Transnational Class Formation Research Articles

Multi-sited understandings: complicating the role of elite schools in transnational class formation

It has been argued that a transnational elite class is emerging, and that elite schools are ‘choreographing’ this process. This article nuances this developing theoretical framework with empirical data from an economically elite boarding school in Switzerland. It demonstrates that young men and women at this site linked to a global economy whilst refracting geopolitical tensions in their interactions with one another. This draws our attention to the multi-sited understandings that elite young people develop, despite the widespread assumption that in modern globalisation, wealth can break down cultural and juridical borders. This paper thus importantly contributes to an emerging discussion about the possibilities and constraints of transnational class formation at elite schools. In particular, it suggests that different kinds of elite schools may fill different kinds of roles when it comes to such processes.

Why Transnational Class and State? A Response to Ian Taylor

Ian Taylor challenges the concepts of a transnational capitalist class (TCC) and state, suggesting that Poulantzas’s notion of the “internal bourgeoisie” is a better theoretical starting point for the analysis of transnational class formation and that the transnational state (TNS) is a step too far. This critique is not convincing. It is debatable to what extent it is a “Poulantzian reading.” The rejection of the notion of a TCC is unsustainable because of compelling evidence for the existence of such a class with articulated shared interests and organizations tasked with pursuing them. The critique of the TNS has some validity, but largely because proponents of the concept have been insufficiently clear on the consequences of upscaling the state concept to the global level. When this is acknowledged, the relevance and usefulness of the concept is that it enables state theoretical analysis of demonstrably existing TNS apparatuses that perform TNS functions, shaped by transnational relations of power between social forces, involving both structural power and direct engagement in transnational sites of contestation. There are now transnational elements of all fundamental characteristics of the capitalist state except one, the monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. Finally, Taylor does not provide an alternative approach to theorizing what descriptively is known as global governance.

Emerging Asias: Transnational Forces, Developmental States, and “Asian Values”

Discussions of East Asian developmental states and Asian values discourse have been deformed by national-territorial frameworks that limit scholars' ability to highlight transnational phenomena. Such limits can be overcome by adopting a “Pacificist” perspective, one that highlights the transnational collaborative efforts of Pacific ruling class members, from both Asia and the United States. Such a Pacificist approach has the virtue of highlighting phenomena of transnational class formation that help account for the emergence of both developmental states in East Asia and Asian values discourse, and it also suggested the importance of attending to other kinds of emerging actors in Asian development politics, such as labor and democracy movements.

Europe's ordoliberal iron cage: critical political economy, the euro area crisis and its management

ABSTRACTOrthodox integration scholarship failed to identify the factors leading to the euro area (EA) economic and financial crisis because of weaknesses that Horkheimer identified in ‘traditional’ theory: disciplinary splits and a tendency to idealize from particular instrumental perspectives. By contrast, critical political economy offered a plausible and coherent elucidation of the emergent properties and limits of finance-led capitalism and their concrete manifestation in the EA. This contribution both reviews state-of-the-art critical political economy research on the EA crisis and makes a distinct contribution to it. In addressing the puzzle of why not only the Economic and Monetary Union persists despite morbid symptoms but why crisis management is extending and deepening a discredited finance-led capitalism, the contribution synthesizes theories of transnational class formation and inter-state relations, and proposes that Europe is caught in an ordoliberal iron cage.

Transnational Capitalism and Class Formation

Within studies of global capitalism class formation is analyzed from two different viewpoints: network theory and political economy. The principal factor determining the emergence of a transnational capitalist class (TCC) is the relations of production. The questions of how production and labor are organized, and how and by whom value is expropriated are primary and point to a hegemonic and cohesive TCC. Network theory, while helpful in creating a more complex picture, stresses sociological perceptions of class that underestimate transnational class formation.

Rising powers, global capitalism and liberal global governance: A historical materialist account of the BRICs challenge

This article analyses the phenomenon of rising powers from a historical materialist perspective. It (1) elaborates the key concepts of historical structures of world order, state–society complexes and transnational class formation, and (2) applies them to Brazil, Russia, India, China and other so-called ‘rising powers’ to account for the nature and extent of the challenge they pose to the existing institutions of global governance. A double argument is advanced: first, the integration of rising powers into the historical structure of global capitalism has reduced traditional sources of great power conflict, and made rising powers heavily dependent on the existing institutional framework established by the liberal West. This facilitates their integration into the existing governance order. However, within the limits of the existing order, two factors lend a heartland–contender cleavage to the politics of global governance: the rising powers’ relatively more statist, less market-driven forms of state, and their subsequent failure to be integrated into emergent transnational capitalist class structures. Consequently, it is not the global governance order itself, but its most liberal features, that are contested by rising powers. The result is that, in contrast to realist pessimism and liberal optimism, the rise of new powers is leading to a hybrid governance order that is both transnationally integrated and less liberal.

