Description
Book SynopsisIn this new book, Jean-Franois Bayart offers a radically new account of globalization which challenges the way it is interpreted by neo-liberals and by the anti-globalization movement. He develops an illuminating account of how the social relations constitutive of globalization produce new forms of subjectivity, lifestyles and moral subjects.
Trade Review“This brilliant book by one of France’s most eminent social theorists is the first major work on globalization and the state to bring history, culture and the analysis of power into a single and vivid method. Filled with delicious insights into subjectivity, the senses, crime, fashion and marketing, Bayart offers a trenchant and original argument about the dynamics of a world which combines emergence and emergency. This is historical sociology at its literate best, a must-read for scholars in any field who seek to understand globalization without any preconceptions.”
-- Arjun Appardurai, The New School, New York City
“Bayart’s special way of mixing vivid examples from all over the globe with daring theoretical interpretations breathes new life into the concepts of globalization, governmentality and subjectivation. Irony and perspicacity combine beautifully in this book. With great panache he shows that our everyday practices are part and parcel of an emerging global governmentality. We may feel that globalization is something that happens to us but in many respects we are deeply involved in its making. The message is clear: globalization is us.”
-- Peter Geschiere, University of Amsterdam
Table of ContentsPreface Yours globally.
Chapter I Two centuries of globalisation: the changing scale of State and capitalism.
The limits of globalisation.
Globalisation: a concept and an event.
The foundational 19th century.
Globalisation: two or three things that we know about it.
Chapter II The State, a product of globalisation.
The dead man’s reprieve.
The privatisation of States as a principle of hybridization and straddling.
The transnational production of national memories.
Frontiers, smuggling and State formation.
A very national ‘international civil society’.
Transnational crime in the service of the State.
The transnational ferment: the latest proofs.
Globalisation, the motor of State formation.
Chapter III The social foundations of globalisation.
The transnational historical fields.
The global web of social relations.
Globalisation as networking?
Chapter IV Globalisation and political subjectivation: the imperial moment (1830-1960).
A point of method.
Colonisation as experience of subjectivation.
Extraversion and coercion in imperial subjectivation.
Chapter V Globalisation and political subjectivation: the neo-liberal period (1980-2004).
Global social institutions and political subjectivation.
The diffuse social practices of global subjects.
The ‘human types’ of globalisation: main roles and American stars.
The ‘human types’ of globalisation from below: the importance of the bit players.
Globalisation: nation-state and individuation.
Chapter VI The global techniques of the body.
Merchandise and subjectivation.
The globalisation and appropriation of merchandise.
Merchandise and the reinvention of difference.
Merchandise and political subjectivation.
Globalisation in movement.
The globalisation of gestures.
The senses of globalisation.
The world in movement.
The global political techniques of the body.
Conclusion When waiting is an urgent matter.
Global Godot.
Globalisation as a liminal condition.
Plenum and void in global governmentality.
Notes to Preface.
Notes to chapter 1.
Notes to chapter 2.
Notes to chapter 3.
Notes to chapter 4.
Notes to chapter 5.
Notes to chapter 6.
Notes to conclusion.
