The Cost of Globalization

"This book can easily be adopted in numerous courses in the social sciences and humanities and should be required reading for all interested in understanding the complex dynamics of globalization."--Celestino Fernández, University of Arizona. "In this brilliant work, Professor Julian Kunnie has explored and established the underlying connections between globalization and the multiple threats to nature and life at the lower half of the pyramid. Such deep seated humane writings will serve the cause of climate justice to a great extent."--Soumya Dutta, Beyond Copenhagen Collective. Over the past 25 years, numerous books have been written on the advantages and disadvantages of globalization. But the issues arising from rapid global integration have generally been treated in isolation by most academic works. This volume examines the many pitfalls of globalization from the perspective of impoverished and indigenous peoples, including the widening wealth gap, the struggle for restoration of dispossessed lands and cultural rights, global warming and ecological annihilation, and the experiences of women in underdeveloped regions who receive little benefit from their labor and are subject to violence. The United States' growing prison industrial complex is discussed as an outgrowth of globalization practices that restrict economic mobility. The author concludes with a call for reassessing current ways of living and proposes recreating cultures of conservation and sustainable economies in harmony with the Earth.