Networks of Cognitive Praxis: Transnational Class Formation from Below?

This article investigates an emergent component of global civil society: transnational alternative policy groups (TAPGs) which in recent decades have generated ideas, both visionary and strategic, for a ‘globalization from below’, which is also a process of transnational class formation. Comparing TAPG-centred networks of cognitive praxis with the broader and more integrated pro-capitalist policy-planning network that is integral to the hegemonic bloc, the study considers whether TAPGs contribute to transnational class formation in ways that are analogous to hegemonic policy groups. Findings support the claim that TAPGs serve as ‘collective intellectuals’ facilitating construction of a counter-hegemonic bloc that transects national borders and poses democratic alternatives to neoliberal globalization. The article briefly considers the challenges TAPGs face in this construction project. Este artículo investiga un componente emergente de la sociedad civil global: los Grupos de Política Alternativa (TAPGs, por sus siglas en inglés), los cuales han generado ideas en las décadas recientes, tanto visionarias como estratégicas, para una ‘globalización desde abajo’, que a su vez, también es un proceso de formación de clase trasnacional. Al comparar las redes centradas en los TPG de práctica cognitiva con la red mucho mayor y más integrada, de política planificada procapitalista, que es integral al bloque hegemónico, el estudio analiza si los TAPGs contribuyen a la formación trasnacional de clase en formas que son análogas a los grupos de política hegemónica. Los resultaos apoyan la afirmación que los TAPGs sirven como ‘intelectuales colectivos’ que facilitan la construcción de un bloque contrahegemónico que corta transversalmente las fronteras nacionales y plantea alternativas democráticas a la globalización neoliberal. El artículo considera abreviadamente los retos que los TAPGs afrontan en este proyecto de construcción. 本文调查全球公民社会的一个新兴的组成部分：跨国的替代性的政策集团 (TAPGs) ，为了“来自下层的全球化”，这个集团在最近几十年已经产生了在远景上和战略上的思想观念。“来自下层的全球化”也是一个跨国的阶级形成过程。本文把以TAPG为中心的认知的实践网络与更加广泛的和更加整合的作为霸权集团的一部分的亲资本主义的政策计划网络相比，本文研究是否TAPGs以与霸权的政策集团相对的方式对跨国阶级的形成做出贡献。我们的研究发现支持这种观点：TAPGs是有助于一个抵制霸权的集团建构的“集体的知识分子”，一个横跨民族国家边界和构成对新自由主义的全球化的民主的替代。本文简要考虑在建构这一项目方面TAPGs面对的挑战。 يبحث المقال مكونًا ناشئًا للمجتمع المدني العالمي يتمثل في: جماعات السياسات البديلة متعدية القوميات، والتي وَلَّدت في السنوات الأخيرة أفكارًا على مستوى الرؤية والاستراتيجية "للعولمة من أسفل"، وهو ما يمثل أيضًا عملية للتشكل الطبقي المتعدي للقوميات. وبالمقارنة بين شبكات الممارسة المعرفية لجماعات السياسات البديلة متعدية القوميات وبين شبكات تخطيط السياسات الموالية للرأسمالية الأكثر اتساعًا واندماجًا في الكتلة المهيمنة، تنظر الدراسة فيما إذا كانت جماعات السياسات البديلة متعدية القوميات تسهم في تشكيل طبقي متعدٍ للقوميات بما يشبه جماعات السياسات المهيمنة. وتدعم نتائج الدراسة القول بأن هذه الجماعات تقوم بدور "المثقفين الجماعيين" الذين يساعدون في بناء كتلة مناهضة للهيمنة تتجاوز الحدود القومية وتطرح بدائل ديمقراطية للعولمة النيوليبرالية. ويناقش المقال باختصار التحديات التي تواجه جماعات السياسات البديلة متعدية القوميات لدى اضطلاعها بمشروع البناء هذا. 이 글은 등장하고 있는 지구적 시민사회의 요소를 분석한다: 가시적으로 또한 전략적으로 최근 십여 년 간 초국적 계급형성 과정인 ‘아래로부터의 세계화’를 위해 새로운 아이디어를 만들어 내고 있는 초국적 대안정책 집단(TAPGs)를 분석한다. TAPG 중심의 인지적 실천 네트워크를 헤게모니 불럭에 핵심적인 더 광범위하고 더 통합된 친 자본가 정책 네트워크와 비교하면서, 헤게모니적인 정책 집단과 유사한 방식으로 초국적 계급 형성에 기여하는지를 살펴본다. 이 연구를 통해서 발견된 것은 TAPG가 신자유주의적 세계화에 대응하여 국경을 넘어 민주적 대안을 제시하는 반헤게모니적 블록의 형성을 촉진시키는 ‘집단 지성’으로 기능한다는 것이다. 이 글은 TAPG가 이러한 프로젝트에서 직면하고 있는 도전을 간단하게 고려한다.

