Abstract
This three-volume set, part of a larger series sponsored by the Social Science Research Council on “Possible Futures,” adds a new dimension to the massive literature on the ongoing global financial crisis. Comprising twenty-eight chapters from a range of leading social science commentators (plus editorial introductions to both the overall set and each volume), the collection provides not only a remarkable breadth and depth of analysis but also a number of strategies to prevent future crises. Most significantly, it offers political alternatives to a continuation of neoliberal policy prescriptions, financialization, and a future of austerity for the great majority of the world’s population.
While these consistent analytical threads run throughout the collection, each volume has a distinct focus: the first contextualizes the crisis historically, in order to investigate future prospects for social, political, and economic development; the second links the crisis to other global issues such as climate change, financial regulation, religion, and new media; while the final volume assesses the potential for economic growth within a reconfigured, probably multilateral, global political-economic order.
A strong point of the three volumes is their location of the current crisis within capitalism’s centuries-long development, in which periodic crises have been endemic. Some contributors argue that capitalism itself, as a system of incessant accumulation, may have a limited future: crises may increase and intensify within an overall context of stagnation. This scenario presents openings for a reassertion of the social in the wake of its repudiation by neoliberalism and financialization. Several contributors sketch out new forms of human-centered, rather than financially driven, socioeconomic development, like the reinvigoration of small-scale cooperatives or barter economies.
The extent to which the crisis is genuinely “global” is addressed by several contributors, who illustrate its exceptionally uneven impacts. Despite well-known cases of economic collapse and austerity (the most obvious example being Greece), several countries (for example, Brazil) have achieved relatively consistent growth and even advances in social welfare and income distribution. From a labor studies perspective, financialization and neoliberalization have accelerated the draining of job-creating investment—and particularly well-paid, unionized employment—from the developed nations. Economic dynamism has become concentrated in the rising economies, leading to a recurrent theme of the collection: the extent to which international hegemony has moved away from an increasingly indebted West and whether a more stable, less unequal global system might be possible.
While one effect of neoliberal policies within nation-states has been intensified divisions between “winners” and “losers,” several contributors indicate how the crisis has widened the gulf between nation-states. With the discrediting of neoliberalism and the collapse of the “Washington Consensus,” heterodox approaches to political economy, several of which are represented in the collection, have gained considerable momentum. They draw on examples of those countries that have consistently rejected orthodox policy prescriptions, focusing on growth rather than austerity.
The collection is particularly helpful in this regard, with its inclusion of perspectives from both new major players in the current international economy (such as Brazil and China) and countries that have been left behind, including resource-rich African nations and members of the former Soviet bloc. A common concern in these contributions is the prevention of a growing immiserization of both wealth and growth, a process with very few winners.
The “financial crisis” is of course much more than financial; it intersects with an alarming array of broader economic, political, security, and environmental pressures. In this era of heightened risk and complexity, though, we have yet to develop either concepts or strategies to address this range of issues—a concern raised by Calhoun and Derluguian at several points.
This entanglement of issues is addressed by several contributors, from widely differing theoretical backgrounds. However, there is general agreement that our choices are destined to become increasingly stark and limited within a context of worsening environmental degradation, accompanied by disillusionment with supranational governance institutions. For example, popular faith in the European Union’s promise of collective security through integration has largely evaporated. While this situation has not as yet led to a widespread outbreak of right-wing populism fueled by xenophobia, this persistent danger remains. Still, one of the more promising avenues pursued by several authors is the possibility that religious solidarity, rather than being consistently opposed to secularism, may perform potentially more progressive roles.
This brief review can do only scant justice to the wealth of debate and discussion these essays provide. Reflections on the ongoing global crisis have been plentiful—and often predictable. This collection stands out for its methodological and political variety, its genuinely critical analysis, and its frequently innovative exploration of trajectories beyond crisis. Exemplary features include its openness, inclusiveness, and interdisciplinary approach, in marked contrast to the intellectual and policy closure that characterized the era of neoliberal ascendancy. Neoliberalism continues to survive largely due to the absence of credible alternatives; this collection demonstrates how such alternatives might be constructed.
Just assembling the collection’s cast of prominent social scientists (thirty-six in total) is an accomplishment in itself. Through consistently maintaining the theme of moving from “current crisis” to “possible futures,” Calhoun and Derluguian have successfully performed the difficult task of giving overall coherence and logic to what could otherwise have been a disparate, although still interesting, group of essays. Particularly impressive is the extent to which this outcome has been achieved without oversimplification or ideological heavy-handedness. Finally, this is a collection that makes the reader appreciative that the editors and contributors produced such an invaluable set of resources for teaching, research, debate, and action.