can secure its future in a changing world.

La contractualisation des droits de l'homme: de la pratique à la théorie du pluralisme juridique

by Gregory Lewkowicz

Ludovic Hennebel, Gregory Lewkowicz, "La contractualisation des droits de l’homme : de la pratique à la théorie du pluralisme juridique et politique" in Lewkowicz, G., Xifaras, M., Repenser le contrat, Paris Dalloz, 2009, p.221-246.

Cet article étudie le phénomène de la contractualisation des droits de l’homme depuis l’inclusion de clauses relatives... more Cet article étudie le phénomène de la contractualisation des droits de l’homme depuis l’inclusion de clauses relatives aux droits de l’homme dans les contrats jusqu’aux formes contractuelles de résolution des litiges impliquant une ou plusieurs violations du droit des droits de l’homme. Replaçant ce phénomène dans le contexte de la mondialisation du droit et de l’émergence d’une véritable lutte globale pour le droit, l’article propose de comprendre ce phénomène à partir d’une lecture pluraliste tirée tant de la doctrine de Santi Romano que du pluralisme politique de l’entre-deux-guerres. Il conclut par une analyse de l’hypothèse dite "néoféodale" selon laquelle la contractualisation de la société est le symptôme de l’hybridation de la loi et du contrat et de la réactivation de manières féodales de tisser le lien social. Les auteurs soulèvent en particulier la question de savoir "si ces résurgences féodales font simplement signe vers un "désordre" juridique fondamental ou plus fondamentalement vers l’émergence d’un droit global".

Anti-Social Engineering the Hyper-Manipulated Self

by Brian Taylor

When one does philosophy, one dismantles strings of concepts into their respective parts to examine both the parts... more When one does philosophy, one dismantles strings of concepts into their respective parts to examine both the parts themselves and the relationships the parts have with each other. This semantic reduction provides us the best possible opportunities for finding truth. This was exactly the type of skill Brian Taylor needed to write his new book Anti-Social Engineering the Hyper-Manipulated Self, postpaper publishing, ISBN: 978-0-557-99909-5 http://stores.lulu.com/postpaper

The book began as a series of blogged essays in a response to the “Authenticity” movement presented by the like of Eckhart Tolle, Andrew Cohen and to a lesser extent, Dr. Phil. These men, and others, were coming to conclusions on the idea of authenticity that were, among other things, subjective fallacies, rife with interpretation and possibly counterproductive. On the other side of the coin we had skeptical guru Michael Shermer or perhaps Richard Dawkins making up one half of the “four horseman of the non-apocalypse.” These men, “scientists,” were and still are guilty of the same faults as their spiritual counterparts, interpretations rather than knowledge. Brian Taylor wanted to know, “Are there any actual answers in the arena of the self and its power?” As it turns out, reality is far stranger than ever before known and we actually know so much less than we think we do, if it can be said that we know anything authentically, at all.

After four years of research into our ideas about the self through the ages, the sciences of the self and what the self is, this book comes to the conclusion that the modern self, you and I today, are not only manipulated, but that manipulation is sought out, required and pre-programmed. This is a book about how we are all being intentionally hyper-manipulated without our knowledge, by whom and to what end.

To “anti-social engineer” is to counter this phenomenon of modernity through critical consciousness, dubbed “assignee's prerogative.” This self direction is aimed toward eudaemonia, which is an Aristotelian idea roughly meaning “happiness and promotion,” and it is further suggested that virtue is found in the mean between excess and deficiency, in these concerns. This sounds rather simple in such a paragraph form, rest assured, chasing the meanings and relationships of these ideas to any philosophical depth requires a maze of rabbit holes and someone to guide you through them. Taylor is nothing if not thorough in this regard.

