The dynamics of globalisation: a critical approach

Abstract

Economic globalisation occupies an increasingly crucial place in social science research and is central to the analysis of challenges of 21st-century global society. Although neo-classical concepts, such as marginal utility, rational choice, perfect information of agents and the optimisation of economic results, are used to analyse the outcome of intense international mobility of capital and labour, no discussion is undertaken for the emerging new spatialisation of economic activities. This paper evolves as a critique of the dominant neo-liberal approach of economic globalisation, suggesting that the world economic system is characterised by unprecedented tensions, economic asymmetries and technological gaps between developed and developing nations. Identifying the ideological, political and economic logics that have driven the current version of economic globalisation, the paper presents three main findings. First, the timing and sequencing of economic globalisation depend on both external (to the state) and domestic variables. Second, it still remains a crucial issue for poorer countries, how to create the kinds of balanced regimes of knowledge and capital accumulation, while guaranteeing that income disparities remain within the limits of socially tolerable. Third, to overcome spatial and structural inequalities of economic globalisation, the world community should develop effective aid and risk-sharing mechanisms.