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Due to massive media coverage, many people are familiar with the controversy and organized resistance that globalization has generated around the world, yet explaining what globalization actually means in practice is a complicated task. For those wanting to learn more, this book is an excellent place to start. An experienced economist, Joseph Stiglitz had a brilliant career in academia before serving for four years on President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors and then three years as chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank. His book clearly explains the functions and powers of the main institutions that govern globalization--the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization--along with the ramifications, both good and bad, of their policies. He strongly believes that globalization can be a positive force around the world, particularly for the poor, but only if the IMF, World Bank, and WTO dramatically alter the way they operate, beginning with increased transparency and a greater willingness to examine their own actions closely. Of his time at the World Bank, he writes, "Decisions were made on the basis of what seemed a curious blend of ideology and bad economics, dogma that sometimes seemed to be thinly veiling special interests.... Open, frank discussion was discouraged--there was no room for it." The book is not entirely critical, however: "Those who vilify globalization too often overlook its benefits," Stiglitz writes, explaining how globalization, along with foreign aid, has improved the living standards of millions around the world. With this clear and balanced book, Stiglitz has contributed significantly to the debate on this important topic. --Shawn Carkonen
Book Description
This powerful, unsettling book gives us a rare glimpse behind the closed doors of global financial institutions by the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics.
When it was first published, this national bestseller quickly became a touchstone in the globalization debate. Renowned economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz had a ringside seat for most of the major economic events of the last decade, including stints as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist at the World Bank. Particularly concerned with the plight of the developing nations, he became increasingly disillusioned as he saw the International Monetary Fund and other major institutions put the interests of Wall Street and the financial community ahead of the poorer nations.
Those seeking to understand why globalization has engendered the hostility of protesters in Seattle and Genoa will find the reasons here. While this book includes no simple formula on how to make globalization work, Stiglitz provides a reform agenda that will provoke debate for years to come. Rarely do we get such an insider's analysis of the major institutions of globalization as in this penetrating book. With a new foreword for this paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
Problems of Globalization spelled out in a lucid way........2007-09-24
This is really a wonderful book on the problems of globalization. Stiglitz points out many of the problems of the IMF and its imposing of conditions on those nations who need its help. Stiglitz points out that free market liberalization without the proper infrastructures such as unemployment insurance and market regulations can cause great harm to developing nations. Unfortunately, the IMF pushes for free market liberalization and very severe austerity plans when it gives out loans. The author does a great job in taking an esoteric subject and making it very understandable to a common reader. The book is really a primer in some ways but he also goes into different examples. He also gives some ideas on what are the solutions to the problems. If anyone wants some background on why there are so many protests at World Trade Organization meetings or other types of economic summits, this book will give you the big picture view of the situations. Stiglitz gives constructive and lucid ideas on what are the remedies to the problems. I took a class on Globalism in MBA school and this was a great book reminding me of the problems in a world economy. Stiglitz shows his ideas that globalization is something that needs to profit the poor and improve lives instead of just backing the interests of the rich. He makes a point several times that institutions like the IMF that play a role in affecting the economic policies of a developing nation need to have transparency, accountability, and approval by the people of that developing nation. He does not advocate throwing out the system; he wants globalization to be a better system for all nations.
World Bank.......2007-06-26
Stiglitz shreds the IMF -- tactfully -- but not tactfully enough to avoid an angry backlash from his peers at the IMF. He highlights what has been wrong and even idiotic about IMF-run globalization and ill-timed structural adjustments, poor sequencing. He thinks democratic leaders should decide HOW they implement global economics, perhaps with some guidance, not just the avaricious Washington Consensus demanding austerity measure and open up for speculative capital flows.
He describes how the World Bank, with himself at the helm, tried to accomplish it's historical purpose -- to spread prosperity and help facilitate trade, not looting. He described some brilliant and compassionate leaders and economists he worked with.