Entertaining, personal, conversational, exact and profound, this book has a strange undercurrent, almost a charge running through it. Most clearly defined in it's most opinionated moments, there is a subtext, not a call to arms but to a social contract. Taylor says, throughout the book, that it is specifically battling social engineering, the command, hidden or not, “think this about that.” Yet, he too wants us to think a certain way, a centrist “golden mean,” a path of no extremes. Making an argument against his ideas is difficult, regardless of the talking points he uses. (These vary from possible moral objections we may hold for prostitution or murder, to social norms such as supporting the troops or the war on terror.) In his most controversial moments, when objectivity is at its thinnest, the author's existentialism shines through and he suggests it's better to not claim to know something than to suspect something incorrectly. The exception to this rule is when the social engineering is secret, malicious, degenerative or merely in error.

There are things that we can do anti-social engineer our hyper-manipulated selves and Taylor spells these tasks out clearly. Firstly, social engineering, be it delivered by a television commercial, ideology, civility, social construct, etc. is to be expected and recognized. Then Taylor presents us his Philosophy Generator which is described as “a dismantling of paradigm” and a way to determine if any particular social engineering is more persuasive or manipulative. If we are able to first know what it is we are deciding, then do our best possible thinking on the matter, which is what working through the Generator is for, we should be able to be confident in our decision, whatever it may be. Furthermore, given the standardization of awareness, contemplation and centrist philosophy, it should be expected that the same benefit experienced by individuals would transfer to societies.

The book ends with a chapter called “God wears a yellow hat.” It is concluded with a list of 24 interesting intentions, (23 actually, one of them is missing,) this list is not meant to be a complete index of the topics discussed, but rather an indication of the book's scope. The war on terror, the war on drugs, food transportation, consumerism, capitalism, communism, false flags, dehumanization via technology, God, 2012, patriotism, culture, globalization, human rights and religion. There is an entire chapter devoted to a reasonable discussion between the two sides divided over the conspiracies associated with September 11, 2001. This book discusses conspiracy as it dismantles thought, which is a strange dichotomy. Taylor seems to want to convince us that he is a reasonable man, with a reasonable method and if such a man can find a reasonable conspiracy, we can take the suggestion from the fringe to the mainstream. He may be right. However, this is not a conspiracy book, this is a book about thinking.

One comes away from the experience of reading this book enticed to do more and this is the goal. Anti-Social Engineering the Hyper-Manipulated Self is about taking responsibility and looking ahead, prudently. It doesn't want to take anything away from you, you're entitled to have your beliefs as the author has his. We need our beliefs and we even need social engineering, these things are part of a natural, healthy species. The dangers of our beliefs are represented by the lack of awareness of them and the inability to think critically about them. Taylor argues that, if in fact we are not thinking well about the things we believe, we are not living up to the reasonable purpose we have as human beings. This appreciation of hyper-reality and our place in it defines our authenticity and is the promise expressed by the 21st Century Enlightenment.

Versorgungspolitik und -sicherheit im Kontext globaler Risiken und Interessen

by Jonas Hagmann

Published in: Bulletin zur schweizerischen Sicherheitspolitik, 2011 (w/ Myriam Dunn, Andreas Wenger)

Moderne Industriestaaten sind auf den ungestörten Zugang zu globalen Ressourcen, leistungsfähigen Infrastrukturen und... more Moderne Industriestaaten sind auf den ungestörten Zugang zu globalen Ressourcen, leistungsfähigen Infrastrukturen und sicheren Handelswegen angewiesen. Aufgabe des Staates ist es daher, im Verbund mit der Privatwirtschaft schweren Störungen der wirtschaftlichen Landesversorgung vorzubeugen. Die Fokussierung der Sicherheitspolitik auf transnationale und schwer erfassbare Risiken, die globale Interessenlage der Schweiz, aber auch dynamisierte wirtschaftliche Liefer- und Produktionsansätze erfordern heute eine Neuausrichtung der Schweizer Versorgungspolitik. Der Beitrag zeigt, wie der Paradigmenwechsel weg von der Sicherheits- hin zu der Risikologik die Landesversorgung zunehmend von reaktiven Interventionen weg- und zu präventiven Ansätzen hinbewegt. Institutionell verweisen die politischen und wirtschaftlichen Entwicklungen auf die Notwendigkeit, die Landesversorgung stärker an der Schnittstelle zwischen Wirtschaftspolitik, Aussenpolitik und Sicherheitspolitik einzubetten.

