Capitalism in the Age of Globalization: The Management of Contemporary Society

by Samir Amin, Pnina Werbner (Series Editor), Richard Werbner (Series Editor)

Samir Amin is one of the world's most profound thinkers about the changing nature of capitalism, North-South relations and issues of development. In this book, he provides us with a powerful understanding of the new and very different era which capitalism has now entered with the collapse of the Soviet model, the triumph of the market and accelerating globalization.

His sophisticated analysis brings within its ambit the increasingly differentiated regions of the South, the former Eastern bloc countries, as well as Western Europe. He also integrates his economic arguments about the nature of the crisis with political arguments based on his vision of human history not as simply determined by material realities, but as the product of social responses to those realities. His innovative analysis of the rise of ethnicity and fundamentalism as consequences of the failure of ruling classes in the South to alter the unequal terms of globalization is particularly compelling. And his deconstruction of the Bretton Woods institutions as the managerial mechanisms protecting the profitability of capital has profound implications for the likelihood of their being reformed in any meaningful way. Looking ahead, Amin rejects the apparent inevitability of globalization in its present polarising form, and instead asserts the need for each society to negotiate the terms of its inter-dependence with the rest of the global economy.

Genres: Economics, Politics, History, Sociology, Nonfiction, Theory, Africa

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Samir Amin (Arabic: سمير أمين) (3 September 1931 – 12 August 2018) was an Egyptian-French Marxian economist, political scientist and world-systems analyst. He is noted for his introduction of the term Eurocentrism in 1988 and considered a pioneer of Dependency Theory.

Reviews

[cunningrocks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a pretty good summary of Samir Amin thought. Seems to be a set of MR articles put together. Interestingly some chapters were translated by Beatrice Wallerstein, wife of Immanuel. Diagnoses problems succinctly. Postmodernism catches a few strays in the chapter. Probably don't need to read this if you're familiar with Amin but it was a nice intro.

[Reese Faust · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great analysis of the changes in the international economic structure int he post-WW2 era built upon both world-system theory as well as dependency theory within a Marxist framework; also offers concrete(-ish) solutions for these problems, though the political feasibility and potential for such mobility remains an issue.

[Vusi Gumede · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of Samir Amin's outstanding books - his analysis of the pre-colonial African economy is profound, and his recommendations on how the African economy can be reconfigured are robust