Overview

The so-called culture industries-film, television and radio broadcasting, periodical and book publishing, video and sound recording-are noteworthy exceptions to the rhetorical commitment of Western countries to free trade as a major goal. These exceptions threatened to derail such high-profile negotiations as NAFTA and its predecessor, the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement, as well as the Uruguay Round of the GATT. Conventional wisdom did not foresee trouble from this source, because these established industries are not commercial national champions, nor are they particularly large providers of jobs. As Patricia M. Goff shows, the standard trade literature considers the monetary value but doesn't recognize the symbolic importance of cultural production. In Limits to Liberalization, she traces the interplay between the commercial and the cultural. Governments that want to expand free trade may simultaneously resist liberalization in the culture industries (and elsewhere, including agriculture and health care). Goff traces the rationale for ""cultural protectionism"" in the trade policies of Canada, France, and the European Union. The result is a larger understanding of the forces that shape international trade agreements and a book that speaks to current theoretical concerns about national identity as it plays out in politics and international relations.

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9780801444586

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Reviews

""Surprisingly, work in political science rarely, if ever, examines trade and culture together. Patricia Goff has rectified this blind spot in an impeccably clear and sophisticated analysis of how and why Canada, France, and the EU nurture local music, film, and literary industries against global economic odds. Goff's pathbreaking book sets a new and extremely high bar for how we think about the economics of identity production, and, indeed, conflicts within contemporary liberalism writ large. Readers will never see protectionism and culture in the same light again.""-Cecelia Lynch, University of California, Irvine ""In this finely drawn and historically sensitive book, Patricia M. Goff argues that current conflicts over liberalization of international trade in the culture industries (as well as food and health) are not economic battles, and thus should not be interpreted solely with economic criteria or through the usual economic paradigms. Goff argues persuasively that cultural goods are not like manufactured goods. Because they are constitutive of national identities and reflections of those identities they merit state interventions in ways that mere manufactures don't.""-Herman Schwartz, University of Virginia

In this finely drawn and historically sensitive book, Patricia M. Goff argues that current conflicts over liberalization of international trade in the culture industries (as well as food and health) are not economic battles, and thus should not be interpreted solely with economic criteria or through the usual economic paradigms. Goff argues persuasively that cultural goods are not like manufactured goods. Because they are constitutive of national identities and reflections of those identities they merit state interventions in ways that mere manufactures don't. -Herman Schwartz, University of Virginia

In this finely drawn and historically sensitive book, Patricia M. Goff argues that current conflicts over liberalization of international trade in the culture industries (as well as food and health) are not economic battles, and thus should not be interpreted solely with economic criteria or through the usual economic paradigms. Goff argues persuasively that cultural goods are not like manufactured goods. Because they are constitutive of national identities and reflections of those identities they merit state interventions in ways that mere manufactures don't. Herman Schwartz, University of Virginia

Surprisingly, work in political science rarely, if ever, examines trade and culture together. Patricia Goff has rectified this blind spot in an impeccably clear and sophisticated analysis of how and why Canada, France, and the EU nurture local music, film, and literary industries against global economic odds. Goff's pathbreaking book sets a new and extremely high bar for how we think about the economics of identity production, and, indeed, conflicts within contemporary liberalism writ large. Readers will never see protectionism and culture in the same light again. -Cecelia Lynch, University of California, Irvine In this finely drawn and historically sensitive book, Patricia M. Goff argues that current conflicts over liberalization of international trade in the culture industries (as well as food and health) are not economic battles, and thus should not be interpreted solely with economic criteria or through the usual economic paradigms. Goff argues persuasively that cultural goods are not like manufactured goods. Because they are constitutive of national identities and reflections of those identities they merit state interventions in ways that mere manufactures don't. -Herman Schwartz, University of Virginia

Author Information

Patricia M. Goff is Associate Professor of Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University. She is the coeditor of Irrelevant or Indispensable: The United Nations in the 21st Century and Identity and Global Politics: Theoretical and Empirical Elaborations.

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