In recent years there has been a great deal of discussion about the social economy and the term 'the third way' has attained a level of household recognition, especially in America and Britain. Academics and commentators have debated the usefulness of the social economy as a restraint on capitalist excesses with some arguing that the 'third way' is but a poor substitute for a welfare state. This book provides a refreshing and accessible account of real life experience in a social economy.
By focusing on new evidence, this book critically analyses such themes as:
*the range of academic and policy expectation that have emerged in recent years in the developed world
*the policies of New Labour in Britain
*the dynamics of social enterprises in Bristol, London, Middlesbrough and Glasgow.
These critical assessments lead the authors to reflect in the future potential of the social economy and the possible policy changes that are necessary to maximise whatever opportunity the sector provides.

Body/State brings together original essays addressing various aspects of the evolving interaction between bodies and states. While each essay has different empirical and/or theoretical focus, authors consider a number of overlapping themes to appreciate the state's engagement with, and concern about, bodies. Divided into five parts, the first part, 'Bodies Modified and Divided' considers how the production, regulation, policing and maintenance of borders (physical, social, sexual, political, religious, etc.) are used to enable or constrain the physical (re)shaping of the body. Part two, 'Capital Bodies', extends the state's concern with the flows of bodies that make up the nation to consider how they are enrolled in the complex structures of capitalist exchange that form the basis for maintaining and contesting a set of relationships between states and markets. Part three, 'Deviance and Resistance', examines both how states seek to discipline 'non-normal' bodies and appreciates the capacity of changes in the socio-cultural meaning and nature of bodies to resist and/or escape states. Part four, 'Sovereignty and Surveillance', develops themes of deviancy and resistance by considering the impact of new technologies both on the intimate regulatory reach of states into and across bodies and on the nature of embodiment itself. Finally, Part five, 'The Body Virtual', examines the impact of new technologies and online spaces both on the intimate regulatory reach of states into and across bodies and on the nature of embodiment itself. A varied collection of essays that address important and complex topics in a readable and creative way.

Body/State brings together original essays addressing various aspects of the evolving interaction between bodies and states. While each essay has different empirical and/or theoretical focus, authors consider a number of overlapping themes to appreciate the state's engagement with, and concern about, bodies. Divided into five parts, the first part, 'Bodies Modified and Divided' considers how the production, regulation, policing and maintenance of borders (physical, social, sexual, political, religious, etc.) are used to enable or constrain the physical (re)shaping of the body. Part two, 'Capital Bodies', extends the state's concern with the flows of bodies that make up the nation to consider how they are enrolled in the complex structures of capitalist exchange that form the basis for maintaining and contesting a set of relationships between states and markets. Part three, 'Deviance and Resistance', examines both how states seek to discipline 'non-normal' bodies and appreciates the capacity of changes in the socio-cultural meaning and nature of bodies to resist and/or escape states. Part four, 'Sovereignty and Surveillance', develops themes of deviancy and resistance by considering the impact of new technologies both on the intimate regulatory reach of states into and across bodies and on the nature of embodiment itself. Finally, Part five, 'The Body Virtual', examines the impact of new technologies and online spaces both on the intimate regulatory reach of states into and across bodies and on the nature of embodiment itself. A varied collection of essays that address important and complex topics in a readable and creative way.

In recent years there has been a great deal of discussion about the social economy and the term 'the third way' has attained a level of household recognition, especially in America and Britain. Academics and commentators have debated the usefulness of the social economy as a restraint on capitalist excesses with some arguing that the 'third way' is but a poor substitute for a welfare state. This book provides a refreshing and accessible account of real life experience in a social economy.
By focusing on new evidence, this book critically analyses such themes as:
*the range of academic and policy expectation that have emerged in recent years in the developed world
*the policies of New Labour in Britain
*the dynamics of social enterprises in Bristol, London, Middlesbrough and Glasgow.
These critical assessments lead the authors to reflect in the future potential of the social economy and the possible policy changes that are necessary to maximise whatever opportunity the sector provides.

