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Latin America and Global Capitalism: A Critical Globalization Perspective, by William I. Robinson. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. $55.00. Pp. 412.
Over the years, William Robinson has emerged as a leading proponent of the view that globalization represents a structurally new, transnational, stage of capitalist development. He argues that globalization has thoroughly transformed class relations, class struggle and the nature of the nation state.
In this book, Robinson meticulously looks at globalization's devastating effect on Latin America. He shows how a host of new relationships and practices promoted by transnational capital breaks with the old coalitions throughout the continent. Robinson points out that Latin America has the dubious distinction of leading the world in social inequality, the scope of privatizations, and the "rapid growth" ( 151 ) of sex tourism, which is fostered by globalization trends.
At no point does Robinson let the specifics cloud either the general picture or his theoretical formulations on globalization. In spite of his richly detailed and vivid description of globalization's nefarious impact on peoples' lives, including the exacerbation of gender and ethnic oppression, he convincingly links these developments to the salient features of globalization which distinguish it structurally from the Keynesian-inspired stage prior to the 1970s.
Robinson provides case studies of such diverse economic activity as nontraditional agricultural exports, maquiladora production, the remittances sent by immigrants ("a major mechanism of global integration"; 154), and ecotourism. He observes that under globalization "the world has increasingly become a single unified field" (16) as international capital enters "nearly every nook and cranny" (55) . In the process, it has eliminated non-capitalist modalities and relatively "autonomous communities" (141). Thus, for instance, it has wiped out...