How are transnational processes re-making contemporary economies? Can capitalist globalisation be governed or resisted? Do class relations still shape people’s social identities? How can we think about inequality in national and international contexts? This text examines key contemporary issues in the sociology of economic life. Drawing on a range of critical perspectives, it analyses major trends in the restructuring of economy and society-from the politics and economics of globalisation to post-industrial economies, the ‘end’ of class and current patterns of inequality. The book is organized around three core themes: the globalisation of social and economic relations; shifts in the nature of products, production and work; changing class identities and economic inequalities. Major changes in each of these spheres have re-shaped social and economic relations, structures of power and forms of identity. The book sets these changes in a transnational context, and examines critical frameworks for understanding such shifts. Drawing on arguments from economic sociology, politics and policy studies, political economy and critical geography, it analyses processes of social and economic restructuring over the last three decades. It includes discussions of globalisation and capitalist development; finance and information networks; structures of international economic governance; post-Fordism and the sign economy; the re-making of class; social exclusion and global inequalities. By making connections across wider fields of debate, the text both offers a critical survey of current concerns for the discipline of economic sociology, and sets out a broader sphere of interest for the social analysis of economic life. This book provides an accessible and critical discussion of key issues in current social and economic analysis, in a context where readers are increasingly interested in the study of globalisation, international governance and economic power. Its international approach, together with its focus on wide-scale social and economic changes, gives the book considerable international appeal. The text will be particularly relevant to undergraduate and graduate students and scholars in the fields of economic and political sociology, politics and government, geography, economics and international relations.
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