Corégulation et responsabilité sociale des entreprises

by Gregory Lewkowicz

Co-authored with Ludovic Hennebel

Dans cet article, les auteurs analysent la dynamique de la responsabilité sociale des entreprises d’un point de vue à... more Dans cet article, les auteurs analysent la dynamique de la responsabilité sociale des entreprises d’un point de vue à la fois théorique et empirique. Après avoir précisé les contours d’une théorie de la corégulation, les auteurs analysent les principaux instruments qui interviennent dans la régulation de la responsabilité sociale des entreprises. Ils concluent en soulignant que "la responsabilité sociale des entreprises se présente comme un nouveau prisme réflexif permettant d’identifier à travers des instruments qui, pris isolément, sont ordinaires, une nouvelle logique de la régulation à l’ère de la mondialisation. Si cette logique est à l’œuvre dans le domaine de la responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise, il est vraisemblable qu’elle ne lui soit pas propre. Elle pourrait faire figure de paradigme pour l’étude de l’émergence d’un droit global".

The 'Rise of China' and the Changing Global Income Distribution

by József Böröcz

published in Hung, Ho-fung (ed.) China and the Transformation of Global Capitalism. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.

What Is the EU?

by József Böröcz

co-authored with Mahua Sarkar

The Fox and the Raven: The European Union and Hungary Renegotiate the Margins of 'Europe'

by József Böröcz

Change Rules

by József Böröcz

American Journal of Sociology, 2001

The Political Economy of Texts: A Case Study in the Structuration of Tourism

by Joan Pujolar

The field of tourism, particularly in linguistic minority contexts, shows how texts are situated within struggles over... more The field of tourism, particularly in linguistic minority contexts, shows how texts are situated within struggles over the legitimization of symbolic and material resources. In order to understand this field, we distance ourselves from some of the prevailing assumptions in discourse analysis, which presents texts and contexts as separate entities for which a certain autonomy can be assumed. We offer instead a view of texts as some among many artifacts produced in communicative practice (and hence in social processes), and which therefore require apprehension as processual, and not as objects. We argue that an ethnographic approach to text production and circulation is central to such forms of analysis.

We analyze a sample of texts as embedded in their production by linguistic minority stakeholders in historically situated institutions. We interpret these texts as evidence of discursive and social changes brought about by globalization. We argue that behind texts that formally recall modernizing discourses of language and identity, what we encounter are processes of adjustment towards new economic and political conditions that lead minorities to commodify identity within global mark

Regulating the Global Financial System–the challenge of the 21st century

by Brendan Sheehan

Paper Presented to the 2011 Conference of the Association of Heterodox Economists

The global financial system provides credit to consumers, corporations and governments. Most economists think of... more The global financial system provides credit to consumers, corporations and governments. Most economists think of finance as the “heart” of the global system, pumping money around from those who have it to those who need it. In-so-doing financial activity stimulates global spending, overcoming the deadweight of “hoarding” that so retarded medieval economies. However, over the last forty years – riding the wave of free market fundamentalism - newly developed financial activities have been at best dubious, and at worst stupidly short-sighted. In this context this paper focuses on how to create effective global comprehensive macro-prudential regulation in the 21st century. The key challenge for macro-prudential regulators is that governments are national in character, whilst the most powerful financial corporations are transnational in scale.

The paper begins by defining the boundaries of the global financial system. It then outlines a variety of financial innovations developed over the last forty years that are largely outside the purview of regulators. It highlights how massive transnational financial corporations have used the technique of asset “shiftability” to bypass regulation based on the Basel Capital Accords. The paper examines the Stiglitz Report proposals for comprehensive macro-prudential regulation, and identifies a number of important weaknesses. The paper outlines the key conditions needed to make comprehensive regulation effective. This requires the creation of a powerful new super-regulator that can address the key global issues, especially that of asset shiftability.

