Laurence Cossu-Beaumont – författare

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.

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.

Against the backdrop of an increasingly unstable and multipolar modern world, this edited collection takes an interdisciplinary approach to explore institutional, political, social and media fragmentation in today’s increasingly polarised English-speaking world environment. Taking fragmentation as either conflictive or resulting in cooperation, it evaluates to what extent the changes induced are long-lasting and irreversible.

Introducing 20 new case studies which analyse national-level politics, local governance, civil society mobilisation and more, the chapters examine the trajectories of American and British societies. Uncovering both the positive and negative effects of fragmentation, the former materialising in shifts in power away from centralised structures towards private economic actors, citizens and consumers, as well as local authorities, thus allowing for economic innovation, individual freedom and progressive policies, and the latter leading to disunity and the inability to guarantee basic rights, or devise common strategies, maintain stable and functioning economies, and organise effective opposition to state power. Adopting a multi-level approach to exploring the various meanings of fragmentation, chapters cover a variety of political, social, and geopolitical topics. These include fragmented constitutional frameworks and settings; fragmented governance; fragmented political parties; fragmentation in activism and social mobilisation; fragmented cities and urban environments; fragmented public services provision; as well as fragmentation in media and social media.

Fragmented Powers is a rich resource for scholars of public policy, urban studies, political science, sociology, international relations, and more.