But until recently, it's been Paul Wolfowitz in charge of what Stiglitz used to do. Woe be unto all of us.
what globalization really is.......2007-05-18
a well written ballanced book that takes a deep look at what globalization is and how it effects people, business and government, from the rich to the poor. easy to read for the non-economist, with both sides of the debate being represented equally leaving the reader with a better understanding of the forces behind their changing world.
Ten Things I learned from Globalization and its Discontents.......2007-04-11
1. This book is highly informdative about the effects of the IMF and the World Bank on the world's unequal economy, with a closer focus on the IMF.
2. It describes in detail the muddy mix of false beliefs, borderline corruption and gross incompetence that drive the international financial institutions and inform their ivory tower decisions which have such profound effect on the people of the world.
3. Stiglitz clearly explains economic theories that clearly rebut the policies of the IMF.
4. He gives in-depth case studies that illustrate the inextricable mess these lending institutions can make in attempting to control the macroeconomic processes of poor nations.
5. He is especially informative in his unpacking of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1998, its causes, and how the IMF contributed to large-scale economic disaster. He explains the speculation encouraged by the IMF and the subsequent scares that led investors to flee en masse from the region. Then he discusses how the IMF's policies of structural adjustment and budgetary restraint further harmed nations. Malaysia, who refused to listen to the IMF, suffered the least from the massive economic downturn.
6. He also enlightens the reader about why Russia fell into such disarray after its post-Cold War "freedom." Without a gradual transition to a market economy, as China has been successful in accomplishing, Russia found itself in a crisis where the powerful managed to gain the bulk of the wealth and those with little power descended into poverty without a welfare state to aid them.
7. He explains clearly the conflict between the IMF's Keynsian roots, which aim to support failing economies by extending credit to be able to continue functioning, and its present policies, which force failing economies to reduce its spending, thereby causing nations and people to suffer.
8. As an insider, Stiglitz is able to describe the callousness with which the IMF views - or doesn't view - the people most affected by their policies is part of the organizational structure.
9. The worst part is that we can get all of this information, but lending institutions are not accountable to us or to the people for whom they make such life-altering decisions.
10. Yet only by sharing this information will nations who do have to decide to accept that IMF loan or not be able to understand the consequences of their decision, will individuals be able to stage protest or other forms of dissent, and will change hopefully eventually come in the large institutions that control so much of what happens in the world.
One of the Best.......2007-01-20
A great book which should be read by many to help them have a clearer idea of what is happening around the world. the author gives you what you need to know about the globalization process and what goes on behind the curtain that covers it. however in order to understand it readers should have some essential information of economics. great book never got tired of it.
Book Description
Groundbreaking essays on the new global economy from an "expert observer" (Forecast). Saskia Sassen is an internationally recognized expert on globalization whose writings have appeared in journals and magazines worldwide. Now available in paperback, Globalization and Its Discontents is a collection of Sassen's essays dealing with topics such as the "global city," gender and migration (reconceived as the globalization of labor), information technology, and the new dynamics of inequality. Sassen brings together cultural and literary studies, feminist theory, political economics, sociology, and political science, showing how vast the chasm between metropolitan business centers and low-income inner cities has become. Incisive and original, she takes on common political, cultural, and economic misconceptions of globalization and offers a thoughtful, provocative new look at our increasingly global society.
Customer Reviews:
brilliant ideas, mediocre writing.......2005-11-08
This is probably as good an introduction to Sassen's work as any, as she covers most of her major ideas with relative brevity. The title is rather misleading (as is the case of Stiglitz's (later published) work of the same name)--she focuses on the dynamics and effects of globalization and does not discuss organized resistance by social movements to it. Sassen sees three macro-level phenomena at work--the hypermobility of capital, the "unbundling" of state sovereignty, and the rise of global cities. It is the last of these ideas for which she is probably best known. She does not really get into an analysis of the hypermobility of capital here, but many other authors have covered that matter. Her analyses of the unbundling of state sovereignty and the rise of global cities are far more original. Against the background of these macro-phenomena, Sassen also analyzes the rise of the service economy, immigration patterns, and the changing roles of women.
