Globalization Books

This edited volume moves the discussion of bilingualism from personal, localized contexts to national and societal levels of analysis. There are no typologies of bilingualism in this book, and Fishman's early work on diglossia as a way to structurally situate bilingualism in communities is replaced with much more complex views of how languages spoken (as well as written) are used and how ideologies and political histories enter into these complexities. This is not a book for pre-service teachers going into bilingual education; its chapters are quite dense, with several written by European scholars of bilingualism. The US context for bilingualism is given short shrift. The book is most suitable for advanced graduate students. I highly recommend it for students of bilingualism at the international level, as it propels the scholarship to new frontiers.

Canadian authors Peter S. Grant and Chris Wood, respectively a noted communications lawyer and a journalist, have set out to dissect, examine and prod the policies and issues surrounding the concept of contemporary culture and the many forces exerting pressure on the world stage to either commercialize and liberalize or maintain or expand the regulations and frameworks currently in place to keep works of culture off the free market. In their comprehensive book the authors argue serenely and dispassionately that while the former will lead to a silencing of many cherished voices and the diminishing of choice, the latter is the key to the free expression of different ideals the world over.
Taking a cradle to the grave approach, the authors explore all forms of art and cultural expression from audio and video to books, magazines and more. Grant and Wood craft a lucid argument against the dilution of cultural voices through the inclusion of culture within international trade agreements. They further note in detail the large stakes in cultural politics and conclude that the liberalization of trade in this area is tantamount to too large a giveaway to be affordable for most nations. With twelve countries producing 80 per cent of the world's cultural exports and cultural creators contributing vast amount to their respective countries' coffers, the stakes are too important for governments - even from a revenue perspective - not to actively and consistently engage in defining and protecting their national identities. Ironically, it is this protectionism that will ultimately lead to a richer and more diverse quilt of ideas and expressions.
Contrary to the laws governing the World Trade Organization and other quasi-official fora for setting and proclaiming international commerce guidelines, the expression of ideas of all forms requires its own setting. This would ideally be a place of rational discussion and not one of cold and misguided decisions favouring purely monetary rationalizations at the expense of quality and diversity. The authors further expand on the invalidity of laissez faire and comparative advantage economics and, quite rightly, insist by way of modern examples how cultural goods behave and co-exist differently than their more tangible cousins. The prevalent economic theorems being faulty to begin with, they fall even shorter in the cases of art and expression.
Blockbusters and Trade Wars: Popular Culture in a Globalized World is of interest to consumers, observers and participants in the fields of audio, video, written word, broadcasting and the Internet alike and is a complete collection for those looking for an in-depth discussion of the workings of said disciplines within an economic context.

A very good and handy book if you are a student of how the world has become what it is today. The author does a great job of holding your attention, and unfolding world events. It is also clear he has done his homework and research in putting this book together.

I took a casual look at the book at a London airport bookstore, and was hooked in minutes. On the journey back to the US, I could not put it down. The book may seem somewhat voluminous, but I would encourage you not to be put off by that.

This slim volume offers an elegant, useful overview of the scholarship on mass culture in the US. It extends the picture of American mass culture to include forays into Europe and the reception of European audiences and critics.It doesn't offer much in the way of new archival work; it largely relies on the studies by other historians on separate areas of mass culture, from Wild West shows and amusement parks to world's fairs and early cinema. But this is what makes the book particularly useful: it brings this work together in order to think through the larger questions of mass culture as a whole.

Does mass culture ultimately represent a regressive ideological force, one that has united Americans by disseminating an implicitly white nationalist idea of what America is? Or is it a more equivocal force through which consumers have sometimes been able to refashion their own meanings and spaces? The authors examine these questions in a fairly even-handed way, and recognize the arguments on both sides. They don't go into these questions in great depth, however. But there is an extremely helpful bibliographic essay at the end of the book that maps out the major critical arguments, from the early 20th century to the present, and that includes both American thinkers and European intellectuals. I would recommend this essay for anyone wanting to get a quick overview of this scholarly terrain.

My one reservation about this bibliography, however, is that it doesn't give any attention to the important scholarship on mass culture and the public sphere that has been produced in the wake of Habermas's book on the public sphere. There is a whole area of scholarship, from Negt and Kluge's response to Habermas, Miriam Hansen's work on Kracauer, and Michael Warner's work on counter publics, that is vital to thinking through questions of mass culture. The authors of this book have too quickly classified the Frankfurt School as one of "pessimism" about mass culture, but the picture is more complicated than that.

This collection of essays focuses particularly on the issues that affect large global corporations in their relationships with governments, suppliers and employees in third world nations. The 22 chapters are arranged in four parts:

Why are human rights a business issue?
Corporate Responses
Supply Chains
Community and Government

There is a Foreword by Mary Robinson, the former United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights.

Around half the authors are academics, with the other half coming from business, non-for-profits and consulting. The material is based on cases from a wide range of countries and industries. Many of the contributions - for example those that contribute to the business ethics debate - are relevant to any business that operates internationally, while some have a narrower focus - for example `Mining in conflict Zones'.

