Manchester University Press Producing Globalisation: Politics of Discourse and Institutions in Greece and Ireland

Product Description How can globalisation be studied in a way that transcends the divide between material and ideational accounts? How has globalisation resonated and dominated in different national contexts? What role have national political economies and domestic institutions played in those processes? 'Producing Globalisation' sheds new light on these important issues by scrutinising the nexus between globalisation and national institutional settings. Refusing to simply take globalisation as a given, it explores how concrete practices by political actors have produced and reproduced the phenomenon of globalisation over time. Drawing on a comparative analysis of discourses, policies and strategies deployed by key institutional actors in Greece and Ireland, 'Producing Globalisation' interrogates the nature of the interplay between global dynamics and domestic politics. In so doing, it offers new insights into the emergence of globalisation as a hegemonic discourse, as well as into the theory of hegemonic discourse itself. Indeed Antoniades invites us to think differently about the nature of globalisation and the hegemonic within world politics and economics by placing human agency back at the forefront of international political economy. Review This is a fascinating study of two very different economies and their domestic responses to globalization. It contrasts the largely apolitical debate in Ireland with a population enjoying such absolute gains that few thought of winners and losers with the more politicised response in Greece, with its confrontational, fragmented and particularistic pattern of interest representation. The comparison will appeal to those endeavouring to understand the politics of globalisation and to those interested in comparative institutional analysis. At the same time, the book offers a framework by which we can understand how a discourse on globalisation can become 'hegemonic'. Antoniades displays a command of diverse literatures and an impressive ability to synthesise them to good effect. --Professor Kevin Featherstone, London School of Economics and Political Science From the Inside Flap How can we study globalisation in a way that transcends the material/ideational rift? How has globalisation resonated and/or dominated in different national contexts? What role has been played by national political economies and domestic institutions in this process?Producing globalisation attempts to scrutinise the nature of the interplay between globalisation and national institutional settings. Rather than taking globalisation as a given, this book explores how concrete political actors produced the phenomenon of globalisation. Such an approach aims to bring human agency and its importance to the forefront of theory and practice in world politics and economics. The analysis is based on two case-studies, Greece and Ireland. By examining and comparing the discourses, policies and strategies of key, national institutional actors in these two countries, Producing globalisation offers new insights into the emergence of globalisation as a hegemonic discourse, as well as into the theory of hegemonic discourse itself. Thus the author invites us to think differently both about the nature of globalisation and the nature of the hegemonic within international political economy. From the Back Cover How can we study globalisation in a way that transcends the material/ideational rift? How has globalisation resonated and/or dominated in different national contexts? What role has been played by national political economies and domestic institutions in this process? Producing globalisation attempts to scrutinise the nature of the interplay between globalisation and national institutional settings. Rather than taking globalisation as a given, this book explores how concrete political actors produced the phenomenon of globalisation. Such an approach aims to bring human agency and its importance to the forefront of the