Global Capitalism and Transnational Class Formation

The global capitalism perspective, as it has been called by critics and contributors alike (Arrighi, 2001; Carroll and Sapinski, 2010; Chase-Dunn et al., 2005; Dicken, 2007; Embong, 2000; Harris, 2...

Evidence of a transnational capitalist class‐for‐itself: the determinants of PAC activity among foreign firms in the Global Fortune 500, 2000–2006

AbstractTransnational capitalist class (TCC) theory is rooted in the claim that the globalization of the economy has led to a globalization of economic interests and of class formation. However, systematic evidence linking the indicators of transnational class formation with political behaviour is largely missing. In this article, I combine data on board of director interlocks among the 500 largest business firms in the world between 2000 and 2006 with data on the political donations to US elections of foreign corporations via the corporate political action committees (PACs) of their subsidiaries, divisions or affiliates. Controlling for the various interests of individual firms, I find that foreign firms that are highly central in the transnational intercorporate network contribute more money to US elections than do the less central foreign firms. Given prior research on board of director interlocks, this finding suggests that a segment of the transnational business community has emerged as a class‐for‐itself.

Transnational class formation and spatialities of power: the case of elite competition in Bolivia

AbstractIn this article, I argue that the neoliberal and counter‐neoliberal transitions in Bolivia secured the power of transnational capital within the country. In the 1980s and 1990s, Bolivia's mining elite used neoliberal strategies to undermine the interests of the country's agricultural elite and pursued a marriage of convenience with transnational capital that allowed both to enter state‐monopolized spaces of investment in mutually beneficial ways. In Bolivia's counter‐neoliberal turn, leftist social movements and political parties removed the elite from power but were dependent on transnational firms to help them use the country's natural resource wealth to fund programmes of socioeconomic change. Engaging theories of the transnational class formation, I assert that scholars need to acknowledge how different capitalist class fractions have distinct spatialities of power. In particular, it is necessary to distinguish between global elites that participate in local circuits of accumulation and local elites that participate in global circuits of accumulation.

Transnational Class Formation? Globalization and the Canadian Corporate Network

The issue of transnational class formation has figured centrally in recent debates on globalization. These debates revolve around the question of whether or not new patterns of cross-border trade and investment have established global circuits of capital out of which a transnational capitalist class has emerged. This paper takes up the notion of transnational class formation at the point of corporate directorship interlocks. Using Canada as a case study, it maps the changing network of directorship interlocks between leading firms in Canada and the world economy. In particular, the paper examines the role of transnational corporations (TNCs) in the Canadian corporate network; the resilience of a national corporate community; and new patterns of cross-border interlocking amongst transnational firms. Through this empirical mapping, the paper finds a definite link between investment and interlocking shaping the social space of the global corporate elite. Corporations with a transnational base of accumulation tend to participate in transnational interlocking. While national corporate communities have not been transcended, transnational firms increasingly predominate within them, articulating national with transnational elite segments. This new network of firms reconstitutes the corporate power bloc and forms a nascent transnational capitalist class.

Globalization and Class: A Critical Review on the Theory of Transnational Class Formation

Globalization and Class: A Critical Review on the Theory of Transnational Class Formation

European Integration and the Transnational Restructuring of Social Relations: The Emergence of Labour as a Regional Actor?*

Informed by a neo-Gramscian perspective able to conceptualize transnational class formation, this article assesses whether European trade union organizations have developed into independent supranational actors, or whether they are merely secretariats in charge of organizing the co-operation of their national member associations. The first hypothesis is that those trade unions which organize workers in transnational production sectors, are likely to co-operate at the European level, because they have lost control over capital at the national level. Trade unions, organizing workers in domestic production sectors, may be more reluctant because their sectors still depend on national protection. The second hypothesis is that trade unions are more likely to co-operate at the European level if they perceive such an engagement as furthering their influence on policy-making in comparison with structural possibilities at the national level. Additionally, in line with the critical dimension of neo-Gramscian perspectives, it will be assessed whether European co-operation implies acceptance of neo-liberal economics, or whether unions continue to resist restructuring.

