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<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Lusoglobalisation?<br>
The political economy of globalisation<br>
in Portuguese-speaking countries<br><br>
Ten years on from the volume on the transition to the free-market
economy<br>
(1995), Lusotopie proposes to take a look at the integration of the<br>
Portuguese-speaking countries into the world economy and the impact
of<br>
this globalised economy on these countries: consequences, specific<br>
features and current debates.<br><br>
The general question could be: What are the realities of globalisation
in<br>
the Lusophone countries today? What is or are the particular way(s)
in<br>
which these countries have taken their place in the globalised
economy?<br>
What can be observed in the countries or territories in the
industrialised<br>
world (Portugal as part of the Europe zone and Brazil as an emerging<br>
economic power), in developing countries (Portuguese-speaking Africa,
Goa,<br>
Timor...) or those in a very specific position (Macao)? Given that it
is<br>
clear that no country can stand aloof from the globalised economy,
the<br>
question today should be to understand the extent to which each
country<br>
wants to, or has become a part of it, and what the effects of this
have<br>
been on their specific economic and political systems?<br><br>
This could be approached through the following broad chapters:<br><br>
1) The neo-liberal economic model<br>
draw up an inventory of theoretical thinking in the face of the
variety<br>
of different effects induced within national economies and between
the<br>
countries themselves. <br>
study its particular applications: what (specific) forms do
economic<br>
liberalisation policies take (opening up of markets, borders,<br>
privatisation, financialisation of the economy...) in national
economies<br>
(case studies)? How can processes and the degree of integration into
the<br>
globalised economy be analysed?<br><br>
2 ) The effects of globalisation:<br>
a) on the economic and social level: the fluctuating relations
between<br>
growth, poverty, inequality must be appraised and the political and<br>
theoretical issues involved in measuring them must be shown.<br>
b) on the political level: what are the consequences of the economic<br>
changes induced by globalisation? What social recomposition processes
are<br>
there? What are the new positions of relative force within the
political<br>
powers and is there a widening gap between social categories? Where
is<br>
economic power located / concentrated and what is its relation with<br>
political power? What has become of the democratic progress that was<br>
supposed to be brought about?<br><br>
3) The role of the States in the globalised economy:<br>
Is the paradigm of submission and loss of sovereignty outdated? What
has<br>
replaced it? Is the State fulfilling a new role in “seizing<br>
opportunities”? What is the relative importance of public policy in<br>
distributing the costs and benefits of the opening up of commerce? On
this<br>
point, what is the situation in Brazil between the federal State and
the<br>
States?<br><br>
4) Winners and losers: who are they and why?<br>
The factors inducing inequalities between countries in the face of<br>
globalisation must be listed and analysed.<br>
Over thirty years of European integration, Portugal has been through
a<br>
considerable “mudança”. The old nation has become a modern State. But
is<br>
that all there is to the analysis? Are we seeing an
internationalisation<br>
of the Portuguese economy or just its Iberianisation? Have the old<br>
dependences of the Portuguese economy been decisively changed? What is
the<br>
international position of the Portuguese economy in the Lusophone<br>
countries and elsewhere?<br>
Can Lula’s Brazil win in the long term by applying a policy described
by<br>
some as neo-liberal? Does globalisation change internal economic<br>
geopolitics? Does it change the nature of its economic links with
Portugal<br>
and Europe, with MercoSul and the rest of the Americas (notably the<br>
North)? Is Brazil interested in Lusophone Africa or solvent Africa, and
if<br>
so, how? What is the nature of its frequent South-South coalitions
(with<br>
India, South Africa or even China) in the rounds of the WTO in favour
of<br>
an orientation contrary to that defended by movements such as Via<br>
Campesina or the Landless Workers?<br>
What is the situation of the “post-adjustment political economy” in
the<br>
Luso-African countries? Twenty years or so after the first measures
to<br>
open up markets (1985) leading to the end of State-run economies,
and<br>
fifteen years after the end of the one-party regimes (1990-1994) and
the<br>
successive “democratisations” or loosening of the grip of
authoritarian<br>
regimes, what assessment can be made of these measures to liberalise
the<br>
economy (sudden and hurried as they often were)? Does the dismantling
of<br>
the State-run economy necessarily mean an opening up of a genuine
market<br>
economy? Are the advances and benefits announced by the advocates of<br>
liberalism and the political authorities actually being delivered? Can
a<br>
devastated Timor begin to reconstruct itself in a liberal framework?
Forty<br>
five years after its reintegration into the Indian Union, how is Goa<br>
developing in a market economy country that has never accepted the<br>
precepts of neo-liberalism?<br><br>
5) Debates and controversies<br>
What are the internal debates within the Lula government team,
between<br>
agro-business and the Landless Workers? Are there internal debates
within<br>
the hegemonic parties in power in Lusophone Africa? And in the
government<br>
and Fretilin in Timor?<br>
Are alterglobalisation and the local forms of resistance a rearguard<br>
action? What are the new forms of protest and resistance? What are
their<br>
vectors and relays (political parties, unions, social movements or
media)?<br>
What is the situation of the “grey” economy favoured by
neo-liberalism,<br>
between the law and crime? And what about the Luso-narcotics business?
Can<br>
the CPLP play an active role in the geopolitics of the globalised
economy?<br>
Etc…<br>
Brigitte Lachartre and Pierre Salama<br><br>
Information:<br>
Brigitte Lachartre, <lachartre.b@wanadoo.fr><br>
or <info.lusotopie@sciencespobordeaux.fr><br><br>
Call for contributions of 10 March 2006.<br>
Proposals must be sent (titles and abstracts of no more than 20 lines)
by<br>
10 June 2006 to Brigitte Lachartre, <lachartre.b@wanadoo.fr>.<br>
Manuscripts in French, Portuguese or English complying with the
Lusotopie<br>
norms must be handed in by 10 September 2006. Manuscripts must be
sent<br>
simultaneously in RTF format to the following two addresses:<br>
<lachartre.b@wanadoo.fr> and
<pereiravictor@hotmail.com>.<br>
Decision of the editorial committee after double blind evaluation on
10<br>
December 2006.<br>
Publication in the 2007 volume 2007 (XIV-1 in April 2007 or XIV-2 in<br>
November 2007).<br>
Norms can be downloaded from<br>
<<a href="http://www.lusotopie.sciencespobordeaux.fr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.lusotopie.sciencespobordeaux.fr/</a>>, page ‘Proposer
des<br>
manuscrits / Propor artigos / To submit articles”.</blockquote>
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<hr>
Dr. Michael Leach<br>
Research Fellow<br>
Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation<br>
Faculty of Arts, Deakin University<br>
221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood, VIC 3125 Australia<br>
Ph.:(61-3) 9244 3923 Fax: (61-3) 9244 6755<br>
Email: michael.leach@deakin.edu.au<br>
<a href="http://www.deakin.edu.au/icg" eudora="autourl">
www.deakin.edu.au/icg<br>
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