Doing Globalisation

Abstract

Globalisation — via both trade and private investment (i.e. market or private-capital/trade-led globalisation) and via public investment in the form of aid (i.e. non-market or public capital-led globalisation) — has re-emerged as a major area of contention. Amongst scholars, international trade, investment and aid have produced perhaps tens of thousands of journal articles, books and conference papers. Furthermore, it has triggered large-scale demonstrations, not only at international meetings in the North (Seattle, Prague and Genoa) but also, a surprising number of smaller-scale protests, dubbed ‘IMF-riots’ in the South (see WDM, 2003). Globalisation has numerous interactions with the EPICs perhaps most notably with market EPICs (the rise of China et at, as both donors and private investors) but also with demography and migration (via remittances and urbanisation for example), and also with technology EPICs (the expansion of information and communication technologies in particular).

These are conclusions which are based on evidence, a careful look at the evidence, and particularly the evidence of the last 20 years. It’s very important to emphasize this based on evidence because all too much of the discussion of globalization takes place in a zone which is largely free of evidence. And what we’ve tried to do here is to set out carefully the analysis of what the evidence really tells us (Stern, 2001:1).