AN EVOLUTIONARY NOVEL One Swedish winter morning, a normally placid engineer gives his boss a well deserved slap in the face. The question, "What's wrong with this idiot?" pitches Nilson and an eclectic group of friends on an inquest into the dark corners of the human psyche. Not a standard crime investigation, as the elusive perpetrator is hiding in the most secret of all secret places, where the police cannot follow. Peeling away the layers of society over beer and pizza, they start to uncover something dangerous lurking in the minds of people - a Narcissus Parasite that has the power to destroy companies, play havoc with entire countries and severely damage human relationships. Soon the truth telling becomes personal as they turn the light towards themselves. Through the four seasons of a Scandinavian year we join Nilson and company at the Pizzeria Salamander as they dig deeper. We follow them home and on travels, with their families, struggling with raising their children, loving their partners, and facing the age-old enigmas of death and spirituality. What do this group of ordinary working people uncover when they take the time to really essay into the questions of the Good, the True and the Beautiful? Reader Reviews: A remarkable book. Its main strength is that it makes me think. Reading it has made me a member of the Salamander Club, and that's a rare reading experience. Dave King, Co-author of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. The book reads like a psychological and philosophical adventure story. The Salamanders' conversations shed new clarity on some of the most widespread and destructive psychological forces at play in our modern world. Be prepared to discover that you, too, may be among those infected. Lasse Ramquist. This book resembles a Gothic structure - elegant archways that carry a lot of weight. Dr Ulf Hjalmars

Shortlisted for the Inaugural International Political Economy Group annual book prize

'...amongst the most important books yet written on globalization'

- Review of International Political Economy

"In this original and very accessible work Cameron and Palan make a major contribution to the narrative turn in political economy. Skillfully combining sustained theoretical critiques and contemporary empirical analyses, this politically engaged book promotes a paradigm shift that sheds new light on the changing relations among the economy, the political, and the social. It will quickly become a major reference point for its account of globalization as a persuasive story and a flawed reality. I recommend it unreservedly"

Bob Jessop

How do theories, discussions and debates about globalisation shape the very subject they reflect on? How are conceptions of the state, society and politics are changing in the age of globalisation?

This book critically introduces the main contemporary debates on globalization and demonstrates how conventional versions or narratives of globalization have served to shape policy responses at both state and corporate levels.

Rather than accepting the disintegration of the state thesis, the authors present an alternative transition from the nation-state as a homogenous imagined community', to a more complex and fluid series of normative economic spaces or imagined economies'. They illustrate how this respatialization of the contemporary state is rapidly taking shape in concrete institutions, processes, people and places serving to recast the boundaries of the social, political and economic in fundamental ways.

By accessibly demonstrating the way in which the discourse of globalization has itself become an integral part of the politics of globalization, The Imagined Economies of Globalization serves as an ideal introduction to key contemporary debates in politics, international relations, geography, international political economy and sociology.

Shortlisted for the Inaugural International Political Economy Group annual book prize

'...amongst the most important books yet written on globalization'

- Review of International Political Economy

"In this original and very accessible work Cameron and Palan make a major contribution to the narrative turn in political economy. Skillfully combining sustained theoretical critiques and contemporary empirical analyses, this politically engaged book promotes a paradigm shift that sheds new light on the changing relations among the economy, the political, and the social. It will quickly become a major reference point for its account of globalization as a persuasive story and a flawed reality. I recommend it unreservedly"

Bob Jessop

How do theories, discussions and debates about globalisation shape the very subject they reflect on? How are conceptions of the state, society and politics are changing in the age of globalisation?

This book critically introduces the main contemporary debates on globalization and demonstrates how conventional versions or narratives of globalization have served to shape policy responses at both state and corporate levels.

Rather than accepting the disintegration of the state thesis, the authors present an alternative transition from the nation-state as a homogenous imagined community', to a more complex and fluid series of normative economic spaces or imagined economies'. They illustrate how this respatialization of the contemporary state is rapidly taking shape in concrete institutions, processes, people and places serving to recast the boundaries of the social, political and economic in fundamental ways.

By accessibly demonstrating the way in which the discourse of globalization has itself become an integral part of the politics of globalization, The Imagined Economies of Globalization serves as an ideal introduction to key contemporary debates in politics, international relations, geography, international political economy and sociology.