The expansion of capitalism and neoliberal ideologies have delivered economic integration between countries and brought global inter-connectedness to individuals. So why do so many people now feel ...that they are 'citizens of nowhere', disparaged by the 'cosmopolitan elites'? Has democracy and the power of nation states been irredeemably weakened by unfettered global finance, opaque forms of global governance, and the power of transnational corporations? Can the huge rise in social and economic inequality be reversed? Can diverse cultural expression be maintained in a globalizing world? In the context of the current nationalist backlash and the momentous impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, this thought-provoking volume considers whether globalization is dead or whether it will survive, and perhaps transform. Written in a clear and engaging style, the volume traces the development of economic globalization starting from the first wave of colonialization in the 15th century, through the first period of globalization at the end of the 19th century, and up to the contemporary period of globalization that started in the 1980s and appears today to be teetering on the brink of collapse. It explores the impacts of globalization on today's world, from global supply chains and tax havens to rising economic inequality, climate change and pandemics, and assesses the different impacts on rich and poor countries, and on the rich and poor within countries. It then reviews the growing anti-globalization sentiment, starting from the anti-IMF protests that raged through developing countries in the 1980s and 1990s, to the emergence of the transnational anti-globalization movement of the 2000s, to more recent uprisings such as the Arab Spring, The Occupy Movement, the Gilets Jaunes, and to the current populist nationalist backlash led by President Trump and embodied in the 2016 Brexit vote. Sensing that globalization has reached a tipping point, the book considers a range of possible scenarios for the future world order, including nationalism, authoritarianism and democratic globalism. Finally, it explores whether globalization can be democratized in a world in which effective and inclusive global governance is crucial to solving global problems, such as tackling climate change, controlling global pandemics and upholding universal human rights.
This paper moves forward the debate about continuity and rupture in Christian change by approaching it as an empirical rather than theoretical question and interrogating it using a broad comparative ...method. It argues firstly that different forms of Christianity – Orthodox, Catholic, mainline Protestant and Pentecostal – have cultural logics which offer different affordances of rupture; and secondly that in those cases where Christianity affords rupture, people will perceive this affordance through their own cultural categories and will choose whether and how to enact rupture in a way that is shaped by their existing material circumstances. The approach thus goes beyond currently popular culturalist theorising and seeks to integrate both idealist and materialist perspectives. In so doing it develops an overarching theoretical framework that explains cases of both continuity and rupture and helps to systematically organise the plethora of case studies on Christian change.
An accessible, wide-ranging exploration of the effects of neoliberal globalization on the economy, culture and politics of nation states and individuals.
This article argues that the countries of the Global South have defined themselves in a globally-positioned way since the 1960s— long before the current wave of neoliberal globalization or academic ...thinking about the “Global South.” This is shown by tracing the history of the formation of the Global South as a political bloc as the Group of 77 (G77) and in their aspirations and negotiations at the United Nations. The article explores how the G77 acts in the global political system, as well as how it tries to act on the global political system in order to produce a particular vision of the global. This is done through an analysis of some of the G77's proposals of how to restructure the global order, including the Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order, and more recently in the UN's Financing for Development conferences. The South's vision of the global, with stark disparities between North and South and their proposals to ameliorate the situation, is contrasted with a newly emerging Northern vision, which seeks to dissolve North and South into a homogeneous “global” in which power and inequality are not salient.
Objective To investigate the relationship between tissue-specific alterations in brain volume and neurobehavioral status in newborns with complex congenital heart defects preoperatively. Study design ...Three-dimensional volumetric magnetic resonance imaging was used to calculate tissue-specific brain volumes and a standardized neurobehavioral assessment was performed to assess neurobehavioral status in 35 full-term newborns admitted to the hospital before cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. Multiple linear regression models were performed to evaluate relationships between neurobehavioral status and brain volumes. Results Reduced subcortical gray matter (SCGM) volume and increased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volume were associated with poor behavioral state regulation (SCGM, P = .04; CSF, P = .007) and poor visual orienting (CSF, P = .003). In cyanotic newborns, reduced SCGM was associated with higher overall abnormal scores on the assessment ( P = .001) and poor behavioral state regulation ( P = .04), and increased CSF volume was associated with poor behavioral state regulation ( P = .02), and poor visual orienting ( P = .02). Conversely, acyanotic newborns showed associations between reduced cerebellar volume and poor behavioral state regulation ( P = .03). Conclusion Abnormal neurobehavior is associated with impaired volumetric brain growth before open heart surgery in infants with complex congenital heart defects. This study highlights a need for routine preoperative screening and early intervention to improve neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Advances in clinical translational research have led to an explosion of interest in infrastructure development and data sharing facilitated by biorepositories of specimens and linked health ...information. These efforts are qualitatively different from the single-center sample collections that preceded them and pose substantial new ethics and regulatory challenges for investigators and institutions. New research governance approaches, which can address current and anticipated challenges, promote high-quality research, and provide a robust basis for ongoing research participation, are urgently required.
What is development, what has it been in the past, and what can historians learn from studying the history of development? How has the field of the history of development evolved over time, and where ...should it be going in the future?
This article seeks to bring more nuance to recent discussions about the role of faith in religious development NGOs. It takes an in-depth look at Tearfund, a leading Evangelical development NGO, and ...explores the ways in which faith shapes its conceptualisation of development, its programme design, and its implementation strategy. The article traces the process through which Tearfund actively sought to bring faith into the centre of its development work, and argues that grappling with faith in this way can lead religious development NGOs to innovate new approaches to development that are at least somewhat outside of mainstream development thinking.
This article is concerned with the question of why economic inequality has increased so dramatically in recent decades and what can be done about it. It suggests that the fundamental cause of the ...recent rise in economic inequality, underlying all the more proximate factors, is a major process of de-democratisation that has taken place since the 1970s, which has increased the political representation of capital while reducing that of labour. The article pulls together a wide range of research from different disciplines in order to decisively show the ways in which economic governance has been de-democratised in this period. This analysis has important consequences with regard to policy attempts to reduce inequality and suggests that these must focus not on technical issues but on ways to strengthen democracy. And if the dynamics of de-democratisation are fundamentally global, then solutions must also be global. These conclusions are in stark contrast with current academic and policy approaches which tend to focus on technical, rather than political, solutions, and which focus overwhelmingly at the national, rather than the global, level. This article thus calls for a major rethinking of the causes of rising inequality and the policy changes needed to reduce it.
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