How do our everyday actions shape and transform the world economy? This volume of original essays argues that current scholarship in international political economy (IPE) is too highly focused on powerful states and large international institutions. The contributors examine specific forms of ???everyday??? actions to demonstrate how small-scale actors and their decisions can shape the global economy. They analyse a range of seemingly ordinary or subordinate actors, including peasants, working classes and trade unions, lower-middle and middle classes, female migrant labourers and Eastern diasporas, and examine how they have agency in transforming their political and economic environments. This book offers a novel way of thinking about everyday forms of change across a range of topical issues including globalisation, international finance, trade, taxation, consumerism, labour rights and regimes. It will appeal to students and scholars of politics, international relations, political economy and sociology.

Sociology is having an increasing impact on the study of international politics. Covering the range of different approaches and methodologies, leading international scholars examine the extent of this influence. They aim to promote a study of world politics which is sensitive to the impact of social structure and historical context, and will be of interest to scholars and students of sociology and political science as well as International Relations.

Very timely and topical, as it pushes the boundaries on IR Theory beyond its racist, Eurocentric premises. Covers IR themes from a more critical 'meta-perspective' that provides greater contextualisation for students' critical thinking about the field. With contributions from some key names in the discipline.

John A. Hobson is widely recognised as the most important British New Liberal thinker of politics and political economy of the twentieth century. The Selected Writings of John A. Hobson showcases an exciting and previously unpublished collection of Hobson's writings and lectures from 1932-1938 that Hobson presented at the South Place Ethical Society in the last decade of his life.

The lectures and the introduction produce a fresh reading of Hobson 's thinking and theorization of International Relations, thereby revealing a much more complex thinker than has conventionally been understood. Edited by Colin Tyler, a framing introduction written by the author 's great grandson, John M. Hobson situates these lectures in the context of his life-work on International Relations between 1897 and 1940.

Selected Writings of John A. Hobson 1932-1938 is an essential read for all Hobson scholars and students and scholars of globalization and political economy.

The Wealth of States is the first sustained analysis of the overlap between historical sociology and international relations. Through a detailed examination of nineteenth century trade regimes, and the Great Powers' efforts to increase their military capabilities, the author reveals the importance of the state as an autonomous actor in international politics and economics, which is not dependent upon dominant economic classes. The book thus represents a distinctive approach that goes beyond the existing paradigms of Marxism, liberalism and realism.

Very timely and topical, as it pushes the boundaries on IR Theory beyond its racist, Eurocentric premises. Covers IR themes from a more critical 'meta-perspective' that provides greater contextualisation for students' critical thinking about the field. With contributions from some key names in the discipline.

Westerners on both the left and right overwhelmingly conflate globalisation with Westernisation and presume that the global economy is a pure Western-creation. Taking on the traditional Eurocentric Big Bang theory, or the 'expansion of the West' narrative, this book reveals the multicultural origins of globalisation and the global economy, not so as to marginalise the West but to show how it has long been embedded in complex interconnections and co-constitutive interactions with non-Western actors/agents and processes. The central empirical theme is the role of Indian structural power that was derived from Indian cotton textile exports. Indian structural power organised the first (historical-capitalist) global economy between 1500 and c.1850 and performed a vital, albeit indirect, role in the making of Western empire, industrialisation and the second (modern-capitalist) global economy. These textiles underpinned the complex inter-relations between Africa, West/Central/East/Southeast Asia, the Americas and Europe that collectively drove global economic development forward.

John Hobson challenges the ethnocentric bias of mainstream accounts of the Rise of the West. It is often assumed that since Ancient Greek times Europeans have pioneered their own development, and that the East has been a passive by-stander in the story of progressive world history. Hobson argues that there were two processes that enabled the Rise of the 'Oriental West'. First, each major developmental turning point in Europe was informed in large part by the assimilation of Eastern inventions (e.g. ideas, technologies and institutions) which diffused from the more advanced East across the Eastern-led global economy between 500-1800. Second, the construction of European identity after 1453 led to imperialism, through which Europeans appropriated many Eastern resources (land, labour and markets). Hobson's book thus propels the hitherto marginalised Eastern peoples to the forefront of the story of progress in world history.

John Hobson claims that throughout its history most international theory has been embedded within various forms of Eurocentrism. Rather than producing value-free and universalist theories of inter-state relations, international theory instead provides provincial analyses that celebrate and defend Western civilization as the subject of, and ideal normative referent in, world politics. Hobson also provides a sympathetic critique of Edward Said's conceptions of Eurocentrism and Orientalism, revealing how Eurocentrism takes different forms, which can be imperialist or anti-imperialist, and showing how these have played out in international theory since 1760. The book thus speaks to scholars of international relations and also to all those interested in understanding Eurocentrism in the disciplines of political science/political theory, political economy/international political economy, geography, cultural and literary studies, sociology and, not least, anthropology.

