Crisis Of Global Capitalism Research Articles

La crisis capitalista mundial, América Latina y Ecuador: ¿socialismo del siglo XXI o neoextractivismo progresista?

Este artículo elabora una caracterización de la crisis capitalista mundial, así como de su más reciente expresión en el sistema financiero luego de la burbuja del 2008 y las reper­cusiones que manifiesta en las economías latinoamericanas, enfatizando en el análisis de la Revolución Ciudadana de Ecuador y el papel de este país en la economía mundial a la luz de las exigencias del capital transnacional. Se analiza la relación del proceso liderado por Rafael Correa con la valorización del capital a nivel mundial en la crisis económica, así como su conexión con las llamadas potencias emergentes. Finalmente, se aportan argumentos que contradicen la caracterización de este proceso como una vertiente del “socialismo del siglo XXI”, resaltando sus características neoextractivistas.

Caritas in Veritate and ‘The Crisis in Global Capitalism’

Caritas in Veritate and ‘The Crisis in Global Capitalism’

A Review of the Eighth Forum of the World Association for Political Economy

There are many kinds of inequalities such as inequalities between nations, gender inequalities, racial inequalities, and especially income and wealth inequalities, which are emerging as the most important ones in the current global crisis of capitalism. Also, the latest historic crisis of capitalism has led to a decline in the levels of growth in the world, especially in Europe, with enormous social consequences. The response of the dominant classes in these countries to these problems has been the imposition of austerity policies. These policies instead of reducing unemployment and improving living standards have increased the reach of private capitalist activities. In May of 2013, WAPE held its Eighth Forum themed “Inequalities and World Capitalism: Analysis, Policy and Action.” The aim is to analyze the reasons for world inequality and counter measures against it, find the conditions of the world development from the radical perspective through renewed study of the finished and unfinished writings of Marx and of the plural realities of our time.

Leading with mind, heart, body and spirit

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to consider the nature of leadership in the current context where the crisis in global capitalism seems to be encouraging a mechanistic approach to the management of healthcare. The paper urges an holistic leadership ethos to encourage an holistic approach to care and treatment.Design/methodology/approach– The paper utilises an extensive overview of the leadership literature, and also used practical examples of care and leadership practice.Findings– Care and capability need to be partners, but concern has been expressed at all levels of society that a reductionist model is being implemented in many caring professions.Practical implications– The implications for leadership are that one of the most vital current requirements is to encourage a spirit-filled leadership at all levels in the organisations that provide care.Originality/value– The paper addresses the issue that leadership can never be a purely intellectual or emotional activity, it must combine all aspects of the person in an holistic approach.

From the Struggle for Education to the Transformation of Society

We are three voices at a public university in northern Chile. This essay is about how social science take into account or ignore the current political tension produced by social movements against neoliberalism . We have three stories (student activist, student federation leader, and scholar in motion) that reveal the current state of public education in Chile, which has been determined by marketplace logic and neoliberalism. We discuss the relationship between the global crisis of capitalism and the fundamental role of education as an arena of critical thinking for the training of students and scholars committed to democracy and social justice. We believe that the current historical movement policy opens a possibility of achieving real democracy by confronting the commodification of life and fundamental rights.

Policing the Global Crisis

As part of my research for a book manuscript on the crisis of global capitalism I recently finished writing (Robinson forthcoming), I decided to re-read the classic 1978 study conducted by the noted socialist and cultural theorist Stuart Hall and several of his colleagues, Policing the Crisis. The authors show in that book how the restructuring of capitalism as a response to the crisis of the 1970s - which was the last major crisis of world capitalism until the current one hit in 2008 -led in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to an "exceptional state," by which they meant a situation in which there was an ongoing breakdown of consensual mechanisms of social control and a growing authoritarianism.

