Arbeiter Ring Publishing

Global Governance in Question

Empire, Class and the New Common Sense in Managing North-South Relations by Susanne Soederberg

Like many buzzwords, “global governance” is poorly understood. In contrast to most mainstream accounts, this book examines global economic governance as an integral moment of contemporary capitalism. Susanne Soederberg presents a critical insight into its real nature and the interests that it serves.

This book begins by asking what has not been discussed in the mainstream debates—and why. Soederberg explores neglected issues including transnational debt and the coercive nature of US aid to “failed states.”

Soederberg argues that mainstream understandings fail to engage with the wider contradictions that characterize global capitalism. In consequence, there is no explanation of the changing nature of American empire and capitalist power.

Furthermore, Soederberg maintains that global governance acts to normalize increasingly austere forms of capitalist expansion.

Subject Political Science/Government/International
Published April 2006
Price $24.95 CDN
Pages 206 pp (Paper)
Dimensions 5.25″ × 8.75″ × 0.5″
ISBN-10 189403726X
ISBN-13 9781894037266

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Reviews

  • Fletcher Baragar, in Labour/Le Travail writes:

    This is a welcome and important contribution to global political economy.

  • Dieter Misgeld, in Socialist Studies writes:

    …this is an informative book, because overall the author works with her strengths and makes use of the detailed knowledge which she possesses of the workings of international financial regimes and their frequently arcane and insidious practices.

About the Author

Susanne Soederberg is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair, who is jointly appointed to the Departments of Political Studies and Global Development Studies. Dr. Soederberg earned her doctorate from Johann-Wolfgang Goethe Frankfurt University in Germany. Prior to her appointment at Queen’s in 2004, Professor Soederberg taught in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta for four years.

Professor Soederberg’s research interests focus on relations of domination and resistance within various facets of globalization, such as global finance, corporate power and ownership (shareholder activism and corporate governance, corporate social responsibility), the politics of the International Monetary Fund and global development finance, neoliberalization, state theory, especially Marxist accounts, North-South relations, and development theory. She is author of several single-authored books: The Politics of the New International Financial Architecture: Reimposing Neoliberal Domination in the Global South (2004); Global Governance in Question: Empire, Class, and the New Common Sense in Managing Globalization (2006); and Corporate Power and Ownership in Contemporary Capitalism: The Politics of Resistance and Domination (2009), and one co-edited volume, Internalizing Globalization: The Rise of Neoliberalism and the Erosion of National Models of Capitalism (with Philip G. Cerny and Georg Menz) (2005). Professor Soederberg’s current project focuses on the global political economy and governance of debt, nature and uneven development across a variety of scales and spaces.