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

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

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. In fact, if the crisis questioned the sustainability of the US capitalist paradigm, it did not fundamentally challenge academic theorization of American political economy.

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781317439110
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/22/2015
Series:	Routledge Advances in International Political Economy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	326
File size:	4 MB

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

PROLOGUE BY ROBERT BOYER.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER by Jacques-Henri Coste, Laurence Cossu-Beaumont and Jean-Baptiste Velut, The Crisis and Renewal of American Capitalism : A Civilizational Approach

PART I – RE-EMBEDDING THE FINANCIAL CRISIS IN ITS CULTURAL MILIEU

James McBride (New York University)- The "Wild West" on Wall Street: An Analysis of and Prognosis for the American Model of Postmodern Finance Capital in the Global Economy

Nicholas Sowels (Université Panthéon Sorbonne) - Why and How the Fed Contributed to Massive Failure in Asset Markets

Bradley T. Smith (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)- We Have Not Seen the Last of American Neoliberalism

Pierre Arnaud (Université Paris-Ouest Nanterre-La Défense) - Consumption, circulation and the crisis of American capitalism

Part II – SHIFTING PARADIGMS, SHIFTING SCOPES: BEYOND THE NATIONAL CRISIS

Martine Azuelos (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle) – A U.S. National Model of Capitalism? Lessons from the Great Recession

Cécile Cormier (Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV)- 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

Cynthia Ghorra-Gobin (Université Paris Sorbonne )- The subprime crisis: A multiscalar issue challenging the American dream

Jean-Baptiste Velut (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle ) – Going global: America’s competitiveness policy in the globalized era

PART III- DISRUPTIVE AND CREATIVE AGENCY: THE DYNAMICS OF CULTURAL RESILIENCE AND RENEWAL

Jacques-Henri Coste (University Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle) - The Evolutions of the US Innovation System as a Political Economy Paradigm: from Systemic Governance to Innovation Policy Making?

Catherine Sauviat (Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales, IRES)- U.S. Labor market institutions and employment dynamics: a turning point?

Marie-Christine Pauwels (University Paris Ouest)- Occupy Wall Street: Anything More than a Fly in the Ointment?

Laurence Cossu-Beaumont (University Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle)- The Giving Pledge: Philanthropy and the Reinvention of American Capitalism