Alternatives to Capitalism

The worsening social pains of government austerity programs now intensify the vast social suffering caused by the crisis since 2007. Beyond this especially severe business cycle, longer term trends show capitalist mega-corporations moving blue and white collar work to lower wage regions far from the former centers of capitalist production (the USA and Western Europe especially). Profit and competition prompt such relocations. Modern telecommunications enable supervision of far-away factories, offices, and stores almost as easily as those nearby. In the US, what capitalist corporations began decades ago, abandoning urban centers like Detroit, Cleveland, and so on, is now being extended nationally. In response, especially across Western Europe and the US, the last five years have renewed the critical questioning of capitalism as a system. Contemporary social movements such as Occupy Wall Street have been much quicker and more determined to target capitalism explicitly than has been the norm for social movements since the late 1940s. Sales of Marx’s writings have soared. Renewed interest in socialism and socialist parties is widely in evidence. Anarchist rejections of capitalism are in vogue. Public opinion polls show widespread antipathy toward 'capitalism' and equally remarkable positive attitudes toward 'socialism'. Factors enabling criticisms of capitalism in the US include the waning of anti-communism as national paranoia, the end of the Cold War, and the fading of its legacies. Criticism is especially provoked by the global crisis of capitalism since 2007. Clearly, the current crisis emerged from the system’s internal contradictions; it was not caused by any external enemies. Discontent with the social status quo not only fuels but also largely defines most contemporary critiques of capitalism. However, after some time of feeling and showing opposition to the status quo, increasing numbers demand some concrete, feasible alternatives to capitalism. They see the limits of proposed reforms (regulations, laws, monetary and fiscal policies) in the history of capitalism since the Great Depression of the 1930s. They view that history as proof of the impermanence of such reforms and their inadequacy to prevent crises, deepening inequalities, and most of the other ills long associated with capitalism. They see the need to question and challenge capitalism as a system. However, they also wish at least to complement opposition to capitalism with some positive affirmation of a better alternative. Critiques of capitalism, its crises, and the inadequacy of 'solutions' such as bailouts, more regulations, and austerity have matured significantly across the last five years. They increasingly include explorations and advocacy of transition from capitalism toward systemic alternatives. However, traditional socialism and communism, as exemplified in the USSR, the former Eastern Europe, and the People’s Republic of China, are not widely accepted as desirable alternatives. This reflects partly their actual histories and partly their demonization by the last 70 years of hegemonic 485317 CRS39410.1177/0896920513485317Critical SociologyWolff 2013

‘Direct democracy now!’: The Greek indignados and the present cycle of struggles

This article’s ambition is to critically analyse the resistance of the Greek people to the country’s custody under the Troika that has led to a severe financial and social crisis. Emphasis is given to the ‘Outraged’ of Syntagma Square and their daily protests during the summer of 2011; a movement that has remained underreported in relation to other similar phenomena, despite the huge number of participants, and the intensity of its clash with the state. In addition, besides the empirical investigation of the Greek case, the article argues that it is of particular importance to note the movement’s cultural resources, as well as the inner class and ideological divisions. Also, the study attempts to fit the case of Greece within the global capitalist crisis and the struggles that have arisen as a response.

Book Review: General Politics: Beyond the Global Capitalist Crisis: The World Economy in Transition

Book Review: General Politics: Beyond the Global Capitalist Crisis: The World Economy in Transition

Segurança humana: uma meta viável?

Este artigo parte de uma distinção entre políticas de segurança humana e políticas de segurança cidadã, no contexto de reestruturação e crise capitalista global, discutindo, especificamente, situações referentes ao Brasil e à cidade de Salvador, Bahia. Com base numa perspectiva antropológica sobre as dimensões do trabalho e renda, a reprodução social e as desigualdades sociais e as relações de poder, que condicionam os processos contemporâneos de desenvolvimento urbano, o autor, refletindo criticamente sobre as consequências da securitização dos problemas sociais, sustenta a necessidade de articularem-se políticas econômicas a políticas de segurança de forma a serem compensadas as tendências negativas do capitalismo contemporâneo, priorizando a segurança humana de todos, em lugar de uma segurança cidadã restrita a interesses ou preconceitos de parte da sociedade.

Bourdieu y la crisis del capitalismo global

Hace diez años que Bourdieu falleció. Sus últimos trabajos se centraron en la globalización y en la extensión del neoliberalismo. Bourdieu, que desarrolló un enorme corpus teórico,cambió sus intereses académicos para analizar cómo la razón economicista neoliberal estaba colonizando todos los campos de la vida. El capitalismo transnacional se había posicionado como la mejor y única posibilidad de pensar en lo político y en lo económico en un mundo globalizado, debido al poder de su capital simbólico. Sin embargo, este sistema global falsamente profético estaba escondiendo la explotación de los trabajadores, la flexibilización de las economías nacionales, la reducción de los Estados-nación y la pérdida de derechos sociales. En nuestros días, que vivimos la peor crisis económica desde el Crack del 29, resulta interesante y necesario revisitar el trabajo de Bourdieu para comprobar su vigencia y lo acertado de sus análisis y sus predicciones.

