出版社:American Sociological Association Section on Political Economy of the World System
摘要:Chapter one begins with a discussion of the recent protest events in Seattle during the WTO meetings, currently a relatively common topic among social scientists. Lofdahl, like many others, explains that the protesters in Seattle were not against globalization, but rather protesting the harmful e.ects in.icted by it on the global environment and poorer disadvantaged populations around the world. Economists argue that free trade helps "developed" and "less-developed" nations grow economically while environmental and social justice groups main-tain that increased unregulated trade caused by globalization decreases regional labor standards and environmental conditions in "less-developed" countries at the expense of the more "developed" countries' interests. Simply, protestors main-tain that trade and globalization hurts human well-being and the environment, a direct contradiction to economists, which generally believe that trade helps com-munities develop and the environmental outcomes are justifi ed. This debate is nothing new to the social sciences, especially macrosociologists.