postmodern desertions capitalism and anti-capitalism

Amongst the world leaders faith in the capitalist system is threadbare. With a declining base of popular legitimacy, contemporary elites lack the confidence to steer the world in any direction of their own. In many ways the protestors simply reflect the inner loss of certainty suffered by elites – giving it an external manifestation. The criticisms of the anti-capitalist movement have been indulged to a surprising extent. At the World Bank, at the G8, and amongst the media, the anti-globalization protests have had an easy ride, as a nervous older generation looks on benignly at the idealism of youth. Again and again the protestors have been invited inside to share their insights with world leaders.

Historical Materialism-research in Critical Marxist Theory, 2009

Th is article reviews a cross-section of the globalisation literature written prior to the unfolding economic crisis of 2007. It assesses the literature in terms of its apprehending of changes in capitalism and the prospects for social change that are envisioned.

The Libertarian Ideal, 2016

In this paper I examine the role of global social movements in redefining and deconstructing capitalism and the role of the state within it. I look into this paradigm through the praxis of subjective and objective ontologies and the idea of global social movements being new social movements who aim to transform and co-opt capitalist socio-economic organisation. Within this, I look at two major global social movements: the anti-globalisation movement and the Fairtrade movement.

Public Culture, 2006

2003

The world(-)systems* perspective provides a useful framework for discerning the continuities and discontinuities (emergent properties) of long historical waves of global integration (globalization) and social resistance to (capitalist) globalization.. The capitalist world(-)system has experienced long cycles of economic and political integration for centuries and these have been interspersed by periods of social resistance to capitalist globalization, in which disadvantaged, exploited and dominated groups contest the hierarchies that global capitalism and hegemonic states have constructed. In the contemporary period the intensification of capitalist globalization has been accompanied by a strengthening of social resistance and the emergence of new social movements that resist neoliberal globalization and attempt to build alternatives. Careful study of these long waves of globalization and resistance can provide us with important insights that are relevant to the task of building a more humane and democratic global commonwealth in the 21 st century. Research and teaching on the role of the new social movements and the historical dialectic between globalization, resistance, and democratization should be a central aspect of the new critical Global(ization) Studies.

Millennium: Journal of International Studies

The Journal of International Relations, Peace Studies, and Development, 2017

Capitalism has developed into a dangerous hindrance to any possibility of human progress, if ‘progress’ is defined not by the availability of ever more impressive gadgetry, but by a reduction in poverty, the spreading of prosperity and the conservation of a livable environment. Clearly, the left project in the 20th century was partially successful in raising living standards, and access to basic services such as health care and education in developed countries and for many elsewhere. However, these achievements are now under threat. Moreover, the broader capitalist narrative states there are no alternatives to this system and any endeavor that focuses on the common good or collective action as an organizing principle for society is undemocratic, unnatural and foolishly utopian and will not work. Thus, our goal in preparing this paper is to propose ways in which both traditional and novel forms of organization might be employed in the struggle to replace capitalism with a more equitable system, one which does not rely on the exploitation of working people and the destruction of the environment.

2003

The world(-)systems* perspective provides a useful framework for discerning the continuities and discontinuities (emergent properties) of long historical waves of global integration (globalization) and social resistance to (capitalist) globalization.. The capitalist world(-)system has experienced long cycles of economic and political integration for centuries and these have been interspersed by periods of social resistance to capitalist globalization, in which disadvantaged, exploited and dominated groups contest the hierarchies that global capitalism and hegemonic states have constructed. In the contemporary period the intensification of capitalist globalization has been accompanied by a strengthening of social resistance and the emergence of new social movements that resist neoliberal globalization and attempt to build alternatives. Careful study of these long waves of globalization and resistance can provide us with important insights that are relevant to the task of building a more humane and democratic global commonwealth in the 21 st century. Research and teaching on the role of the new social movements and the historical dialectic between globalization, resistance, and democratization should be a central aspect of the new critical Global(ization) Studies.

THE SCHOLARLY LITERATURE pertaining to the issue we nowadays conveniently, and loosely, call " globalization " is well established and vast. In exposing, quite judiciously , the various aspects of, and injustices caused by, the existing pace of global capitalism, however, such literature remains in many cases also vague, inconsequential , overly descriptive, ideologically rigid, and unable to provide rigorous theoretical grounds for understanding the issue. Numerous pages are dedicated to documenting the effects of the expansion of capitalist systems around the world. Numerous pages record both local and international movements and resistances against this phenomenon. Volumes supply policy criticisms on various state, su-pra-state, interstate , or corporate levels. Yet, the foundational works that would potentially contribute to the modes of activism against the injustices manifested through various processes of transnational capitalism become harder to find despite the growing number of titles, which, ironically, tells us something about the mar-ketability of books on globalization.