Dallas Smythe Today - The Audience Commodity, the Digital Labour Debate, Marxist Political Economy and Critical Theory.

Due to the global capitalist crisis, neoliberalism and the logic of commodification of everything have suffered cracks, fissures and holes. There is a return of the interest in Marx, which requires us to think about the role of Marxism in Media and Communication Studies. This paper contributes to this task by discussing some foundations of contemporary Marxist media and communication studies, including a focus on the renewed interest in Dallas Smythe’s audience commodity category as part of the digital labour debate. Dallas Smythe reminds us of the importance of engagement with Marx’s works for studying the media in capitalism critically. Both Critical Theory and Critical Political Economy of the Media and Communication have been criticized for being one-sided. Such interpretations are mainly based on selective readings. They ignore that in both approaches there has been with different weightings a focus on aspects of media commodification, audiences, ideology and alternatives. Critical Theory and Critical Political Economy are complementary and should be combined in Critical Media and Communication Studies today. Dallas Smythe’s notion of the audience commodity has gained new relevance in the debate about corporate Internet services’ exploitation of digital labour. The exploitation of digital labour involves processes of coercion, alienation and appropriation.

On the Causes and Significance of the December 2008 Social Explosion in Greece

The social explosion of December 2008 in Greece represented a postscript from the future. In a country where the consequences of the global economic crisis had already begun to make themselves felt — in conjunction with the collapse of a specific model for integration into the global division of labor — it had become evident that the younger generations were destined to experience a much worse future than preceding generations. The realization that unemployment, flexible working hours and hyper-exploitation would be the norm, in combination with other conjunctural questions (an exacerbation of repression, political scandals, sharpening of the migration question), resulted in the situation whereby the country with the richest leftist traditions in Western Europe witnessed an explosion of the greatest youth revolt of the last 30 years. It would mark a turning point for the development of new outbreaks of social upheaval that would bring to the fore the contradictions in management of the global capitalist crisis.

Dis/empowering political subjects: The production of “failed” elected women representatives in India

Synopsis In 1993, India entered a new era of participatory democracy and development through legislation of a local governance structure that facilitated the presence of women and men from marginalized communities through electoral quotas. While more than 1 million women entered local levels of governance, major questions around their participation, empowerment and potential to impact development remain. Given a global capitalist crisis, what does it mean for women to take political positions in institutions that are “flawed” from years of bad decisions? How does a “systemic failure” of development get inscribed on bodies of women representatives who become “failed” agents of development?

Financialization and Global Imbalances

The concept of “financialization” has informed recent analyses of the contemporary dynamics of monopoly capitalism. In the wake of the global financial crisis in 2007-08, the strategic role of finance and its capacity to destabilize the real economy and push it to the brink of economic depression has rekindled debates over the historical causes and institutional forms which have characterized this phase of capitalist evolution. In other words, to what extent have the neoliberal policies pursued by most OECD countries over the past 30 years contributed to the emergence of this finance-led regime of accumulation? More specifically, what are the implications of the extraordinary build-up of private debt, which has financed private consumption and fuelled successive asset price and stock market euphoric bubbles over this period? At the same time, the problem of growing global imbalances between the surplus countries/regions and the deficit countries/regions has emerged as a major source of financial instability. It will be proposed that the breakdown of the mechanisms, which have supported the dynamics of financialization, have set the stage for the current global capitalist crisis. JEL codes: B5, B14, B16, B23

The Reproduction of Neoliberalism and the Global Capitalist Crisis

The paper attempts to contribute to a critical reading of contemporary global political economy. It provides an analysis through an empirical exposition of the latent and manifest ways neoliberalism is being reproduced institutionally and relationally despite and because of the ongoing global capitalist crisis. To this end, three interrelated themes are highlighted here: first, the constitutive role and functional character of crises in the evolution of capitalism and the reproduction of its current neoliberal configuration; second, the continuity of long-held ideas of groups ranging from multilateral organizations to global justice movements – hence, the absence of relatively new perspectives – as evident in their respective policy prescriptions and crisis responses that effectively perpetuate the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism; and third, the emergence of the political-economic regime of authoritarian liberalism in East and Southeast Asia as a perceptible consequence of the intensifying crisis.

Revolutionary Terror from Robespierre to Mao

The essay analyzes revolutionary terror apropos of two exemplary cases: the Jacobin phase of the French Revolution and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In both cases, terror should be dismissed not as a mass crime but as a failed articulation of the radical emancipatory will. Our task is to imagine how this radical emancipatory will can be given a new expression in the forthcoming crisis of global capitalism.

