The Political Economy of Trade, Work and Economy: De-globalization – or Re-globalization?

Abstract What forces will shape the global future? We begin with discussion of the central roles of globalization and the ecologically destructive Anthropocene and then move onto more current popular and political debates about questions of unchallengeable globalization versus de-globalization and re-globalization. We side with the former. The broad story is how historical global capitalism, with different leading core states or hegemons, inexorably pushed global society into an increasingly tight related connected world-economy, meshed together by commodity webs and supply chains that linked increasingly far-flung locations, geologies, landscapes, and ecosystems. The vision is one of a world-system, embedded to a large degree on market and nation-state capitalism and political power, conflict, and cooperation, that grows more and more tightly integrated, spatially widespread, and ecologically destructive as it expanded for six hundred years. We disagree with a fundamental “break” from the old political economy view. In fact, we are confident that today’s current Anthropocene global consciousness remains – with major concern with climate change and worldwide pandemics. There is little doubt that worldwide globalization is not only needed but essentially inescapable.