Book contents
- Multicultural Origins of the Global Economy
- Multicultural Origins of the Global Economy
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Mapping a New Global Political Economy
- Part I Multicultural Origins of the First (Historical Capitalist) Global Economy, 1500–1850
- Part II What Was Global about the First Global Economy, 1500–c. 1850?
- Part III Empire and the First Global Economy in the Making of Modern Industrial Capitalism, 1500–1800
- Part IV The Second Great Divergence, 1600–1800: Differing ‘Developmental Architectures’ in Global Contexts
- Part V Rehabilitating and Provincialising Western Imperialism: Afro-Asians inside and outside the Shadow of Empire
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - Mapping a New Global Political Economy
Taking Stock for the Journey Ahead
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 December 2020
- Multicultural Origins of the Global Economy
- Multicultural Origins of the Global Economy
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Mapping a New Global Political Economy
- Part I Multicultural Origins of the First (Historical Capitalist) Global Economy, 1500–1850
- Part II What Was Global about the First Global Economy, 1500–c. 1850?
- Part III Empire and the First Global Economy in the Making of Modern Industrial Capitalism, 1500–1800
- Part IV The Second Great Divergence, 1600–1800: Differing ‘Developmental Architectures’ in Global Contexts
- Part V Rehabilitating and Provincialising Western Imperialism: Afro-Asians inside and outside the Shadow of Empire
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 1 introduces the key conceptual themes/problems that underpin this book. It begins by arguing that current accounts of globalization and the global economy are Eurocentric in that they view these phenomena as the sole product of Western power and agency. It then feeds into the analysis of Benjamin Cohen's call for the return to ‘big picture’ visions and accounts of IPE given my belief that British- and US-School IPE have produced ahistorical/presentist and narrow conceptions of the global economy. To counter this I advance a global historical sociological approach that reveals the origins of both the global economy and capitalism in the last half-millennium. In problematising the dominant, naturalised Western conception I seek to replace it with an alternative non-Eurocentric approach that foregrounds the interconnections between Western and non-Western agency. I then sketch a picture of what ‘Eurocentrism I’ comprises before providing a critique of ‘Eurocentrism II’ that is advanced by fundamentalist critical postcolonialism, with the latter reproducing Western-centrism (i.e., ‘Eurofetishism’). Finally, having provided a sympathetic critique of the California School of global history on the grounds of its fetishization of non-Western agency I conclude by defining capitalism and providing a sketch-map of the journey ahead.
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- Multicultural Origins of the Global EconomyBeyond the Western-Centric Frontier, pp. 1 - 40Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020