Possible Futures Series

The first three volumes of the series, available for purchase as a set now!

The Possible Futures Series gathers together leading social

scientists to address the significance of the global economic crisis in a

series of short, accessible books. Each volume takes on the past,

present, and future of this crisis suggesting that it has an informative

history, that the consequences could be much more basic than the stock

market declines, and that only fundamental changes -- not fiscal

band-aids -- can head off future repetitions.

CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE: Immanuel Wallerstein, David Harvey, Saskia

Sassen, James Kenneth Galbraith, Manuel Castells, Nancy Fraser, Rogers

Brubaker, David Held, Mary Kaldor, Vadim Volkov, Giovanni Arrighi,

Beverly Silver, and Fernando Coronil.

Volume I, Business as Usual

The Roots of the Global Financial Meltdown

Edited by Craig Calhoun and Georgi Derluguian

Much more basic than the result of a few financial traders cheating the system, Business as Usual

shows how the current financial crisis was made possible by both

neoliberal financial reforms and a massive turning away from

manufacturing things of value to make profits from trading financial

assets. In original essays, the contributors establish how the Great

Recession is related to crises of the past, and yet why this meltdown

was different. The volume concludes by asking whether the crisis --

despite its severity -- contains seeds of a new global economy, what

role the US will play, and whether China or other countries will rise to

global leadership.

Volume II, The Deepening Crisis

Governance Challenges after Neoliberalism

Edited by Craig Calhoun and Georgi Derluguian

Response to financial meltdown is entangled with basic challenges to

global governance. Environment, global security, ethnicity and

nationalism are all global issues today. Focusing on the political and

social dimensions of the crisis, contributors examine changes in

relationships between the world's richer and poorer countries, efforts

to strengthen global institutions, and dificulties facing states trying

to create stability for their citizens.



Volume III, Aftermath

A New Global Economic Order?

Edited by Craig Calhoun and Georgi Derluguian

The global financial crisis showed deep problems with mainstream

economic predictions, as well as the vulnerability of the world's

richest countries and the enormous potential of some poorer ones. China,

India, Brazil, and other counties are growing faster than Europe or

America and have weathered the crisis better. Is their growth due to

following conventional economic guidelines or to strong state leadership

and sometimes protectionism? These issues are basic to the question of

which countries will grow in comind decades, as well as the likely

conflicts over global trade policy, currency standards, and economic

cooperation.