Globalization & Economy

The concept of 'globalization' has in an extraordinarily short time become the dominant motif of the contemporary social sciences. "Central Currents in Globalization" is an integrated collection of four multi-volume sets that represent the systematic mapping of globalization studies. The series sets out the contours of a field that now crosses the boundaries of all the older disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. The result is a gold-standard collection of over 320 of the most important writings on globalization, structured around four interrelated themes: Violence; Economy; Culture; and Politics. The series editor, Paul James (RMIT, Australia), is joined by sixteen internationally-renowned co-editors from around the globe who bring their subject expertise to each volume, including Jonathan Friedman, Tom Nairn, R.R. Sharma, Manfred Steger, Ronen Palan and Micheline Ishay. Together, the four sets provide an unparalleled resource on globalization, providing both broad coverage of the subject, historical depth and contemporary relevance. "Set 2: Globalization and Economy" is edited by Paul James, with Barry Gills, Heikki Patomaki, Ronen Palan and Robert O'Brien. "Volume 1: Global Markets and Capitalism" (with Barry Gills, University of Newcastle) examines the relationship between global trade, commodity relations and economic development and covers mainstream takes on economic globalization as well as the two major radical approaches to global markets, world systems theory and dependency theory. "Volume 2: Global Finance and the New Global Economy" (with Heikki Patomaki, Helsinki University) focuses on globalization and money, finance and taxation, linking it to the new form of knowledge-based economies. "Volume 3: Global Economic Institutions" (with Ronen Palan, University of Sussex) examines the global institutions and forums of economic governance-the WTO, the World Bank, the IMF, and the World Economic Forum. "Volume 4: Globalizing Labour and Global Class" (with Robert O'Brien, McMaster University) considers the changing nature of class and labour from the nineteenth century to the present, including the rise of a global labour movement. Each volume is introduced by a contextualizing essay written by Paul James and the co-editor.