Synopses & Reviews
Globalization has become one of the defining buzzwords of our time--a term that describes a variety of complex economic, political, cultural, ideological, and environmental forces that are rapidly altering our experience of the world. In clear, accessible language, Manfred B. Steger goes beyond a narrow economic focus to cover all the major causes and consequences of globalization as well as the hotly contested question of whether globalization is, ultimately, a good or a bad thing. This new edition has been fully updated, incorporating all the major global developments in the past four years, including the 2008-2010 global financial crisis, the 2011 Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden, the on-going revolutions in the Middle East, and the rise of social networking such as Facebook and Twitter. The book also examines political movements both for and against globalization, from WTO protests to the rise in global jihadism; considers such concepts as "Americanization" and "McDonaldization"; and explores the role of the media and communication technologies in the process of cultural globalization. Finally, Steger explains in accessible language the connection between economic globalization and multinational corporations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization.
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Synopsis
'Globalization' has become one of the defining buzzwords of our time - a term that describes a variety of accelerating economic, political, cultural, ideological, and environmental processes that are rapidly altering our experience of the world. It is by its nature a dynamic topic - and this
Very Short Introduction has been fully updated for a third edition, to include recent developments in global politics, the global economy, and environmental issues.
Presenting globalization in accessible language as a multifaceted process encompassing global, regional, and local aspects of social life, Manfred B. Steger looks at its causes and effects, examines whether it is a new phenomenon, and explores the question of whether, ultimately, globalization is a good or a bad thing.
About the Author
Manfred B. Steger is Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa and Professor of Global Studies at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University). He is also the Research Leader of the Globalization and Culture Program in RMIT's Global Cities Research Institute. He has served as an academic consultant on globalization for the US State Department and as an advisor to the PBS TV series, 'Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism'. He is the author or editor of twenty-one books on globalization and the history of political ideas, including:
The Rise of the Global Imaginary: Political Ideologies from the French Revolution to the Global War on Terror (Oxford University Press, 2008); the award-winning
Globalisms: The Great Ideological Struggle of the 21st Century 3rd ed. (Rowman and Littlefield, 2009) and
Globalization The Greatest Hits: A Global Studies Reader (Paradigm Publishers, 2010).
Table of Contents
Preface to the third edition
Abbreviations
List of illustrations
List of maps
1. Globalization: a contested concept
2. Globalization and history
3. The economic dimension of globalization
4. The political dimension of globalization
5. The cultural dimension of globalization
6. The ecological dimension of globalization
7. Ideologies of globalization
8. Global crises and the future of globalization
References
Index