I'm not sure how to fairly summarize Sassen's ideas in a brief review. To hit the high points, she argues that as systems of international law grow, the traditional sovereignty of the state is transformed, with its pieces of it being unbundles and some elements being transferred to international organizations, such as the UN and WTO. There are actually two distinct international law regimes--the human rights regime and the more powerful neoliberal regime, enforced by the likes of the WTO and IMF. This neoliberal regime has enabled the rise of the global economy.
Contrary to all the hype about globalization, the internet, and a "dematerialized" economy though, Sassen argues that the politics of place remain as important ever. This brings her to her analysis of global cities. If we are to have the high speed communications created by the internet, we need a physical infrastructure for it, fiber-optic cables and all that--a seemingly obvious point, but one often overlooked. This infrastructure is not evenly distributed either internationally or nationally. It is in fact concentrated in global cities, most of which are, not coincidentally, in the first world. The three chief global cities are, in fact, New York, London, and Tokyo. These global cities are at the heart of the new service sector that is so important to the global economy. As corporations' operations are more globally decentralized, power--control of these operations--has become more centralized in the global cities, which have the telecommunications infrastructure to do all the necessary coordinating of information.
Much of this coordination is in fact outsourced to specialized corporations providing services to the other corporations, in such fields as accounting, insurance and--the truly dominant force in gloablization--finances. These corporations are staffed by a new professional class, which has moved to the city, abondonning the suburbs, demanding upscale services. The downside of this is the shrinking of the traditional middle-class and the old economy based on mass production, mass consumption, and mass prosprity. Instead what is growing is a poor working class of workers providing personal (as opposed to corporate) services (such as house-cleaning, child care, janitorial services, or retail), often to the professionals who work doing corporate services. Thus there is a growing economic divide in the global cities. A disproportionate number of the people working in the poorly paid personal service sector are women and immigrants.
Sassen notes that, not only is globalization responsible for the rise of the poorly paid service sector, but immigration as well. Contrary to popular myths that the best way to stop immigration is to encourage foreign investment in immigrant-sending countries and create jobs there, Sassen actually argues that this creates more immigration, not less. Current patterns of foreign investment tend to exacerbate poverty, not cure it. And by working for foreign companies, workers gain some familiarity with the cultures of the US, Europe and increasingly Japan. This familiarity makes it easier for them to then immigrate to the first world in search of work. And there are a lot of other ideas I'm leaving out.
So, if I think this book is so brilliant, why am I only giving it four stars? Poor writing. As a previous reviewer noted, all the essays in this book were previously published elsewhere. I don't think this makes this book worthless (and therefore worthy of only one star)--it is convenient to have them gathered all in one place--but it does make the book somewhat disjointed and repetitive. But original works by Sassen, such as /Global City/, have the same problem. The fact is, despite her intellectual brilliance, she is a poor writer. Mind you, she is not like some writers, such as Hegel or Baudrillard, who seem to revel in their own incomprehensibility. She can be understood, but her writing is often something of a slog. She needs a good editor or some writing lessons.
Despite that, this book is definitely worth reading if you want to explore in-depth some important, unorthodox ideas about globalization.
Warning: Contents Older than Globalization.......2002-09-29
What purports to be a book on globalization is actually only peripherally about globalization writ large. Sassen is interested in more specific aspects of globalization: its impact on migration (the huge theme of this book), its place-specificity, and its resultant dispersal of powers that used to belong solely to the nation-state. Her points are good, but you don't need this book to get them, since she's made them all elsewhere and ages ago; in brief, the occasional new insights are not worth it.