Krieg gegen einen Integrationsunwilligen?

The article contextualizes the current NATO intervention into the Libyan civil war in the debates about the new imperialism and the crisis of global capitalism. It poses the question as to whether it can be interpreted as an act of militarily locking up an oil state which is immune to IMF/World Bank types of structural adjustment. Based on an analysis of the political economy of Libya from decolonization to the contemporary Gadhafi regime, it argues that the integration of Libya into the world order of global capitalism had already occurred as an act of free will. Therefore other reasons must have led to the hesitant decision to go to war. Denouncing the idea of humanitarian interventions, the article argues that in the context of the global crisis mainly three goals are being pursued: Guaranteeing the free flow of cheap oil; reestablishing control over a geopolitically essential region that as a result of the toppling of friendly dictators has been at the verge of slipping away; and reconstructing the indispensable ideology of „humanitarian interventions“ after their seeming demise in the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Black Women's Studies: From Theory to Transformative Practice

The current period of global capitalist crisis presents daunting challenges for struggles against transnational capital, white supremacy, and global heteropatriarchy.1 A complex theoretical and pra...

Beyond Global Summitry: Food Sovereignty as Localized Resistance to Globalization

Recently there has been a marked shift reflecting increased theoretical interest and political practices embracing strategies of localism or relocalization against neoliberal globalization. Specifically, individuals, farmers, and communities embracing the framework of food sovereignty have increasingly adopted localism tactics in response to the globalization of food systems, the corporate agribusiness model, and attendant food crises. The spread of the food sovereignty concept from the global peasants' movement Vía Campesina to locales as diverse as industrial France and the rural state of Vermont in the United States demonstrates the way in which food sovereignty has been appropriated in different international settings. Additionally, the turn toward localism merits further scrutiny as a reflection of an unsettling of forms of collective resistance at a moment of structural crisis in global capitalism. Localism as an alter-globalization tactic is still overshadowed by protest summitry and large-scale mobilizations, when small-scale micro-encounters arguably are part of a growing, broader, and more nuanced process of transnational diffusion of resistances, struggles, and reformulations over sovereignty at multiple political and social scales. Recientemente ha habido un cambio que se refleja en el incremento de un interés teórico y prácticas políticas, que incluyen estrategias de localismo o relocalización contra la globalización neoliberal. Como táctica de respuesta a los sistemas de globalización alimentaria, a los modelos agroindustriales corporativos, y a las crisis alimentarias, los individuos, agricultores y comunidades responden abogando por la soberanía alimentaria, adoptando mecanismos locales. La propagación del concepto de soberanía alimentaria que parte de movimientos globales de campesinos ‘Vía Campesina’, en lugares tan diferentes como la Francia industrial y el estado rural de Vermont en los Estados Unidos, demuestra la manera como la soberanía alimentaria se ha apropiado de diferentes ámbitos internacionales. Además, el giro hacia el localismo merece un estudio más detallado, como reflejo de formas inquietantes de resistencia colectiva, en un momento de crisis estructural del capitalismo global. El localismo como una táctica alterna a la globalización, está todavía opacado por las protestas de las cumbres y las movilizaciones a gran escala, sin embargo los micro-encuentros son sin duda, parte de un proceso creciente, más amplio y con más matices, de la difusión trasnacional de las resistencias, los conflictos y la reformulación de la soberanía, a múltiples escalas políticas y sociales. 最近有一个明显的转向，反映出以地方主义或再地方化抵制新自由主义全球化的理论兴趣和政治实践在增长。具体来说，拥护粮食主权的个人、农民和社群越来越多地采用地方化策略来应对粮食体系全球化、公司化农业经营模式化和随之而来的粮食危机等。从全球性农民运动“农民之路”到地方如工业化的法国和美国农业州佛蒙特，粮食主权这一概念广泛传播，表明其已在不同国际场合被认可。此外，在全球资本主义发生结构性危机之时，这一本土化转向作为未成形的集体抵制的一种反映，值得进一步研究。地方化作为改造全球化运动的一种策略，其作用仍然被抗议峰会和大规模群众运动所掩盖，而小规模微观层面的抵抗是正在进行中的更广泛和细微的、在诸多政治和社会层面对主权进行抵制、斗争和重建的跨国扩散过程的一部分。