THE GENERAL THEORY AND POLICIES FOR GLOBAL PROSPERITY

by Brendan Sheehan

Paper presented as part of the Keynes Seminar Series 25th February 2009
Robinson College, University of Cambridge, UK

Keynes constructs the General Theory model to consider the condition of capitalism and to address the big policy... more Keynes constructs the General Theory model to consider the condition of capitalism and to address the big policy issues of the day. In peacetime conditions the leitmotiv of Keynes’ proposals is the call for an expansionary rather than a contractionist cure for economic ills. This paper demonstrates this contention with reference to the policies Keynes proposes to promote global prosperity. The paper indicates Keynes’ theoretical justification for his opposition to international wage cuts as a contractionist cure for global depression. Once wage cutting is set aside it is easy to appreciate the wisdom of Keynes’ proposals for globally coordinated expansionary policies to cure a worldwide downturn.

Financial globalization," global governance" and the erosion of democracy

by Virgile Perret

Published in SENARCLENS (de) Pierre and KAZANCIGIL Ali (dir.), Regulating Globalization : Critical Approaches to Global Governance, New York, United Nations Press, 2007, pp. 69-93.

The international monetary and financial order established by the Bretton Woods agreement (1944) was based on the... more The international monetary and financial order established by the Bretton Woods agreement (1944) was based on the assumption that public control of monetary and financial policy was the key to the fulfilment of newly embedded democratic aspirations, most notably high employment and economic welfare, and the condition to prevent the return of the currency disorders that had undermined the political legitimacy of states during the interwar period. Since then, one of the most significant trends in international finance has been the emergence of private or quasi-private authorities in global markets, which has prompted the call for the ‘governance’ of global finance. This dynamic has, however, brought about an erosion of democracy. In effect, by giving rise to private, unaccountable authorities, financial globalization has weakened the regulatory capacities of states and reconfigured state-citizen relations along the lines of a more restrictive notion of the public good. The main contention of this article is that the erosion of democracy is actually being concealed by the discourse on ‘global governance’ that permeates the rhetoric of international organisations and that is very much in fashion in International relations. By claiming the obsolescence of the public/private divide in favour of a structural-functionalist approach of globalization, advocates of global governance tend to ignore the effects of the processes they study in terms of their democratic significance.

Redistributing Global Inequality: A Thought Experiment

by József Böröcz

Economic and Political Weekly

Neoliberal discursive formations: on the contours of subjectivation, good governance, and symbolic violence in post-transitional Cambodia

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2010. Neoliberal discursive formations: on the contours of subjectivation, good governance, and symbolic violence in posttransitional Cambodia. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. 28 (5), 931-950.

Neoliberal subject formation in posttransitional Cambodia has been facilitated through the ‘commonsense’ rhetoric of... more Neoliberal subject formation in posttransitional Cambodia has been facilitated through the ‘commonsense’ rhetoric of good governance, which is conceived here as a primary discursive formation in the creation of consent for neoliberalism. Neoliberal subjectivation is the process whereby one memorizes the truth claims that one has heard and converts them into rules of conduct, thereby effectively locking in the rights of capital. As disciplinary rationalities, strategies, technologies, and techniques coagulate under neoliberal subjectivation in contemporary Cambodian society through the proliferation of particular discursive formations like good governance, the structural inequalities of capital are increasingly misrecognized. This constitutes symbolic violence, which is wielded precisely inasmuch as one does not perceive it as such. How we interpret the fluidity between those who produce and those constrained by neoliberal discursive formations is paramount if we are to counter problematic notions of neoliberalism as inevitable or monolithic and begin to recognize the systemic violent geographies that neoliberalism (re)produces both in posttransitional Cambodia and beyond.