Capturing globalization: prospects and projects

The Asian economic crisis of 1997 highlighted the inherent instability of t he new worldwide economic order being created by highly mobile capital, and also its destabilizing social and political effects, especially in the tra nsitional societies which had proved so hospitable to the champions of glob alization and to proffered capital inputs. Whether these societies are dest ined to be subsumed and captured by globalization processes, or whether the y and their citizens have any possibility of capturing some genuine benefit s from advancing globalization, may rest on whether these transitional stat es and societies can assert, or at least influence, the terms of their enga gement with those processes. This will not be possible, however, if people, societies and states capitulate in advance to the forces and processes of globalization as irresistible. This issue is explored through the grounded investigation of four key questions: do globalization processes serve any e nds beyond themselves? How might one grasp the best, and make the most, of globalization? Is the logic of the market immutable and inflexible transcul turally, or is it amenable to varying forms of cultural inflection and poli tical supervision? Can what globalization delivers be drawn upon selectivel y, or is it instead a 'package-deal'?