Sassen's biggest contribution to the theorization of globalization is her attention to the global city, which she posits as a site of the physical infrastructure that enables the more diffuse projections of the world market. In these cities (like New York, L.A., Tokyo, London, Rio, etc.), high-wage, white-collar workers brush against the low-wage, largely immigrant diasporae that keep the global city running; immigrants form blocs that see a certain degree of enfranchisement and force adjustments in transnational immigration law; and globalization marches on. It's interesting stuff, but it's not new. Sassen's own book on "The Global City" scoops these chapters. And that's pretty much true of the rest of the book.
The two chapters on gender and globalization are much more valuable (and more recent) here, as she starts in on what she calls "the unbundling of sovereignty," the appropriation of political punch from nation-states and the relocation of it into the hands of NGOs and the global market. Unfortunately, while she opens up a great area of inquiry, she doesn't take it very far at all, "since the effort here was not to gain closure but to open up an analytic field." As they stand, these chapters are frustratingly suggestive but ultimately not very thorough or useful. Hopefully she'll revisit the theme later.
The stylistic question is a thorny one; several reviewers have already blasted Sassen for the way she writes. She's certainly not the easiest read, and her incessant neologisms are annoying. ("Operationalizing"? Can we not say, "making operational"?) You can fault her for that. But you can't fault her for writing like a sociologist, and that is largely how she writes. It's dry, there are charts and facts and figures, but the prose is economical and fairly clear (fake words aside!).
By and large, though, this isn't a must-read. If you're really interested, check out her books, "The Global City" and "The Mobility of Labor and Capital." They treat the same subjects, but in more useful detail.
Muddled and Confused.......2002-02-21
This book suffers from the kind of obfuscated language that a growing number of scholars seem to be able to get away with. Don't get me wrong: there are some interesting ideas in here. But their rewards do not outweigh the costs of sifting through the jargon-laden prose. The author should take a basic writing course.
Globalization and Its Disappointments.......2000-11-16
I had much hope for this book. I was expecting a work which would shift debates about globalization in a new direction. What we get, on the other hand, is poorly written, badly argued, and repetitive work that offers very little in the way of substantive theory or analysis.
The book is a collection of essays that Sassen has published elsewhere between 1984 and 1997. Except for the introduction, there is no new material here. Furthermore, in many cases the content of one article is reproduced in another article in the book. Rather than reinforcing important arguments, it seems clear that Sassen is trying to get as much mileage possible out of her work. It doesn't work.
The book contains hundreds of endnotes (in many cases they contain the most important information) which should have been incorporated into the text. Furthermore, she offers no conclusion to her analysis and the last chapter itself is quite unsatisfactory.
In short, this book is poorly written, tedious, and unoriginal.
Actually 4 and a Half.......2000-06-13
An excellent overview of the changing conditions of the Global Cities and a fresh look after her excellent book "Global Cities". Especially liked the essays about the concentration of power and wealth in cities like New York, London or Tokyo amid the exploitation of cheap immigrant labor.
Essential fro everybody who's trying to understand the processes that have lead so many to oppose globablization trends the GATT and NAFTA agreements and others that keep changing the worl we live in
Book Description
Never HIGHLIGHT a Book Again! Virtually all testable terms, concepts, persons, places, and events are included.look no further for study resources or reference material. Cram101 Textbook Outlines gives all of the outlines, highlights, notes, and practice-tests for your textbook. Only Cram101 is Textbook Specific. Cram101 is NOT the Textbook.
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El Malestar En La Globalizacion/globalization And Its Discontents
Joseph E. Stiglitz
Manufacturer: Santillana USA Publishing Company
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ASIN: 9505117892 |
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Joseph Stiglitz has been a first-hand witness of the devastating effect that globalization can have on the poorest countries of the planet. In this work he maintains that globalization can be a beneficial aspect and that its potential is the enrichment of everyone. He states that governments can and must adopt policies that support the growth of countries in an equal manner, and must fulfill equitable and fair rules that take care of the poor as well as the powerful.