Transnational class formation and concepts of control: towards a genealogy of the Amsterdam Project in international political economy

International political economy (IPE) has been enriched, since the late 1970s, by flourishing numbers of critical approaches. The contributions during the 1980s and 1990s to this literature by some members of the Department of International Relations at the University of Amsterdam occupy a distinct position. This article presents an attempt to construct a genealogy (or perhaps an intellectual autobiography) of what is called in this issue the Amsterdam Project (AP) in IPE. It traces the thinking in the group from the early critique on functionalist, federalist and Marxist explanations of European integration, through the development of the theory of capital fractions and transnational class formation, to the reception of Gramscian approaches. Finally, the article sketches the contours of the AP's distinctive theory of global neo-liberalism and its implicit research agenda for the coming years.

Theorizing the transnational: a historical materialist approach

Although transnational relations is a frequently employed phrase in international relations (IR) since the early debates of the 1970s, the literature in fact still shows surprisingly little theorization of the concept. Seeking to theorize ‘the transnational’ beyond what is currently on offer in mainstream IR discourse, this article argues that the field of transnational relations has in fact much to gain from the insights articulated by the transnationalist perspective elaborated within ‘transnational historical materialism’, and in particular by the ‘Amsterdam Project’ in International Political Economy. After presenting a critical review of what are interpreted as liberal, ahistorical and actor-centred perspectives on transnational relations dominating the mainstream, this article elaborates and builds upon this alternative transnationalist perspective by showing how it is grounded in a historical materialism emphasizing the constitutive power of transnational (economic) structures, while at the same time re-claiming the role of class agency. Briefly sketching on this basis the development of transnational relations in the global political economy, the article examines the theoretical implications of such a historical (materialist) analysis for a theory of transnational relations. Rather than viewing transnational relations as moving us beyond international relations altogether, it is concluded that the question is rather how the former gives content to the latter. Critical here, it is argued, is the process of transnational class formation and the role of capitalist class strategy beyond national borders in restructuring global capitalist social relations.

Approaching the Global Polity

The world is becoming increasingly tightly organised politically and the global polity is emerging as a major research theme. Well defined conceptualisations and theoretical approaches have still to be developed but important contributions and insights are found in theories on regime-formation and institutionalisation, the literature on globalisation, convergence and diversity, neo-Gramscian world order analysis, internationalisation of the state and transnational and trans-governmental relations. The paper discusses main themes in these literatures and identifies promising avenues for further research, among them trans- governmental relations and transnational class-formation. Finally the conceptualisation of the global polity is discussed and a definition suggested. The global polity is defined as the totality of global political structures and processes including non-state actors. It is further specified by three analytical aspects: a set of structured arenas, mechanisms for global policies, and embodiment of relations of power.

The Limits of Industrialization in the Less Developed World: Bolivia

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Limits of Industrialization in the Less Developed World: BoliviaSusan Eckstein and Frances HagopianSusan Eckstein Search for more articles by this author and Frances Hagopian Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 32, Number 1Oct., 1983 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/451372 Views: 13Total views on this site Citations: 6Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1983 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:BRENT Z. KAUP Transnational class formation and spatialities of power: the case of elite competition in Bolivia, Global Networks 13, no.11 (Jul 2012): 101–119.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0374.2012.00367.xMing-Chang Tsai The State's Interest Seeking and Economic Stagnation in the Third World: Cross-National Evidence, The Sociological Quarterly 39, no.11 (Dec 2016): 101–118.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1998.tb02351.xJean-Pierre Lavaud Bibliografía referencial, (Jan 1998): 391–410.https://doi.org/10.4000/books.ifea.3444Ming-Chang Tsai THE STATE'S INTEREST SEEKING AND ECONOMIC STAGNATION IN THE THIRD WORLD:. Cross-National Evidence, The Sociological Quarterly 39, no.11 (Dec 1997): 101–118.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1997.tb02005.xCatherine M. Conaghan Retreat to Democracy: Business and Political Transition in Bolivia and Ecuador, (Jan 1990): 73–90.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11412-2_4Ricardo Godoy Production Strategies of Bolivian Miners: Methodological and Empirical Considerations, Human Organization 46, no.11 (Mar 1987): 48–54.https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.46.1.86r443q51932861l

Capital transnacional y gobernanza energética en la Unión Europea. El caso del gas natural

El principal objetivo de este artículo es analizar la liberalización del sector del gas natural en Europa. En cuanto a la política energética, no podemos considerar a la Unión Europea o sus Estados Miembro como simples agentes del capital. Sin embargo, otorgarles una autonomía según la cual éstos desarrollan sus propios intereses nos situaría en un escenario en el que se minimiza el papel del capital. Así pues, esta investigación sigue el trabajo de la Escuela de Ámsterdam sobre la formación transnacional de clase. Esta aproximación subraya la necesidad de la clase dominante de ejercer una agencia colectiva para reproducir su dominio y asegurar que éste se articula en políticas concretas.