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"The development of a global form of citizenship stands in a rather tense relation with the realities of vast numbers of marginalised citizens across the globe, to the extent that marginality appears to be the hidden other of global citizenship. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the development of a political economy of global citizenship by elaborating on some of these issues. The paper provides a critical discussion of the literature on global citizenship education using a theoretical approach that stems from political economy theories of globalisation. The notion of an emerging transnational class system will provide the starting point for understanding the processes and forces behind current forms of global structural marginalisation and their implications for the possibilities of a global citizenship."

This article reviews sociological research about economic globalization's impact on work and labor in developed and developing countries since the 1980s. We find that this period of neoliberal globalization influences work because of intensified activities of multinational corporations (MNCs), financialization of the global economy, and amplified prominence of international organizations, some of which diffuse neoliberal policy scripts while others mobilize a transnational civil society. Research we review generally points to liabilities of neoliberal globalization for workers. To understand these findings, we apply Karl Polanyi's concepts of fictitious commodities, the self-regulating market, and the double movement. We propose that, on the one hand, the activities of MNCs, international financial organizations, and many states exemplify pushes for institutional separation of economy and society in effort to institutionalize the idea of a self-regulating market at a global scale, which increases labor commodification and global inequalities. On the other hand, the activities of social movements, including unions and transnational actors that target globalization's impact on work, constitute the counter movement at national and global levels resisting marketization and pushing for labor decommodification. The aftermath of the ongoing economic crisis will tell to what extent this countermovement will be successful in generating an alternative to neoliberal globalization, and more protections for workers.

Haug pursues two objectives in this essay. First, he wants to develop a better understanding of the global conflicts at the beginning of the twenty-first century. To reach that understanding, it is, he argues, necessary to get beyond the crude empiricist language of the mainstream. Secondly, therefore, he elaborates and further develops certain key aspects of Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony (consensual leadership through multilateralism vs. mere supremacy, "hegemonic sacrifice," etc.) in order better to grasp the lines of conflicts in national as well as international politics. Haug takes as his starting point the guiding question of a 2006 conference in Athens, namely whether the current political conjuncture should be interpreted as one of imperialism or, in Hardt and Negri's sense, as empire. He recasts this question from one of interpretation to one of history, and in so doing he rearticulates the concepts of empire vs. imperialism. He sees transnational high-tech capitalism as having arrived at a crossroads. One path from this crossroads, he argues, leads to rival imperialisms; and the other path leads to the formation of a regulated world market flanked by world ecological and social politics, to, in short, an "empire" of transnational capitalism. The big question underlying Haug's project is this: Will the United States succeed, after the political, military, and economic debacle of the phase of the unilateral "imperialist" politics of George W. Bush, in recovering a political leadership role in the world? The effort of the United States under President Obama to do so must contend with the Bush legacy, consisting of two unwinnable wars, a deep economic crisis that began as a financial crisis, and a politically and culturally divided nation. Haug's essay does not pretend to answer this larger question; its more modest purpose is foundational, that is, to articulate the question more clearly and to establish the prerequisites and criteria for a pro

"The purpose of this article is to critically review the work of Andre Gunder Frank. This is no easy task given the prolific and controversial nature of his life work. His main distinction is as a paradigm breaker and a paradigm maker. Frank is one of the founders of contemporary world system theory. He coined some memorable expressions such as the 'development of underdevelopment' and 'Re-Orient'. Indeed, these two concepts highlight two distinct phases in his work. His first phase is characterised by his writings on dependency theory and his initial understanding of world system theory broadly in line with Amin, Arrighi and Wallerstein. His second phase is distinguished by what he considers to be the 'Eurocentric' interpretation of world system theory of Wallerstein and others as well as by his critique of his own earlier work. While some of Frank's analyses and assertions proved to be wrong, he provided much inspiration to a new generation of scholars and activists, some of whom provided the necessary empirical evidence and theoretical rigour lacking in parts of Frank's work. But he excelled in his mission of providing the big picture, asking the unimaginable questions and exploring hitherto inconceivable interrelationships."

Development aid and democracy support have become increasingly interconnected, but cooperation between them is only partial and its future uncertain. Traditional divisions between the two domains narrowed in the 1990s amidst increases in international aid

Scholars continue to grapple with the question of the relationship between economic development and democratization; prominent recent research has focused on the effects of economic inequality. Boix suggests that democratization is likelier when inequalit

Nations in transit 2009 is Freedom House's comparative study of democratic development from Central Europe to Eurasia. It documents how journalists were once again at risk throughout the region, from Croatia to Uzbekistan, and how national governments wer

How can governance be improved to give development a chance in Africa? Political theorist Patrick Chabal believes a role has to be found for traditional methods of accountability to be used alongside formal systems recognised in the West.