Description in Spanish:
Joseph E. Stiglitz, premio Nobel de economía, ha sido testigo del efecto devastador que la globalización puede tener sobre los países más pobres del planeta gracias a su puesto como vicepresidente del Banco Mundial. En esta obra sostiene que la globalización puede ser una fuerza benéfica siempre que nos replanteemos el modo en el que ha sido gestionada. El dolor padecido por los países en desarrollo en el proceso de desarrollo orientado por el FMI y las organizaciones económicas internacionales ha sido muy superior al necesario. La economía puede parecer una disciplina árida, pero las buenas políticas económicas contribuyen a mejorar la vida de la gente más pobre. Los gobiernos deben y pueden adoptar políticas que orienten el crecimiento de los países de modo equitativo. Constituimos una comunidad global y debemos cumplir una serie de reglas para convivir. Estas reglas deben ser justas, deben atender a los pobres y a los poderosos, y reflejar un sentimiento básico de decenci!
a y justicia social.
Book Description
Two years after tens of thousands of demonstrators shut down the WTO meetings in Seattle, here's an audio introduction to the New World Order & its discontents. The double CD covers changing politics, militarism & policing; environmental issues, frankenfood & genetic engineering; digital capitalism & the fairy-tale economic boom and the leading alternatives to and struggles against a system which puts profits over people, unregulated growth over sustainability and money over morals. Featuring Noam Chomsky, A. Sivanandan (When Memory Dies, Communities of Resistance), The Biotic Baking Brigade, Vandana Shiva (Biopiracy, Stolen Harvest), The Acme Collective of the Black Block, Christian Parenti (Lockdown America), Kristin Dawkins (Gene Wars), Robin Hahnel (Panic Rules), Winona LaDuke (All Our Relations), Michael Parenti (America Beseiged), Dan Schiller (Digital Capitalism), and Howard Zinn.
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El malestar en la globalización / Globalization and Its Discontents
Robert E. Stiglitz
Manufacturer: Punto de lectura
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ASIN: 8466310851 |
Product Description
Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Laureate in economics, has been a first-hand witness of the devastating effect that globalization can have on the poorest countries of the planet. In this work he maintains that globalization can be a beneficial aspect and that its potential is the enrichment of everyone. He states that governments can and must adopt policies that support the growth of countries in an equal manner, and must fulfill equitable and fair rules that take care of the poor as well as the powerful. Description in Spanish: Joseph Stiglitz ha sido testigo como vicepresidente del Banco Mundial del efecto devastador que la globalización puede tener sobre los países más pobres. En esta obra sostiene que la globalización puede ser una fuerza benéfica que enriquezca a todos, especialmente a los más necesitados, pero siempre y cuando nos replanteemos el modo en que ha sido gestionada.
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Globalisation and its Discontents: Writing the Global Culture (Essays and Studies)
Manufacturer: D.S.Brewer
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ASIN: 1843840758 |
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Like Freud's `civilisation', globalisation is both cause and consequence of its own discontents, visible at times only in the resistances it generates. Study of the phenomenon has until recently been confined largely to economists and political and social scientists. The present volume brings a range of literary and cultural analyses to bear to demonstrate both its actual time-depth and the all-encompassing nature of its influences on culture and consciousness. The English language and English literature have been major elements in its forging, underwriting first British and then American cultural hegemony. Unlike most readings of globalisation, these essays depict not an irresistible juggernaut but a process that, in generating its own resistances, opens up the possibility of an alternative world order founded not on the inequities of power and capital, but on shared commitment to a fragile planet and a common and universal culture. Ranging from Homer to Michael Crichton, Shakespeare to Suleyman Al-Bassam, John Donne to Les Murray, John Keats to Derek Walcott, Conrad, Gissing and Edward Lear to V. S. Naipaul and Salman Rushdie, and addressing, among many others, writers as diverse as Paul Valéry and Edouard Glissant, Gertrude Stein and Wallace Stevens, George Orwell, Martha Gellhorn and Storm Jameson, Eliot, Yeats and Auden, Seamus Heaney and Paul Muldoon, these essays explore a remarkable range of responses to the process of globalisation from earliest times to the present day. Contributors: STAN SMITH, GRAHAM HOLDERNESS, BRYAN LOUGHREY, JENNIFER BIRKETT, PHYLLIS LASSNER, SHARON OUDITT, TONY SHARPE, EDWARD LARRISSY, MICHAEL MURPHY, LIAM CONNELL
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Globalization and Its Discontents
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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ASIN: 0312229577 |
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Most analyses of globalization convey the message that it is an unstoppable force creating a brave new world of borderless and boundless consumerism. This collection of essays develops a more critical and grounded analysis of the nature and implications of globalization. Many of the contributions conclude that there are real political choices to be mad, even though the economic context has changed.