It is a book for reference rather than one to read as a whole. Each contribution is carefully considered, with relevant examples and the collection as a whole will be very useful to those who are responsible for the corporate ethics and reputation of global organizations. 

This is a very useful book on labour standards and the way to improve them using international trade and globalization. Written in a simple and easy way, it also offers a comprehensive review of the recent literature on these topics.
In the first part it is discussed the role of the ILO and its tools to spread labour standards: monitoring policy, technical cooperation and enforcement or sanctions.
Furthermore, a broad overview of the ways to link labour standards to international trade and a more pragmatic approach to connect them is discussed. The general view on this issue is that globalization and labour standards are complementary factors and they could work togheter to spread benefits of globalization in a way coherent with labour rights.
I consider this book a very rich source for researchers and policymakers, intuitive and easy to read.

The book was sent in an excellent condition as it was advertised. However, the shipment was not as fast as it was promised.

The late Andrew Glyn was one of the foremost British political economists. "Capitalism Unleashed" is a very well-researched take on the developments (mostly) in rich economies after WW2 - the Golden Age capitalism and, most importantly, the current neoliberal era that started emerging in the 1970s.

The book covers the turbulent situation in the 1970s (union militancy, high inflation, profit squeeze, and other threats to capital), the reaction that followed (a return to fiscal and monetary orthodoxy, privatization, and deregulation), the explosion in size of the financial sector and its repercussions (financial volatility, the drive for shareholder value), globalization (trade, financial flows), the change in the position of labor, economic growth, the welfare states, and inequality. All the chapters are informative and valuable. Glyn tries to convey relevant nuances when possible and delivers a good glimpse of all the phenomena that he sets out to discuss. However, although the author intended to make the book widely accessible, the narrative is sometimes far from memorable which makes it very likely that the average reader will walk away with only certain general ideas, without the nuances that Glyn so painstakingly documents.

That is my only complaint. Otherwise, this book deserves attention, especially if you care about recent and possible future developments in capitalism and would also like some additional left-wing perspective.

Although the title of this review bears no resemblance to the content of Camerons book, it basically describes in it's simplest terms the options available to Canada to diversify and expand trade on a global basis.
Why no-one had thought of this approach previously is puzzleing, but as history has shown, our politicians seldom think "outside the box".

An interesting and informative read and should be designated as mandatory reading for all economic students as well as Canada's politicians.

Posted by Carl Davidson

Book Review

Harry Targ

Challenging Late Capitalism, Neo-Liberal Globalization & Militarism: Building A Progressive Majority

ChangeMaker Books, 2006

Reviewed By Mark Solomon

What committed progressive would not want to have a powerful handbook that bares the sources of today's real evil and how to defeat it? a handbook for his or her own enlightenment as well as a tool to pass on to others for educating and activating?

That's exactly what Harry Targ's Challenging Late Capitalism delivers. This briskly written book opens with an insightful, devastating critique of the Bush regime's failure to extend succor to Katrina's victims. It concludes with a powerful exploration of the need to build coalitions grounded in concrete programs. Along the way, the reader is given a clear and insightful analysis of the root causes of today's multi-faceted crises along with an illuminating path to forging a winning progressive majority.

Through a Marxist materialist prism, 'Challenging Late Capitalism' reveals the causes of inequality rooted in the capitalist system built upon the exploitation of labor.Exploitation inevitably engenders class struggle that in turn foments a broad political culture carrying the seeds of transforming change.

The book then moves to an analysis of present-day 'late capitalism' ? defining its characteristics,especially the enormous concentration of capital while describing the disastrous consequences of a global system based upon 'neo-liberal' exploitation of countries of the Global South as well as its systematic destruction of social services and labor's rights in both developed and developing countries. The alleged advantages of 'free trade' are exposed as a myth; the emergence in the world system of a highly regressive 'virtual economy' driven by speculation and paper exchanges is described; the negative impact of neo-liberalism upon employment and the general well being of workers is documented; a militarized economy and its impact upon social well being is summed up; intensified racism, sexism and homophobia is underscored; the conjunction of corporate capital and religious fundamentalists merged into a powerful right wing political movement is identified as the principal threat to progress today.

The final chapters of Challenging Late Capitalism explore the historic and present day character of resistance to the oppressive nature of contemporary corporate-dominated society. Various movements from single-issue reform campaigns to transforming multi- issue struggles are surveyed in order to provide a sound starting point and foundation for drawing various strands of battle for justice,peace and democracy into a vibrant progressive majority.

This book offers a sound basis for fighting back and turning this county and globe towards a peaceful, just and sustainable world. It deserves to be read widely and to be utilized in that greatest of battles for the liberation of all humankind.

[Mark Solomon, historian, is the author of The Cry Was Unity: Communists and African Africans, 1917-1936, University Press of Mississippi, 1998.]