During 2008-2009, the world experienced its worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The crisis followed the effects of the food and fuel price hikes in 2007 and 2008. In 2009, global output contracted by 2 per cent. This 2011 Report on the World Social Situation reviews the ongoing adverse social consequences of these crises after an overview of its causes and transmission.
Global crises not only deeply impact the economy and people's livelihoods, they also unsettle basic ideas and assumptions about the meaning and drivers of development. This collection of theoretical and empirical studies explores the substance and politics of policy change following the 2007/8 crisis from the perspective of developing countries.
'Crisis in the Global Economy' reflects on the state of global capitalism, developed in the mobile 'multiversity' of the UniNomade network of international researchers and activists during the months immediately following the first signals of the current financial and economic crisis.
This groundbreaking collection on global leadership features innovative and critical perspectives by scholars from international relations, political economy, medicine, law and philosophy, from North and South. The book's novel theorization of global leadership is situated historically within the classics of modern political theory and sociology, relating it to the crisis of global capitalism today. Contributors reflect on the multiple political, economic, social, ecological and ethical crises that constitute our current global predicament. The book suggests that there is an overarching condition of global organic crisis, which shapes the political and organizational responses of the dominant global leadership and of various subaltern forces. Contributors argue that to meaningfully address the challenges of the global crisis will require far more effective, inclusive and legitimate forms of global leadership and global governance than have characterized the neoliberal era.
The global financial and economic crises have had a devastating impact on economic and social rights. These rights were ignored by economic policy makers prior to the crises and continue to be disregarded in the current 'age of austerity'. This is the first book to focus squarely on the interrelationship between contemporary and historic economic and financial crises, the responses thereto, and the resulting impact upon economic and social rights. Chapters examine the obligations imposed by such rights in terms of domestic and supranational crisis-related policy and law, and argue for a response to the crises that integrates these human rights considerations. The expert international contributors, both academics and practitioners, are drawn from a range of disciplines including law, economics, development and political science. The collection is thus uniquely placed to address debates and developments from a range of disciplinary, geographical and professional perspectives.
There is no precedent to the current economic crisis which looks set to redefine social policy debate throughout the globe. But its effects are not uniform across nations. Bringing together a range of expert contributions, the key lesson to emerge from this book is that 'the crisis' is better understood as a variety of crises, each mediated by national context. Consequently, there is an array of potential trajectories for welfare systems, from those where social policy is regarded as incompatible with the post-crisis economy to those where it is considered essential to future economic growth and security.
The acclaimed historian demonstrates a link between climate change and social unrest across the globe during the mid-17th century. Revolutions, droughts, famines, invasions, wars, regicides, government collapses—the calamities of the mid-seventeenth century were unprecedented in both frequency and severity. The effects of what historians call the "General Crisis" extended from England to Japan and from the Russian Empire to sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas. In this meticulously researched volume, historian Geoffrey Parker presents the firsthand testimony of men and women who experienced the many political, economic, and social crises that occurred between 1618 to the late 1680s. He also incorporates the scientific evidence of climate change during this period into the narrative, offering a strikingly new understanding of the General Crisis. Changes in weather patterns, especially longer winters and cooler and wetter summers, disrupted growing seasons and destroyed harvests. This in turn brought hunger, malnutrition, and disease; and as material conditions worsened, wars, rebellions, and revolutions rocked the world.
This is the first book to provide a comprehensive and systematic assessment of the impact of the crisis and austerity policies on all elements of the European Social Model. This book assesses the situation in each individual EU member state on the basi
This special issue examines the global economic crisis in systemic terms that encompass economic, social, and cultural dimensions of contemporary life. The essays analyze not only the nature of the crisis but also the possibilities of transformative action. One contributor evaluates the historical structural causes of the contemporary crisis to propose future tactics for the Left in promoting egalitarian and locally autonomous and self-sufficient economic practices. Another explores crises in the global pharmaceutical industry, particularly in India and the United States, and the inherent structures of global capital and biocapital through which health itself becomes a source of capitalistic value. Another essay reads the current credit crisis as a way to illuminate how deeply financial markets are embedded in the social fabric of work, ritual, and play and how the persistent failure to regulate market rule has led to an endless cycle of crisis-induced and crisis-inducing restructuring of policy. Together, the essays reinvigorate the study of global and long-term historical processes and structures. In this issue's special topical section, "Against the Day," edited by Priyamvada Gopal, contributors analyze the current assault on higher education in Great Britain, including dramatic budget cuts and tuition increases, the resultant student protest movements, and the future of the humanities. Contributors: Giovanni Arrighi, Gurminder Bhambra, Neil Brenner, Duncan K. Foley, Priyamvada Gopal, Michael Hardt, Gary Herrigel, John Holmwood, Simon Jarvis, Benjamin Lee, Edward LiPuma, Claudio Lomnitz, Jamie Peck, Moishe Postone, Nina Power, Kaushik Sunder Rajan, Beverly Silver, Nik Theodore, Immanuel Wallerstein Moishe Postone is Professor of History at the University of Chicago.
This book brings together qualitative studies conducted during 2008-11 in communities in sixteen countries, with eight case studies that illustrate how people in specific localities were impacted by global shocks and what coping mechanisms they used.
