Overview

'Vulnerability' is now a key term in globalisation studies. It is used to describe how globalisation impacts on individual security, local communities and even global flows of trade, finance and investment. Yet there has been little attempt to interrogate the term and what it is trying to express about globalisation. Peadar Kirby examines what is really meant by 'vulnerability' and links it to new forms of violence that have resulted from decreased security and social cohesion. He argues that vulnerability and violence are characteristic features of a new world order dominated by neoliberal globalisation. Illustrating his argument with a wealth of examples taken from all over the world -- from the sudden collapse of the middle class in Argentina to increased levels of poverty internationally -- he offers a robust theoretical grounding that will be of use to anyone studying vulnerability and violence and their relation to contemporary globalisation.

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What impressed me was the novelty of the analysis presented and its great usefulness in understanding many of the psychological and social dimensions of globalisazation-related phenomena we observe on the Latin American scene -- David Molineaux, Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful, Santiago, Chile This is an academic and theoretical analysis of the issues concerning the impact of globalisation upon societies around the world. The post Cold War experience of Central and Eastern Europe has seen a huge chasm emerge between the few newly rich and the mass of suddenly poor, under the impact of market forces and dismantling of communist era welfare systems: very many people have now become 'the vulnerable', social tensions and in some cases, violent upheaval, have resulted. Latin America, which has seen the financial collapse in Argentina, is now increasingly opposing US led neo liberal globalisation by electing left style regimes, of which Chavez in Venezuela is the leading example. In Africa, popular resistance to Western exploitation of resources, as in Nigeria, can take violent forms. Two decades of free market globalisation have shown how it destroys communities, increases social tensions and can lead to violence, while producing wealth for a minority. The violence of poverty and conflict are closely related. The author, who lectures on International Relations and Globalisation at Dublin City University, cogently argues that both vulnerability and violence are major features of the new world order created and driven by neoliberal free market globalisaiton. Understanding the dynamics of globalisation is essential for all working for peace in today's world. -- World Disarm

'Cogently argues that both vulnerability and violence are major features of the new world order created and driven by neoliberal free market globalisation' -- World Disarm

Author Information

Peadar Kirby is Emeritus Professor of International Politics and Public Policy at the University of Limerick. He is the author of Towards a Second Republic: Irish Politics after the Celtic Tiger (Pluto, 2011), Vulnerability and Violence: The Impact of Globalisation (Pluto, 2005), Celtic Tiger in Collapse (2010) and co-editor of Transforming Ireland (2009) and Reinventing Ireland: Culture, Society and the Global Economy (Pluto, 2002).

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