This book critically examines the responses of the working classes of the world to the challenges posed by the neoliberal restructuring of the global economy.Neoliberal globalisation, the book argues, has created new forms of polarisation in the world. A renewal of working class internationalism must address the situation of both the more privileged segments of the working class and the more impoverished ones.The study identifies new or renewed labour responses among formal...

This volume explores religious discourses and practices of hospitality in the context of migration. It articulates the implied ambivalences and even contradictions as well as the potential to contribute to a more just world through social interconnection with others. The book features contributors from diverse national, denominational, cultural, and racial backgrounds. Their essays reveal a dichotomy of hospitality between guest and host, while tackling the meaning of home or the loss of i...

Bringing together leading scholars and activists, this edited collection calls for a return to the ‘mode of production debate’ to address often-overlooked dimensions: gender, race, and Eurocentrism.The concept of mode of production is placed in dialogue with Marxist debates on domestic labour, racial capitalism and the ways in which Eurocentrism has shaped the historiographies of capitalism. In doing so, the book offers novel approaches to studying the origins, modalities and contr...

This book analyses the intertwined crises facing the European Union within their global context through the lens of critical political economy. Challenging conventional narratives of European integration, it explores the power structures, inequalities, and socio-political implications that underpin modern European politics. This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.

This book assesses the forces of social struggle shaping the past and present of the global political economy from the perspective of historical materialism. Based on the philosophy of internal relations, the character of capital is understood in such a way that the ties between the relations of production, state-civil society, and conditions of class struggle can be realised. By conceiving the internal relationship of global capitalism, global war, global crisis as a struggle-driven proce...

Against the background of the global economic crisis since 2007/2008 and increasing inequality across the world, the Global South has experienced widespread, large-scale industrial action, including in countries such as China, Brazil, India and South Africa, which had been hailed as the new growth engines of the global political economy as part of the so-called BRICS.This volume systematically evaluates how the new forms of labour mobilization witnessed in the past ten years respon...

This collection of essays explores the intersection of religious, psychosocial, economic and cultural issues in relation to the dramatic demographic shifts we are facing on a global scale. Theologians, gerontologists, anthropologists and practitioners reflect on the meaning of aging in diverse contexts such as Indonesia, South Africa, Tanzania, Botswana, Germany, Mexico, and Switzerland. Assuming that aging is an intricate process that encompasses enrichment and loss, the gain of wisdom an...

Chinese development is widely considered to be an example of successful developmental catch-up with double-digit growth rates year on year. Some even talk of an emerging power, which may in time replace the US as the global economy’s hegemon. And yet there is a dark underside to this ‘miracle’ in the form of workers’ long hours, low pay and lack of welfare benefits. Increasing levels of inequality have gone hand in hand with super exploitative working conditions. Nevertheless, Chinese work...

In the wake of the global financial crisis, water services have come under renewed neoliberal assault across Europe. At the same time, the struggle against water privatization has continued to pick up pace; from the re-municipalization of water in Grenoble in 2000, to the United Nations declaration of water as a human right in 2010.In Fighting for Water, Andreas Bieler draws on years of extensive fieldwork to dissect the underlying dynamics of the struggle for public water...

Processes of neoliberal globalization have put national trade unions under pressure as the transnational organization of production puts these labour movements in competition with each other. The global economic crisis has intensified these pressures further. And yet, economic and political integration processes have also provided workers with new possibilities to organize resistance.Emphasizing the importance of agency, this book analyzes transnational labour action in times of cr...

A comprehensive reassessment of the relevance of Gramsci’s theory and practice at the beginning of the twenty-first century.Whilst commentaries on Antonio Gramsci and arguments surrounding his political and intellectual legacy have proliferated, little attention has been hitherto directed to linking the connections and contentions between Political Theory and International Political Economy. This volume brings together leading authorities engaged in common debates to produce, for t...

Resistance against free trade agreements based on an expanded trade agenda, including issues related to intellectual property rights, trade in services and trade-related investment measures, has increased since the demonstrations at the WTO ministerial conference in Seattle in 1999. While the WTO Doha negotiations have broken down, the EU and USA are increasingly engaged in bilateral free trade agreements, building on this expanded trade agenda.Free trade strategies have increasing...