Capitalism and the third world

Peter C. Lloyd, Classes, Crises and Coups: Themes in the Sociology of Developing Countries, MacGibbon and Kee, London, 1971, pp. 224, $8.65.     

Commentary: Martians and Venutians in the new world order

One of the most significant results of 9/11 has been to provoke the most serious crisis in the transatlantic relationship—the subject of Robert Kagan's influential and provocative treatise. Lauded by some as one of the more important contributions to the study of world politics in recent years and attacked by others as possibly the most misguided analysis of European—American relations ever, Kagan sets forth in stark, realist terms why the rift is serious, long-term and unlikely to be overcome by neat diplomatic footwork. However, as this commentary seeks to show, if Kagan is right there is little chance of constructing anything like a 'new world order'. Moreover, if the clash continues, far from enhancing American power in the world, it is more likely to weaken it.     

Financial order and world politics: crisis, change and continuity

Many insist that the world economy today is in the grip of the most severe financial crisis since 1931. Although the origins of this crisis are in dispute, the extent and scale of the changes prompted by it are becoming clear. Among these changes are a recalibration of the relationship between public and private authority, a reconfiguration of the regulatory responsibilities and capacities of the state with respect to the financial system, and a rebalancing of relations of power among states. While the financial crisis has generated points of stress along all of these axes of change, we should be wary of expecting an entirely new global financial order to emerge from the carnage. The complex links between financial order and world politics suggest that this financial crisis will result in an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary transformation in the world's financial order.     

The Gulf war and the new world order: Economic dimensions of a problematic relationship

This paper investigates the durability of the economic underpinnings of the ‘new world order’ allegedly conceived in the Gulf war. Four substantive arguments are advanced: that the mechanism for allied burden‐sharing born in the Gulf war is inferior to its antecedents and inherently more political; that the historically acute economic vulnerability of America's allies to higher oil prices no longer exists; that the prospects for stable and low oil prices through the long run have not been enhanced; and that significant political opportunities for stability in the oil market are evaporating.     

帝国风化与世界秩序--清代海外竹枝词所见中国人的世界观

从先秦时代起,对外部世界的想象一直主导中国人的世界秩序观,于是产生了诸多构想殊方世界的文字作品.这些作品,一方面反映了中国人渴望新知的倾向,另一方面却集中体现了"华夏中心论"和"文化中心主义"的传统偏见.这样的观念,至迟到晚清依然没有改变,当时人所作的诸多海外竹枝词,就是一个绝好例证,它们往往是带着这种观念写成,其笔下流露的依然多是想象的成分而非真实.从分析海外竹枝词入手,重新检讨中国世界秩序观从古代向近代转型的问题,于今日顺应世界一体化的潮流极富意义.     

约曼与英国资本主义启动

农业是英国资本主义的基础,约曼又是农业资本主义的发动者、农村社会的“脊梁”。在英国农业资本主义发生的时候,约曼是先行者。“约曼”经历了由一个带有荣誉感的职业名词向具有经济与社会含义的名词的转变;约曼阶层经历了由采邑制度下的农民向资本主义农场主的演进。约曼是社会转型时期英国农村的精英群体,对经济、政治、教育文化、日常生活等方面都产生了重大而深远的影响,为英国率先成为第一个工业化国家提供了最初的、最基本的经济力量和政治力量,是英国资本主义的启动者。     

Vagabond Capitalism and the Necessity of Social Reproduction

A vagabond, as is well known, moves from place to place without a fixed home. However, vagabondage insinuates a little dissolution—an unsettled, irresponsible, and disreputable life, which indeed can be said of the globalization of capitalist production. This paper reframes the discussion on globalization through a materialist focus on social reproduction. By looking at the material social practices through which people reproduce themselves on a daily and generational basis and through which the social relations and material bases of capitalism are renewed—and the havoc wreaked on them by a putatively placeless capitalism—we can better expose both the costs of globalization and the connections between vastly different sites of production. Focusing on social reproduction allows us to address questions of the making, maintenance, and exploitation of a fluidly differentiated labor force, the productions (and destructions) of nature, and the means to create alternative geographies of opposition to globalized capitalism. I will draw on examples from the “First” and “Third Worlds” to argue that any politics that effectively counters capitalism's global imperative must confront the shifts in social reproduction that have accompanied and enabled it. Looking at the political‐economic, political‐ecological, and cultural aspects of social reproduction, I argue that there has been a rescaling of childhood and suggest a practical response that focuses on specific geographies of social reproduction. Reconnecting these geographies with those of production, both translocally and across geographic scale, begins to redress the losses suffered in the realm of social reproduction as a result of globalized capitalist production. The paper develops the notion of “topography” as a means of examining the intersecting effects and material consequences of globalized capitalist production. “Topography” offers a political logic that both recognizes the materiality of cultural and social difference and can help mobilize transnational and internationalist solidarities to counter the imperatives of globalization.     

Capitalism,Nationalism and the New American Empire

This article draws on Pareto's theory of elites to explore the relationship between American capitalism and American nationalism, and to connect the invasion of Iraq to classical theories of imperialism. Globalisation has changed the structure of the American economy and promoted interests that have an increased stake in free trade. Neither these interests nor the oil companies advocated intervention in Iraq. Globalisation also accelerated the decline of older industries that were inclined to be protectionist, but these were not prominent advocates of the invasion either. Winners and losers, however, were both deeply affected by the wider consequences of rapid economic change, which generated uncertainty about the direction society was taking and concern about its moral foundations. These anxieties prepared the way for a conservative revival based on family, faith and flag that enabled the neo-conservatives to transform conservative patriotism into assertive nationalism after 9/11. In the short term, the invasion of Iraq was a manifestation of national unity. Placed in a longer perspective, it reveals a growing divergence between new globalised interests, which rely on cross-border negotiation, and insular nationalist interests, which seek to rebuild fortress America.     

教会经济伦理与资本主义兴起

基督教与资本主义兴起的关系,长期以来是西方学术界激扬字的焦点。韦伯的名《新教伦理与资本主义精神》关于新教伦理产生资本主义的观点尽管遭到种种非议与驳斥,但论战双方对天主教伦理社会功能的评判是一致的,都认为宗教改革以前的基督教教诲基本还是反     

深刻认识当代资本主义的本质

<资本论>和<帝国主义论>过去都读过,而且很认真地读过,但是很多年没有重新再读了.这次西方经济出了这么大问题,发生了金融危机,我感到重新读这两本书确实可以有新的认识.这次西方金融危机从美国次贷危机开始,现在已经演变成为经济危机.下一步如果继续发展,可能演变成为资本主义制度的全面危机,包括经济、政治、文化、思想各方面的危机.目前危机尚未见底,我们要观察它的发展.现在我主要讲三点感想和意见.