Book Reviews: Globalisation: Threat or Opportunity
Abstract
BOOK REVIEWS Paul Streeten. 2001. Globalisation: Threat or Opportunity. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press. Pp. 190 pp. Paperback $25. ISBN 8716135245. The phenomenon of globalisation arouses strong emotions, both for and against it. Gone are the days when its champions and supporters presented a case for it as an unmixed blessing for all countries, rich and poor. Its supporters are now far more cautious, and even qualified, in making a point in its favour. Its opponents, who are far more vocal and aggressive, range from academics, elites, and all shades of social activists and anarchists. They come from different backgrounds and represent different perspectives and issues. Some observers fear that before long the opponents of globalisation may spawn highly ideologically charged social movements and will setback the search for a normative-pragmatic balance in economic and social policy. While globalisation has recently hit the radar screen of public conscious- ness (i.e., as a result clashes in Seattle, Prague, Quebec and other cities during the last few years), quiet academic work and reflection, albeit segmented, has been going on for more than two decades. As Paul Streeten (the doyen of development studies) pointed out in the early 1980s, globalisation would