Search

Over the past several centuries, the West has emerged as a global leader economically, militarily, scientifically and technologically. This article explores why it has been so successful in the past in order to determine where its strengths lie at a time when the West's advantage is melting away. This article will argue that the West was the only civilisation that took advantage of the communications revolution involving cheap paper and the printing press in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and could do so because of its values and ethics. Compared to other parts of the world, the West offered more freedom to its peoples, and its societies were the most vertically mobile. This is an important lesson for today when we are in the midst of the digital and Internet communications revolution and another wave of globalisation, and when the whole world seems to be adopting Western values. It is important not to forget where these values originated.

The 23rd AIRAANZ conference, which was held in Newcastle, Australia in February 2009 had, as its theme, ‘Labour, Capital and Change’. The theme drew on the contention that, under pressures such as neo-liberalism, globalization, the reassertion of managerial power and the rise of individualism, the traditional vital signs of industrial relations, particularly as measured by the levels of union density and collective bargaining, have declined in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Nevertheless, despite these views and forces, how the rules over work are made, interpreted and enforced still sit at the kernel of most peoples’ lives. A number of tracks were incorporated in the call for papers. These included

Blowers, A., and Evans, B. (eds) 1997 TOWN PLANNING INTO THE 21ST CENTURY London: Routledge, £15.99 paper. Boddy, M., Lambert, C. and Snape, D. 1997: CITY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY? GLOBALISATION, PLANNING AND URBAN CHANGE IN CONTEMPORARY BRITAIN Bristol: The Polity Press, £16.95 paper.

This short paper considers ‘maritime history’ as a sub-discipline of history. It examines its origins and defines maritime history as the study of humankind’s relationship with the sea. It reviews that relationship and stresses the economic dimension and the need for an understanding of the business of shipping. The relevance of maritime history is examined in the contexts of the world today and historiography. In the former, the paper views the maritime dimension as crucial. On the historiographical aspect the concept of globalisation is considered in terms of a process and an outcome. In both cases, an understanding of maritime history is seen as vital.

We are delighted to introduce this special issue of Policy Futures in Education, which began when we were working together with our friend and colleague Professor Jiang Xaioping (Isadora) in Guangzhou in March 2010, setting up the Centre for Intercultural Education and Dialogue at Guangzhou University in the People’s Republic of China. Professor Jiang is Associate Dean of the School of Foreign Studies at Guangzhou University and Director of the new centre. We reviewed the way Europe has been handling interculturalism, diversity and globalization, and decided to call for papers for this special issue focusing on the Council of Europe’s (2008) White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue: ‘living together as equals in dignity’. We asked contributors to provide papers that either directly responded to the White Paper or indirectly picked up issues and concerns around the notion of ‘intercultural dialogue’ as formulated in the White Paper. With many people responding, we have been able to select an impressive and wide range of papers to highlight both of these aspects in a diverse set of articles that includes discussions about interculturalism and dialogue within Europe and in the wider world.

This short paper provides an overview of the challenges that pharmaceutical marketers face in a market that is undergoing enormous global change.

In times of globalisation of higher education, alternative theoretical and methodological approaches were introduced in the field of comparative higher education research. To stimulate the debate on this issue, this paper firstly addresses them theoretically by combining the concept of institutional isomorphism and the ‘glonacal’ analytical heuristic. On this basis, it discusses arguments in favour of convergence and diversity from the perspective of the internationalisation of higher education and also points to the limits of institutional isomorphism resulting from ‘glonacal’ influences of agencies and agency on the development of (internationalisation of) higher education. Secondly, the paper also draws attention to the influence of globalisation on the selection of methodology in comparative higher education research by exposing the limits of methodological nationalism. Along these lines, it portrays the reversed pyramid model of different horizontal and vertical levels of comparisons with which it establishes the (missing) link between the selected theoretical and methodological framework of comparative (higher education) research. In conclusion, it acknowledges the need to integrate the contextual element into the comparative framework which allows thorough analysis of complex relationships between globalisation and higher education both theoretically and methodologically.

