It takes two to tango : can Brazil and the U.S. dance to the same regional beat?

The proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas has come to a standstill. Reasons for this reside in three aspects in which the FTAA differs from other regional integration schemes. First, it would combine existing preferential trading arrangements of which NAFTA and MERCOSUR are the two most significant ones. Second, each of the schemes has an undisputed regional leader: the U.S. and Brazil. However, two hegemons do not agree on a common vision for the hemispheric project. Third, the small membership of the two schemes is to be elevated to an area encompassing 34 states, i.e. to a situation of large n . The literature maintains that the provision of a collective good becomes more difficult the larger the number of members party to the scheme. The solution offered for this problem of large n is the existence of either a hegemon or a group of likeminded states to overcome collective action problems. In the case of the Americas, the solution offered by the literature is the very problem for efforts to integrate the hemisphere. The FTAA negotiations are stalled because the attempt to forge collective action among 34 member states is sought by two countries simultaneously. This thesis suggests that the large n problem of hemispheric integration will be resolved by the hegemon more successful in subdividing the group size and imposing its vision. The research of this study therefore compares the procedural strategies of the U.S. and Brazil in their quest to shape the substance of the regional schem

Globalization and the health of Canadians: ‘Having a job is the most important thing’

Background Globalization describes processes of greater integration of the world economy through increased flows goods, services, capital and people. Globalization has undergone significant transformation since the 1970s, entrenching neoliberal economics as the dominant model of global market integration. Although this transformation has generated some health gains, since the 1990s it has also increased health disparities. Methods As part of a larger project examining how contemporary globalization was affecting the health of Canadians, we undertook semi-structured interviews with 147 families living in low-income neighbourhoods in Canada’s three largest cities (Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver). Many of the families were recent immigrants, which was another focus of the study. Drawing on research syntheses undertaken by the Globalization Knowledge Network of the World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health, we examined respondents’ experiences of three globalization-related pathways known to influence health: labour markets (and the rise of precarious employment), housing markets (speculative investments and affordability) and social protection measures (changes in scope and redistributive aspects of social spending and taxation). Interviews took place between April 2009 and November 2011. Results Families experienced an erosion of labour markets (employment) attributed to outsourcing, discrimination in employment experienced by new immigrants, increased precarious employment, and high levels of stress and poor mental health; costly and poor quality housing, especially for new immigrants; and, despite evidence of declining social protection spending, appreciation for state-provided benefits, notably for new immigrants arriving as refugees. Job insecurity was the greatest worry for respondents and their families. Questions concerning the impact of these experiences on health and living standards produced mixed results, with a majority expressing greater difficulty ‘making ends meet,’ some experiencing deterioration in health and yet many also reporting improved living standards. We speculate on reasons for these counter-intuitive results. Conclusions Current trends in the three globalization-related pathways in Canada are likely to worsen the health of families similar to those who participated in our study

Gatekeepers of financial power: from London to Lagos

The main premise of this paper is that, until recently, African elites did not regulate or control financial flows moving across the continent. They were not financial gatekeepers. In Africa Since 1940, Cooper identified African elites as gatekeepers regulating access to resources and opportunities passing through strategic sites. This paper makes a case for revision of existing notions of the gatekeeper state in an ongoing effort to (re)negotiate the continent’s colonial past through two new arguments. The first is that financial power was never located at a ‘peripheral’ African gate, but resolutely held onto within leading financial centres, circumventing any opportunity for African elites to control financial flows. Failure to distinguish between types of flows distorts analysis of African political economic power under colonialism. It is only in the post-2000 period, that we see powerful African states driving the integration of African markets into the global financial system. The second argument is that these African goals to control financial flows correspond more to ‘gateway’ strategies than to gatekeeper. Drawing on the case of Lagos, I demonstrate how this ‘gateway’ concept better captures trans-scalar processes of new financial clustering in Africa’s emerging markets than a concept associated with ‘gates’ under Empire

Johannesburg: Financial ‘Gateway’ to Africa

Financial cities are strategic geographical locations that have the necessary infrastructure and market depth to organize and deliver international financial services. Leading financial cities have historically been situated in Europe, the United States, and, in the last decades, Asia. This is changing; there are significant shifts in investment patterns as global investors see the long-term growth possibilities in emerging markets. This relates directly to changes taking place in Africa. The continent has accelerating and broad-based economic growth that is underpinned by links with Asia and Latin America. Johannesburg—Africa’s major economic city and powerhouse—is at the heart of these changes. It is being positioned by the South African government as the ‘Gateway to Africa.’ Drawing on the work of the historian Fernand Braudel, I argue that the study of such regional gateway cities can help us to analytically disaggregate the global political economy, and enable us to view it not as a single functional unit, but as a set of interlocking networks which contain a variety of forms of social order

The Shaping of Islamic Finance in South Africa: Public Islam and Muslim Publics

Using ‘Public Islam’ and ‘Muslim Publics’ as discursive spaces that construct Islam in the public sphere, this article argues that everyday actions at the intersection of religion and the economy are culturally and historically contextual. Shari?ah-compliant products are being developed by fi nancial institutions entering the niche market of Islamic fi nance. This procedure contributes to the construction of Public Islam, the diverse invocations of Islam that actors bring to public life. Yet, this representation of Islam by banks and fi nancial institutions is provoking debates as Muslims ask what, if anything, Islamic fi nance means to them in their lives. Muslim Publics are the situated, communitarian and political debates that occur in everyday life. Dynamic interactions between Public Islam and Muslims Publics highlight the situated character of fi nancial action and underline the point that associations between being Muslim and using faith-based financial instruments are far from being automatic

Biometric mastercard

The South African government has called on MasterCard credit payments systems to help it distribute welfare benefits to millions of people through biometric debit cards. Biometric authentication refers to technologies that measure and analyze human characteristics for authentication purposes. This process is underpinning biometric citizen ID, one of the most rapidly expanding fields in which the application of biometrics. This technology is being applied to innovative financial instruments, such as that developed by MasterCard for the South African market. MasterCard’s new biometric smart card makes the international as financial institutions integrate the worlds 2.5 billion unbanked into global financial networks. The body is becoming the site of authentication to access money and to credit