Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T17:59:25.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - The return of primitive accumulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

George Lawson
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Chris Armbruster
Affiliation:
Research Network 1989
Michael Cox
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Get access

Summary

The return of primitive accumulation

1989 marks the rise of histories other than those of democracy and freedom. These are histories made in the wake of the shift to a unipolar world dominated by a sharp rise in US power. Alongside the emergence of the United States as the world's sole global power, 1989 also signals an unsettling and debordering of existing arrangements within the deep structures of capitalist economies. Here we find new modes of profit extraction in the most unlikely places, modes that have now become systemic to the extent of being hard-wired into the functioning of the capitalist system itself. Since 1989, countries in the Global South have become subject to a form of financial control – carried out by institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – which operates as a worldwide financial disciplinary regime. Survival here hinges on exporting and trafficking people because it is the one resource that many of these countries have. Indeed, the rise in people trafficking has become the last hope for survival not just for ordinary households in poor countries, but for a number of actors ranging from small entrepreneurs to governments.

Countries in the Global North have their own version of this parallel history. Prominent here is the growing informalisation of work, the sharp downgrading of the manufacturing sector, and the explosion of high-risk finance, all of which took off in the post-1989 period.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Global 1989
Continuity and Change in World Politics
, pp. 51 - 75
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×