Globalizations from Below uses a Constructivist International Relations approach that emphasizes the centrality of normative power to analyze and compare the four globalizations ‘from below.’
These are: (1) the counter-hegemonic globalization represented by the ‘movement of movements’ of alter-globalization transnational social activists, who try to put an end to the Neoliberal nature of the Western-centered globalization ‘from above’; (2) the non-hegemonic globalization enacted by ‘ant traders’ that are part of the transnational informal economy; (3) the partially similar Chinese-centered globalization, whose entrepreneurial migrants are strongly influenced and instrumentalized by the Chinese state; and (4) the first wave globalization ‘from below’ that paralleled (and outlived) the 1870–1914 globalization ‘from above.’ This book identifies their common features and uses them to define the concept of globalization ‘from below’ as a set of socio-economic or socio-political processes that involve large transnational flows of people, goods, and/or ideas characterized at least in part by informality. They are enacted by entrepreneurial or activistic individuals who either take advantage of the normative power of the hegemon at the origin of an international order and an associated globalization ‘from above,’ or – explicitly or implicitly – transgress, contest, and try to redefine dominant economic, legal, political, and socio-cultural norms, thus challenging the existing international order and globalization ‘from above.’ By constructing a unified theoretical framework, this book attempts to open a new field of interdisciplinary research that should take globalizations ‘from below’ out of their current scholarly marginality.
This is one of the first scholarly works to collectively present more than one globalization ‘from below,’ and will be of great interest to students, scholars, and researchers of International Relations, International Political Economy, Development Studies, Economic History, Anthropology, Diaspora Studies, and Chinese Studies.
Author(s): Theodor Tudoroiu
Series: Rethinking Globalizations
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 378
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
1 Introduction
2 Globalizations and Normative Power: Theoretical Aspects
2.1 The Western-Centered Globalization ‘from Above’ and the American-Led International Order
2.2 Normative Power
The United States as a Normative Power
Normative Power and Globalizations ‘from Above’ and ‘from Below’
2.3 The Emerging Chinese-Led International Order and the Chinese-Centered Globalization ‘from Above’
China as a Normative Power
China’s Norms
The Belt and Road Initiative
Socialization of Elites and the Chinese- Centered Globalization ‘from Above’
2.4 The First Wave Globalization ‘from Above’
Hegemony, Liberalism, and Paradoxes
2.5 The Globalizations’ Triangle
2.6 Transnationalism
3 The Counter-Hegemonic Globalization ‘from Below’
3.1 A ‘Movement of Movements’
The Global Justice Movement
The Programmatic Dimension
3.2 Political Resistance: The ‘Battle
of Seattle’ and the World
Social Forum
The World Social Forum
Yellow Vests at a Tea Party
3.3 Legal Resistance: Challenging Intellectual Property Rights
4 The Non-Hegemonic Globalization ‘from Below’
4.1 Informal Economy and ‘Ant Trade’
The Rise of the ‘Ant Traders’
4.2 Defining the Non-Hegemonic Globalization ‘from Below’
Structure, Agency, and International Relations Theories
Informality, Power, and Resistance
Interacting Globalizations and Ambiguity
4.3 Practical Resistance: Challenging Intellectual Property Rights
Counterfeit, Resistance, and Fake Modernity
4.4 Social Networks and Diasporas
4.5 Production Centers, Flows, and Nodes
4.6 Guangzhou’s ‘Chocolate City’
Sino-African Tensions
Understanding the African Presence
4.7 La Salada’s Baroque Economies
The ‘Informal State’
Plebeian Democracy, Proletarian Microeconomies, and Neoliberalism ‘from Below’
4.8 Normative Clashes, Ambiguities, and Agency
5 The Chinese-Centered Globalization ‘from Below’
5.1 From ‘Ant Traders’ to Entrepreneurial Migrants
A Highly Mobile Middleman Minority
5.2 The Influence of the Chinese State
‘Upgrading’ – and Instrumentalizing – the Migrant
The Overseas Chinese State
‘Working’ the Overseas Chinese
Incentives
Co-Opting the ‘Old’ Migrants
5.3 The Chinese Entrepreneurial Migrants in Ghana
The Chinese ‘Ant Traders’ in Ghana
Vulnerability
Beijing’s Influence
Galamsey and Social Conditionality
5.4 Defining a Complex Globalization
Interacting Globalizations and Normative Power
6 The First Wave Globalization ‘from Below’
6.1 Cosmopolitanism and Extraterritoriality in Semi-Colonial Port Cities
Semi-Colonialism
Extraterritoriality
Cosmopolitanism
Levantine Cosmopolitanism
Treaty Port Cosmopolitanism in China
6.2 The First Wave Globalization ‘from Below’ in Alexandria
Khedives and Great Powers
Alexandria and Its Foreigners
A City Run by Non-Egyptians
Alexandria’s Ethnic Minorities and the Globalization ‘from Below’
6.3 The First Wave Globalization ‘from Below’ in Shanghai
Concessions-based Semi-Colonialism
A City Run by the Non-Chinese
Shanghai’s National Minorities and the Globalization ‘ from Below’
6.4 Of Globalizations and Modernities
7 A Constructivist Theory of Globalizations ‘from Below’
7.1 Theoretical Considerations
Normative Power, Agency, and Constructivism
7.2 Globalizations ‘from Below’ – Characteristics and Definition
Enemies and In-Group Clashes
Features
Definition
7.3 The Future of the Globalizations ‘from Below’
Index
