Beschreibung
Globalization is a forceful phenomenon. It is also a buzzword. What is the
systematic relationship between experts’ models and the way globalization
reshapes economy and society? How do paradigmatic statements such as the
Washington Consensus impact on social reality? And how do real-world outcomes
such as the collapse of the Argentine economy change the way we theorize
economic relationships?
Based on fieldwork in the Caribbean and inspired by the work of Thomas
Kuhn and Michel Foucault, the author argues that to understand
globalization, we must analyze material and symbolic factors and their
dialectical interaction simultaneously.
Part one analyzes how economic thinking and policy in Latin America have
evolved historically. To uncover the mechanisms that produce economic
thinking and policy, the author formulates a new social theory:
interpretive political economy. Integrating research in anthropology,
economics, and sociology, he examines four levels of social reality:
meaning structures, discourse, practice, and material conditions.
Part two provides in-depth case studies on Cuba and the Dominican
Republic. What does the rise of economic surveillance mean for globalizing
socialism and neopatrimonial capitalism? Does thinking about social
relations in the language of the market affect these relations in any
systematic way?
Maximilian Martin is a Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at
Harvard University. He is also Head of Research at the Schwab Foundation
for Social Entrepreneurship, Switzerland, and teaches at the University of
Geneva.
