Who wants to be a European?

Developing and refining research into the problematics of globalization, Hopper’s work adopts the distinctive methodology of applying his multi-disciplinary perspective through a series of individual case studies. While building on his previously published research, this text seeks to move the analysis beyond general and abstract accounts of this subject, focusing instead upon how globalizing processes are interpreted and experienced within specific contexts. It examines, for example, how such processes – cultural, political, economic, social – are being played out in China, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. The detailed constituent research investigates how the discourse of globalization can have tangible effects. In order to demonstrate this position the case studies undertaken include, for example, examining how globalization has informed governmental policy in the UK, and specifically the New Labour third-way agenda; how it is influencing debates within the Islamic world; how it is impacting upon the United States’ position and role in the world; how the Chinese party-state has utilized economic globalization, but resisted cultural and political dimensions it considers threaten its own position; and how it is shaping the development of the European Union. Within a community of practice including Bauman, Giddens, Hirst and Kaldor, Hopper’s work sites the study of globalisation, and the attendant scholarly discourse, in a wide geographical, cultural and political context. In doing so, it not only addresses some of the existing debates but raises new questions pertaining to the process and differential impact of globalization.