Globalisation and its Discontents

BRADLEY BOWDEN Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management, Queenslands's Griffith University PAUL BOWLES Professor of Economics, University of Northern British Columbia, Canada DICK BRYAN Associate Professor of Economics, University of Sydney JAMES BUSUMTWI-SAM Assistant Professor of Political Science, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia MARJORIE GRIFFIN COHEN Professor of Political Science and Women's Studies, Simon Fraser University THEODORE COHN SFU Political Science Professor OSVALDO CROCI Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Canada BRIAN MACLEAN Associate Professor of Economics, Laurentian University JOHN PRICE Lecturer in Japanese, University of Victoria MICHAEL PRINCE Lansdowne Professor of Social Policy, University of Victoria, Canada MICHAEL RAFFERTY Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for Banking and Finance, University of Sotertorn, Stockholm JIM RICE Associate Professor, School of Social Work, McMaster University BOB RUSSELL Professor, University of Saskatchewan, Canada NANDITA SHARMA Sociology and Equity Studies Department, University of Toronto MICHELLE SWENARCHUK Director of International Programmes, Canadian Environmental Law Association GARY TEEPLE Associate Professor of Sociology, Simon Fraser University JOHN WATTS Department of Social Science and Planning, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne MICHAEL WEBB Associate Professor, University of Victoria, B.C., Canada

Most analyses of globalization convey the message that it is an unstoppable force sweeping away national sovereignty and inevitably creating a brave new world of borderless and boundless consumerism. In such a context politics and democracy become irrelevant. Even though the economic context has changed, politics still matters.Most analyses of globalization convey the message that it is an unstoppable force sweeping away national sovereignty and inevitably creating a brave new world of borderless and boundless consumerism. In such a context politics and democracy become irrelevant. This collection of essays develops a more critical and grounded analysis of the nature and implications of globalization. Many of the contributions to this book conclude that there are real political choices to be made. Even though the economic context has changed, politics still matters.