Latin America and Global Capitalism
A Critical Globalization Perspective
Winner, 2009 Book Prize, International Political Economy Group of the British International Studies Association
This ambitious volume chronicles and analyzes from a critical globalization perspective the social, economic, and political changes sweeping across Latin America from the 1970s through the present day. Sociologist William I. Robinson summarizes his theory of globalization and discusses how Latin America's political economy has changed as the states integrate into the new global production and financial system, focusing specifically on the rise of nontraditional agricultural exports, the explosion of maquiladoras, transnational tourism, and the export of labor and the import of remittances. He follows with an overview of the clash among global capitalist forces, neoliberalism, and the new left in Latin America, looking closely at the challenges and dilemmas resistance movements face and their prospects for success.
Through three case studies -- the struggles of the region's indigenous peoples, the immigrants rights movement in the United States, and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela -- Robinson documents and explains the causes of regional socio—political tensions, provides a theoretical framework for understanding the present turbulence, and suggests possible outcomes to the conflicts.
Based on years of fieldwork and empirical research, this study elucidates the tensions that globalization has created and shows why Latin America is a battleground for those seeking to shape the twenty—first century's world order.
"William I. Robinson has delivered us a powerful statement on contemporary Latin America as both a product of globalization and a challenge to the view that 'there is no alternative.' This is a wide ranging political economy which is both well researched and eminently readable. A must!" -- Ronaldo Munck, author of Contemporary Latin America
"Building on his pathbreaking work on emerging transnational states, classes, and relations of production, William Robinson reveals the deepening, overlapping, and ultimately unsustainable global crises of legitimacy, overaccumulation, and polarization. Robinson argues with great analytical lucidity that Latin America's current 'left turn,' more than a manifestation of turbulence, is a struggle over the shape of the new world to come." -- Greg Grandin, author of Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism
"Robinson's book is a model for critical globalization studies -- empirically grounded and theoretically sophisticated. He shows us how Latin America is on the frontlines in the struggle to determine what will succeed the neoliberal paradigm of the capitalist global order." -- Michael Hardt, coauthor of Empire and Multitude
William I. Robinson is a professor of sociology, global studies, and Latin American and Iberian studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of several books on globalization, including A Theory of Global Capitalism, also published by Johns Hopkins.Related Links:
William i. Robinson's website
Related Books:
A Theory of Global Capitalism: Production, Class, and State in a Transnational World
William I. Robinson
