Paolo C asked in [OPE-L:5351]:
> We --myself plus 8 undergraduate students on scholarships from the federal
> government-- have recently engajed in the preparation of a course on the
> political economy of globalization for the CUT-Central Unica dos
> Trabalhadores. Among the many activities we are planning as part of our
> ongoing research are open seminars to discuss books that could help us to
> better understand today's tendencies and processes at work within the
> world capitalism system. I've been rereading Itoh's World Economic Crisis
> and Japanese Capitalism and it seems to me that this book is a good
> contribution in face of so much ideology surrounding the topic of
> globalization. Does any one on the list know of any other recent tittles
> which would contribute towards an understanding of the nature of world
> capitalism today?
You should take a look at Michael J. Webber and David L. Rigby _The Golden
Age Illusion: Rethinking Postwar Capitalism_ (NY, The Guilford Press,
1996). It is a rather advanced text and is only available in hardcover,
though. The empirical sections use the Farjoun/Marchover methodology (and
in that sense there is a similarity to the work of Paul C and Allin). It
would be rough reading for undergraduates although there is much that you
might find useful in preparing classes.
More popular works worth considering have been written by Samir including
_Empire of Chaos_ (NY, Monthly Review Press, 1992) and _Delinking_
(London, Zed Books Ltd, 1985). A readable text, which unfortunately has
little on globalization per se but which has a lot of material which
would be of interest for union members, is Samuel Bowles and Richard
Edwards _Understanding Capitalism: Competition, Command, and Change in
the U.S. Economy_ (2nd ed., NY, HarperCollins College Publishers, 1993).
[I'm not sure if there has been something written more specifically on
the subject of globalization from a Social Structure of Accumulation
(SSA) perspective].
Of course, I have no knowledge about whether any of the above have been
translated into Portuguese.
[Digressive comment to Patrick on property rights: there is a paperback
book now called _Exploitation_ which presents many different perspectives
on this subject. A few listmembers contributed to the volume, I believe. I
don't have more information at this time but perhaps one of the people who
contributed, like Gil, might].
In solidarity, Jerry