Book Description
The decisive event of the late twentieth century has been the collapse of communism and the perceived triumph of capitalism. Written by authors from the First, former Second, and Third Worlds, this book reveals the characteristics and flaws of the late capitalist order. The authors explore the societal polarisation produced by globalization, the crisis of Western ideology, and the soft financial underbelly of globalization that could well bring us to an economic collapse. The perspective of this provocative book goes beyond those of the traditional left and the relativist, anti-historical school of postmodernism to offer an entirely fresh view of the world order.
Customer Reviews:
A Third Alternative.......2005-11-29
Though dated (1997) by fast moving events, this slim collaborative volume retains key themes of interest. The authors (Burbach, Nunez, and Kagarlitsky) grope for a Third Way apart from the twin failures of neo-liberalism and Marxism-Leninism, which have only produced polarized wealth in the former case and suffocating statism in the latter. This requires locating an alternative vision to the currently triumphant neo-liberalism, a highly urgent project considering the depradations of an unrestrained American empire. How well their postmodern socialism provides that vision is up to the reader to decide. Frankly, the details left me somewhat confused, particularly the crucial role the state would play in assisting emerging modes -- the text appears to assert contrasting roles at different points. But then, given the current confusion on the Left, this is perhaps not surprising.
The most clear-headed chapter is Kagarlitsky's on the demise of the eastern bloc. There are indeed many lessons to be learned from that experience, some of which have become cliches of a reformed Left. But I would echo Kagarlitsky's plaintive query, "Why are we afraid to discuss the real merits and advantages of the old communist system?" (p.136). It's as though reformers are afraid of being tarred if they take anything but a a wholly negative view of that 70 year experience. However, in the process of forgetting, much of positive and useful value is being lost on those who insist the Left must start over from scratch, as it were. Putting the point another way: why should an intelligent person sign on to a socialist project of any stripe if the previous experience had been so uniformly negative. A balanced reckoning with the old Soviet system remains not only an urgent historical task but a genuine prerequisite for a revitalized alternative.
Anyway, it's interesting to see how some of the book's projections have played out in the meantime. The unforeseen emergence of Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian socialism again demonstrates the importance of state authority to grass-roots empowerment and presents a new force to be reckoned with. On the topic of state power, I believe the book would have benefitted from a discussion between Kagarlitsky, on one hand, and Nunez and Burbach, on the other. Their differences point to important political consequences, and would have clarified some of the ambiguities of the text. Despite the shortcomings, however, much worthwhile discussion remains.
Paperback format now available.......1999-03-25
Hey folks, this title is available for just 20 bucks at BarnesandNoble, in paperback. And, as reported by NPR, a huge online consortium of independent booksellers will soon be open to the public, selling books via the web!
Also, if you are into the subject of this book, check out _Rethinking Marxism_, especially Roger Burbach's article in Volume 10, Number 1, 1998. Burbach refers to this book and other like-minded books, journals, and intellectuals. And certainly check out Antonio (Toni) Negri, including the _Politics of Subversion_ and _Communists Like Us: New Lines of Alliance_. The latter title was co-authored with Felix Guattari while Negri was imprisoned; and sadly, Negri has been imprisoned again. For a transcript of the truly Orwellian proceedings which led to his imprisonment, see _Revolution Retrieved_.
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