Contemporary tax research is split into two camps: comparative approaches emphasize continuity and cross-country differences, while the globalization literature stresses similar changes across countries. Counter the continuity thesis, this paper finds that neoliberal dynamics were at play in a case considered largely resilient to such dynamics: German governments implemented a series of corporate tax reforms which radically curbed business taxes and added a short-term and cost-cutting component to investments and corporate finance. While these changes point towards neoliberal change, they were distinct from the trends we see in other economies: crucially, the German reforms did not follow the common trend of reducing taxes for individuals and entailed a particular emphasis on enhancing multinational’s access to international capital – but did not liberate financial incomes from tax in general. Based on archival documents from the Bundestagsarchiv, this paper traces the process of German tax reforms and finds that neoliberal dynamics were at play but received a local (export-oriented) colour through processes specific to the German polity. Because consensual institutions granted power to a specific business coalition, radical change was long blocked. Reforms could only be implemented once the state forged a new coalition. Making sense of the mediation of neoliberal dynamics through state institutions can contribute to a better understanding of the variegated nature of neoliberalism.

The minimalist, atomistic classical liberal definition of markets is dominant in the global political economy literature, if often implicitly so. But major shifts are occurring in the 21st century, including China’s rise, which highlight the deficiencies of this definition and challenge us to develop fresh tools to conceptualize global markets. There are three ways in which China’s emergence challenges established market conceptualizations: the continued resilience of China’s authoritarian state-led capitalist economic model, China’s positioning around notions of power and fairness in the global economy, and China’s mixed preferences regarding global markets. The study of China’s rise, far from only impressing upon us how different China is, shines a light on dynamics that are prevalent everywhere, yet suffer from a lack of attention. This paper argues that the political economy literature is limiting the development of richer conceptualizations of the market because it operates within three conceptual ‘straitjackets’: the notion of the pure market as ideal- type, the state-market dichotomy and the notion of a sequential progression towards a market economy. The fact that markets are an underdefined concept deprives us of useful tools for elucidating important questions about markets in the global economy and limits our capacity to evaluate China’s impact on global markets. Drawing from diverse literatures, from comparative politics, to classical political economy and economic sociology, this paper develops an institutionally grounded set of tools, including a list of characteristics and a typology, to define, evaluate and compare markets, and inspire others to contribute to the endeavour.

This paper examines whether localized trade shocks from China influence Brazilians’ views on integration with the country. We test the following hypotheses: (1) as trade shocks are localized, views on trade should form at the local, rather than at the individual level, and (2) as localized trade shocks affect both workers and companies in a same region, they should also influence legislators’ views on China. Our analyses find support for both claims, but only among losers from Chinese trade. Residents and legislators from localities hurt by import shocks tend to hold negative views about economic ties with China, whereas neither residents nor legislators from localities benefitted by export shocks exhibit more positive views about the country. Our paper contributes to the literature on the politics of trade by incorporating meso-level theories of trade preference formation and by establishing the conditions under which the interests of constituencies should shape legislators’ views on international trade.

This paper serves as an introduction to the special section on Global Culture Revisited which commemorates the 30th anniversary of the publication of the 1990 Global Culture special issue. It examines the development of interest in the various strands of globalization and the question of whether there can be a global culture. The paper discusses the emergence of alternative global histories and the problematization of global knowledge. It examines the view that the current Covid-19 pandemic signals a turning point, or change of epoch, that marks the end of peak globalization (Gray, Mignolo). The paper also discusses the view that global was always a limited cartographic term which failed to adequately grasp our terrestrial location on the earth (Latour). Currently, there is considerable speculation about the emergent politics of a new world order, with civilizational states set alongside nation-states, opening up an epoch of greater pluriversality, and at the same time greater uncertainty.

The advent of online matrimony ushered in a new era of matchmaking in the wake of globalisation. This paper aims to examine the impact of globalisation on Hindu–Bengali matrimony. The study attempts to find out the impact of online matrimony on marriages in Kolkata. On the basis of personal interviews and content analysis of advertisements in newspapers and online matrimonial websites, the study shows the impact of globalisation on the institution of marriage. The paper argues that globalisation has not made potential changes in the process of selection of prospective brides and grooms. The newspapers and online portals function as the twin matchmakers in contemporary Kolkata, with little difference from the way traditional matchmakers used to work. The paper examines the fate and impact of technology when introduced in deeply entrenched traditional social institutions. The increase in the pool of selection of mates has reinforced patriarchal ties with globalisation adjusting itself in a tradition-bound society, putting tradition and technology in a curious and cumbersome paradox.