This book provides students with a fresh overview of the main theories of the state found in International Relations. The author introduces readers to state theory, argues that existing theories of the state are limited, and proposes a new framework. In doing so, he surveys realist, liberal, Marxist, constructivist and neo-Weberian approaches to the state. The book offers readers a unique introduction to state theory in International Relations, and will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology and politics, as well as International Relations.

How do our everyday actions shape and transform the world economy? This volume of original essays argues that current scholarship in international political economy (IPE) is too highly focused on powerful states and large international institutions. The contributors examine specific forms of ???everyday??? actions to demonstrate how small-scale actors and their decisions can shape the global economy. They analyse a range of seemingly ordinary or subordinate actors, including peasants, working classes and trade unions, lower-middle and middle classes, female migrant labourers and Eastern diasporas, and examine how they have agency in transforming their political and economic environments. This book offers a novel way of thinking about everyday forms of change across a range of topical issues including globalisation, international finance, trade, taxation, consumerism, labour rights and regimes. It will appeal to students and scholars of politics, international relations, political economy and sociology.

John Hobson challenges the ethnocentric bias of mainstream accounts of the Rise of the West. It is often assumed that since Ancient Greek times Europeans have pioneered their own development, and that the East has been a passive by-stander in the story of progressive world history. Hobson argues that there were two processes that enabled the Rise of the 'Oriental West'. First, each major developmental turning point in Europe was informed in large part by the assimilation of Eastern inventions (e.g. ideas, technologies and institutions) which diffused from the more advanced East across the Eastern-led global economy between 500-1800. Second, the construction of European identity after 1453 led to imperialism, through which Europeans appropriated many Eastern resources (land, labour and markets). Hobson's book thus propels the hitherto marginalised Eastern peoples to the forefront of the story of progress in world history.

Sociology is having an increasing impact on the study of international politics. Covering the range of different approaches and methodologies, leading international scholars examine the extent of this influence. They aim to promote a study of world politics which is sensitive to the impact of social structure and historical context, and will be of interest to scholars and students of sociology and political science as well as International Relations.

This book provides students with a fresh overview of the main theories of the state found in International Relations. The author introduces readers to state theory, argues that existing theories of the state are limited, and proposes a new framework. In doing so, he surveys realist, liberal, Marxist, constructivist and neo-Weberian approaches to the state. The book offers readers a unique introduction to state theory in International Relations, and will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology and politics, as well as International Relations.

In recent years a number of scholars of international relations have developed an interest in neo-Weberian historical sociology, but The Wealth of States is the first sustained analysis of the overlap between historical sociology and international relations. John Hobson develops a new theory of international change using a sociological approach, through a detailed examination of nineteenth-century trade regimes, and the efforts of the Great Powers to increase their military capabilities before the First World War through tariff protectionism. His analysis reveals the importance of the state as an autonomous, ?adaptive? actor in international politics and economics, which is not dependent upon dominant economic classes. The book thus represents a distinctive approach which goes beyond the existing paradigms of marxism, liberalism, and realism.

Westerners on both the left and right overwhelmingly conflate globalisation with Westernisation and presume that the global economy is a pure Western-creation. Taking on the traditional Eurocentric Big Bang theory, or the 'expansion of the West' narrative, this book reveals the multicultural origins of globalisation and the global economy, not so as to marginalise the West but to show how it has long been embedded in complex interconnections and co-constitutive interactions with non-Western actors/agents and processes. The central empirical theme is the role of Indian structural power that was derived from Indian cotton textile exports. Indian structural power organised the first (historical-capitalist) global economy between 1500 and c.1850 and performed a vital, albeit indirect, role in the making of Western empire, industrialisation and the second (modern-capitalist) global economy. These textiles underpinned the complex inter-relations between Africa, West/Central/East/Southeast Asia, the Americas and Europe that collectively drove global economic development forward.

John Hobson claims that throughout its history most international theory has been embedded within various forms of Eurocentrism. Rather than producing value-free and universalist theories of inter-state relations, international theory instead provides provincial analyses that celebrate and defend Western civilization as the subject of, and ideal normative referent in, world politics. Hobson also provides a sympathetic critique of Edward Said's conceptions of Eurocentrism and Orientalism, revealing how Eurocentrism takes different forms, which can be imperialist or anti-imperialist, and showing how these have played out in international theory since 1760. The book thus speaks to scholars of international relations and also to all those interested in understanding Eurocentrism in the disciplines of political science/political theory, political economy/international political economy, geography, cultural and literary studies, sociology and, not least, anthropology.