Sage Publications The Imagined Economies of Globalization

Shortlisted for the Inaugural International Political Economy Group annual book prize ′...amongst the most important books yet written on globalization′ - Review of International Political Economy "In this original and very accessible work Cameron and Palan make a major contribution to the narrative turn in political economy. Skillfully combining sustained theoretical critiques and contemporary empirical analyses, this politically engaged book promotes a paradigm shift that sheds new light on the changing relations among the economy, the political, and the social. It will quickly become a major reference point for its account of globalization as a persuasive story and a flawed reality. I recommend it unreservedly" Bob Jessop How do theories, discussions and debates about globalisation shape the very subject they reflect on? How are conceptions of the state, society and politics are changing in the age of globalisation? This book critically introduces the main contemporary debates on globalization and demonstrates how conventional versions or narratives of globalization have served to shape policy responses at both state and corporate levels. Rather than accepting the disintegration of the state thesis, the authors present an alternative transition from the nation-state as a homogenous `imagined community′, to a more complex and fluid series of normative economic spaces or `imagined economies′. They illustrate how this respatialization of the contemporary state is rapidly taking shape in concrete institutions, processes, people and places serving to recast the boundaries of the social, political and economic in fundamental ways. By accessibly demonstrating the way in which the discourse of globalization has itself become an integral part of the politics of globalization, The Imagined Economies of Globalization serves as an ideal introduction to key contemporary debates in politics, international relations, geography, international political economy and sociology. Review "More geographically oriented, Cameron and Palan′s book examines contemporary perspectives on globalization and implications for state and corporate policies." -- James Saku, Frostburg State University Published On: 2005-11-01 About the Author My work lies at the intersection between international relations, political economy, political theory, sociology and human geography. I have been working for many years on three interrelated areas. I am particularly interested in state theory and in the changing nature of the state and modes of governance in the contemporary globalised economy. I have written on the changing nature of the state in the age of globalisation. I am interested not only in the most powerful states, but also in the smallest states in the world, the tax havens, which have become, together with offshore finance, a second area of research interest. I have done in additional considerable research on different facets of contemporary theory, from realism to constructivism to post-Marxism. I am particularly interested in developing an alternative approach to political economy drawn on evolutionary institutionalism, post-rationalist perspectives and libidinal theories of political economy, the latter often confused with poststructuralism