The Crisis and Renewal of American Capitalism: A Civilizational Approach to Modern American Political Economy / Edition 1

by Laurence Cossu-Beaumont, Jacques-Henri Coste, Jean-Baptiste Velut

Overview

Despite the reversal of America’s fortune from the triumphalism of the Roaring Nineties to the gloom of the lost decade and the Great Depression, theoretical conceptions of US capitalism have remained surprisingly unchanged. This book departs from the American political economy literature to identify three common myths that have shaped our conceptualization of US capitalism: its reduction to a state-market dyad dis-embedded from societal factors; the illusion of a weak state and the synchronic conception of the US variety of capitalism.

To remedy these pitfalls, the authors propose a civilizational approach to American political economy at the crossroads between cultural studies, history, sociology and political science. Drawing together contributions from a rich variety of fields (from geography to cultural studies, political science and sociology) this work sheds a new light on America’s "cultural political economy" combining theoretical reflection with empirical data and offering innovative perspectives on the crisis and renewal of American capitalism.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars interested in the dynamics of capitalism and its societal ramifications beyond economics. The multidisciplinary nature of this book also makes it a useful learning tool for students working in American politics, comparative political economy and urban sociology and capitalism and society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138908758
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/21/2015
Series:	Routledge Advances in International Political Economy
Pages:	326
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Laurence Cossu-Beaumont is an Associate Professor at the University Paris 3 - Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. She joined CERVEPAS, Research Center of Anglo-Saxon Economies, in 2011, as a specialist of the United States’soft power through cultural industries such as the book industry.

Jean-Baptiste Velut is Assistant Professor in American Studies at Sorbonne Nouvelle University of Paris. He holds a PhD in North American Studies from the Sorbonne Nouvelle University of Paris and in political science from the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center. He wrote a dissertation entitled "Free or Fair Trade? The Battle for the Rules of American Trade Policy from NAFTA to CAFTA" (2009, Sorbonne Nouvelle University/CUNY) and has published several articles on trade policy, globalization debates and contemporary progressive movements in the United States.

Jacques-Henri Coste is an Associate Professor of American studies at the Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 University and a member of the CERVEPAS/CREW research center on Anglo-Saxon economies. He is director of the B.A. program in Foreign Languages and International Business and also lectures at the Lyon Institut des Etudes Politiques on the evolutions of the U.S. economic model. He serves on the editorial board of Entreprendre and Innover and other academic journals. He has recently co-organized two international conferences on the "Representations of Capitalism in the English-speaking World".

Table of Contents

Preface Robert Boyer. Introduction: The Crisis and Renewal of American Capitalism: A Civilizational Approach Jacques-Henri Coste, Laurence Cossu-Beaumont and Jean-Baptiste Velut Part 1: Re-embedding the Financial Crisis in its Cultural Milieu Chapter 1: The “Wild West” on Wall Street: An analysis of and prognosis for the American model of postmodern finance capital in the global economy James McBride Chapter 2: Why and how the Fed contributed to massive failure in asset markets Nicholas Sowels Chapter 3: The Resilience of American neoliberalism Bradley T. Smith Chapter 4: Consumption, circulation and the crisis of American capitalism Pierre Arnaud Part 2: Shifting Paradigms, Shifting Scopes: Beyond the National Crisis Chapter 5: A U.S. National Model of Capitalism? Lessons from the Great Recession Martine Azuelos Chapter 6: Who’s left to sink or swim? Practices and policies of the ‘submerged state’ at the subnational level in the wake of the economic recession Cécile Cormier Chapter 7: The subprime crisis: A multiscalar issue challenging the American dream Cynthia Ghorra-Gobin Chapter 8: Transcending boundaries: America’s hybrid and multiscalar response to the competitive challenge of globalization Jean-Baptiste Velut Part 3: Disruptive and Creative Agency: The Dynamics of Cultural Resilience and Renewal Chapter 9: The evolutions of the US innovation system as a political economy paradigm: from innovation policy making to ecoystemic governance? Jacques-Henri Coste Chapter 10: U.S. Labor market institutions and employment dynamics: a turning point? Catherine Sauviat Chapter 11: Occupy Wall Street: Anything More than a Fly in the Ointment? Marie-Christine Pauwels Chapter 12: The Giving Pledge: Philanthropy and the reinvention of American capitalism Laurence Cossu-Beaumont