convergence

Gilman, Goldhammer, and Weber
possible to find manifestations of deviant globalization in almost every city, every household,
every shipping lane and port, as well as almost every IP address connected to the global economy.
6
Mainstream Globalization Deviant Globalization
Companies such as Wal-Mart are using
extraordinary supply-chain technologies to
revolutionize logistics, generating jobs for
workers in developing countries and bringing
much cheaper mass-consumption goods to
the global middle classes.
The Internet facilitates the global distribution
of information, enables the collective
production of knowledge goods, and
enhances freedom to speak and to listen.
Capital mobility across national borders
improves the efficiency with which the global
economy allocates investment and should
thereby enhance productivity immediately
and, in particular, over the long term.
The spreading ideology of privatization and
market allocation released a historic burst
of entrepreneurial energy and raised on the
order of a billion people out of abject poverty
in less than a generation.
The same supply chain technologies are
used to tune up the efficiency of the global
supply chain for counterfeit goods. Many
of the inputs for the factories that make
counterfeits are competitively sourced on
global markets at minimum price, and the
products are transported with new efficiency
to consumers.
The Internet has become the easiest entry
point to global systems for hostile and
exploitative technologies (malware); social
exploits (scams and spam); the identification
of remote targets for pederasts; and the
dissemination of radical ideologies that
oppose or negate freedoms.
Capital mobility makes all kinds of finance
for illegal activities, including crime and
terrorism, as well as the laundering of
money from other illicit activities far easier
and much more challenging for political
authorities.
The same ideologies have lent legitimacy to
the concept of “everything for sale” including
human beings (both whole and in pieces).
Privatization ideologies in particular have led
to the collapse in public goods provision—
for example, by dumping waste and garbage
“elsewhere.”
Why Deviant Globalization Matters
As the example of Mexico shows, it is a serious error to view deviant globalization as a mere
sideshow to what “really matters” in the global political economy. On the contrary, we believe
that deviant globalization is not only central to contemporary geopolitics, but is also actively
changing the landscape and distribution of power in the world economy in ways nearly as profound
as any openly visible politico-economic trend or event has since the end of the Cold War. 6
Deviant globalization matters to the future of the global political economy for three
interconnected reasons. First, it challenges cherished notions of what “development” and
“entrepreneurship” are supposed to be all about. Nations, institutions, and nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) from the Global North dedicate huge amounts of time and immense
sums of money trying to help nations of the Global South modernize, diversify, and grow
their economies. Liberal proponents of mainstream globalization view these efforts as a set
of market-building steps toward delivering on the promise of capitalism. Marxist opponents
criticize development practices for fostering dependency and, paradoxically, a permanent state