Globalization and the Postcolonial World: The New Political Economy of Development

by Ankie M.M. Hoogvelt

Globalization is at the heart of debates about the present phase of development of the world economy. In Globalization and the Postcolonial World, Ankie Hoogvelt joins these debates to examine the ways in which globalization is affecting the countries of the developing world. Taking a new look at historical trends and theories in development studies, Hoogvelt places special emphasis on emerging global forms of production, exchange, and governance. She describes the diverse impacts of globalization in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, East Asia, and Latin America, identifying different postcolonial responses in each of these regions. Hoogvelt concludes that today the social logic of globalization drives the economics of globalization--in contrast to the past, in which economic forces stimulated the integration of human societies across international borders. Globalization, she concludes, has created a new architecture of core-periphery relations in the world economy, in which social divisions replace geographic divisions and in which the politics of exclusion replace the politics of incorporation characteristic of previous phases of capitalist expansion.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Lark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a very broad overview of the economics of globalization, beginning with its earliest history, and it struggles to make the economic circumstances of each epoch fit into a coherent economic analysis (Marxian, etc, etc) . As such, the book's strengths do not lie in the particulars of each economic region or their historical differences.

There is one rather glaring misprint--re: the deathdate of the Prophet Mohammed, which calls into question the validity of the rest of the book's analysis of Islam (ie, hers is most likely not the most accurate available re: the distinction between Sunni vs Shia Muslims). Hoogvelt's observation that before 1955, 95% of published manuscripts about Islam were written by Westerners is an interesting indication of how much the West "didn't know that it didn't know" about Islam. Hoogvelt describes the Middle East's closed economy beginning with the way it was partitioned into countries most expedient for extracting oil (large oil supply with few people, neglible oil supply with many people). I suspect that a much more detailed economy history of the region is available elsewhere that might make at least some of Hoogevelt's theses irrelevant if not outright false.

The book was published in 2001, which makes its analysis of the difference between the "real" economy and the "imaginary" one (ie, derivatives and other very creative financial instruments designed to erase risk for the ruling class) seem prescient. She does not go into detail about the consequences if such a system were to crash (except as they would affect First World investors), but she does point out that such a system is pre-destined to collapse. She was not alone in her analysis.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I prefer primary sources. This is a pretty watered-down, simplified to the point of a little misleading, and definitely leftist text. Having read enough economics, it's pretty easy to spot the difference between someone with an ideological perspective and someone with a political agenda. Like many books of it's kind, it comes across as laziness, as if the authors took the time to cite sources, instead of relying of rhetoric and biased info, they could get the point across in a more substantial way.