It was a policy born of a shining promise - that decentralized governments would help empower tens of millions of women in developing countries. But has shifting more power and resources to the local level really improved women's lives? Has it resulted in

This paper proposes an Ethiopian Democratic Millennium Goal that articulates freedom, development, and social justice. It examines how the conceptual stretching of democracy, nation, and civil society has created epistemic obstacles that prevent Ethiopian

As developing countries expose portfolio investors to potential high risk, it is expected that investors will follow the advice of credit rating agencies (CRAs) before sending capital abroad. Controlling for political and economic explanations in the lite

Moyano's story was movingly retold by Villa El Salvador Mayor Jaime Zea exactly 16 years later, at the World Conference on the Development of Cities held last week in Porto Alegre in the south of Brazil. http://www.aupeace.org/node/2914 Zea had tak

This article is critical of a series of works on Chinese soft power which have garnered much attention in recent years. These works typically portray Chinese soft power, characterised by its disregard for Western models of development that propagate 'demo

Democracy and development are deeply intertwined in spite of the difficulty of identifying a direct, causal and quantifiable relationship between them. More importantly, they are increasingly understood today as including each other to a great extent and

This article critically examines the discourse surrounding fragile states in relation to the security-development nexus. I draw on the case of Haiti to problematise key assumptions underpinning mainstream approaches to resolving concerns of security and d

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 20 (IPS) - Ahead of the annual meetings of the world's biggest international financial institutions this weekend, calls are growing for the United Nations to take new initiatives on financing for development in poor countries. "There

The Niger Delta predicament has fascinated academic curiosity and intellectual nosiness in the recent time. Thus, several analytical frameworks and theoretical postulations have been adopted in the explanation of the Niger Delta quandary. One of the competing explanations is the "geography of terrorism or terror of geography" thesis which construed the inauspicious geography and murky topography of the region as a major factor that precipitates development tragedy. The article argues that beyond the terror of geography thesis is the endemic political and bureaucratic corruption that has engulfed the Nigerian political system at all levels of government.

Indonesia, the world's third largest democracy, has been called a template for Muslim political reform and has the potential to serve as a bridge between the United States and the Islamic world. Indonesian journalists play a vital role. Since the collapse of the Suharto regime in the late 1990s, the Indonesian media sector has experienced its own revolution. A nationwide survey of 600 Indonesian journalists finds that while the influence of Islam in the newsroom is increasing, journalists support the separation of mosque and state and reject militant Islam. Their attitude toward the United States has improved under Obama and, while skeptical of American motives, they support continued American aid. Although most reject Suharto-era government-mouthpiece media functions, they have not yet fully embraced the role of watchdog. They say that the industry as a whole, and they as individuals, are still not free, but cite their own lack of professionalism and poor ethics as the greatest threat to their industry. The echo of the development journalism model that prevailed in the Suharto years can be seen in the top priorities of Indonesian journalists.

"Yves Dezalay and Bryant Garth's three studies-Dealing in Virtue (1996), The Internationalization of Palace Wars (2002), Asian Legal Revivals (2010)-trace the globalization of law through "palace wars" among elites for positions in the "fields of state power." They conclude that globalization occurs through links among elites engaged in their domestic palace wars, which independently establish the symbolic power of law in each state. The article argues that while Dezalay and Garth provide an invaluable new starting point for further research, they do not adequately consider an emerging field of research documenting alternative pathways of legal development pursued by local activists inside and outside the new states of the Global South."

"Although much prized in daily conversation, good listening has been almost completely ignored in that form of political conversation we know as democracy. Practically all the attention has been paid to speaking, both in terms of the skills to be developed and the ways in which we should understand what enhancing 'inclusion' might mean (i.e. getting more people to speak). The argument here is that both democratic theory and democratic practice would be reinvigorated by attention to listening. To ask why listening has been ignored is to inquire into the very nature of politics, and to suggest a range of ways in which listening could both improve political processes (particularly democratic ones) and enhance our understanding of them - including where they do not always work as well as we might want them to. Four ways in which good listening can help achieve democratic objectives are outlined: enhancing legitimacy, helping to deal with deep disagreements, improving understanding and increasing empowerment. This leads to a discussion of the difference between good and bad political listening, before the question of 'political noise' is broached (i.e. what we should be listening for). Finally, the listening lacuna in Habermas' theory of communicative rationality is pointed out, leading to a discussion of the potential analytic power of listening in relation to deliberative democracy in general and one citizens' jury case in particular."