 global economy: a Europe-centered tale?  the point of view

 global economy: a Europe‐centered tale?
 the point of view matters
 a possible unifying framework: market integration
 globalization: a fashionable issue
 globalizing the Western paradigm = free‐
market and democracy for all (eurocentrism)
 globalization and history
 a «big issue» only after 1989
 globalization: a multifaceted phenomenon (cultural, political, and environmental)
 globalization: focussing on the economy and on its integration, with reference to:
 commodity market
 capital market  labor market  Timing: before (and after) the two waves
 Industrialization/deindustrialization or the creation of a global “Gap”
 Integrating trade, capital and labour
Fig. 2.1: a stylized trend of globalization (1860-2000)
 the pre‐industrial world economy
 19th century: the impact of industrialization
 between the two World Wars: the western retreat
 the “Golden Age”
 recent trends: Asia’s return
 Fernand Braudel’s model core‐periphery
“economy‐world: is the economy of just a portion of the planet to the degree that it forms an economic whole”
 Immanuel Wallerstein’s «world‐system»
• adding the dependency theory to the model
 growing at the expenses of somebody
 cycles (Malthus) vs growth (Smith)
 types of economic growth … and self‐sustained growth (John D. Gould)
 Rostow’s stages of economic growth
 catching‐up: Gerschenkron’s advantage of backwardness
 from growth to convergence
 convergence graphically exemplified
 variables measuring convergence
 The “secret ingredient” or a complex frame‐
work?
 growth and convergence
 growth but divergence
 no growth but convergence
 no growth and divergence
 convergence and Europe‐centered attitudes
 convergence: a never‐ending story + the issue of increasing inequality (Piketty)  rejecting the idea of growth: back to cycles? Latouche’s “happy degrowth”  environment and natural resources should be considered