New Book: Community Control and Global Capital

Posted by on February 6, 2004

[posted from Comm-Org]

From: [email protected]

I’m very happy to announce that my new book “Unmaking Goliath: Community Control in the Face of Global Capital” (Routledge, New York, 2004) has been released. The description on the back is:

As economies move headlong into the global arena and capital becomes increasingly mobile, how should local community-controlled organizations act to maintain their political power? In Unmaking Goliath, James Defilippis considers the impact of globalization on cities and communities in the US, and offers empirically grounded suggestions for what localities can do to retain their autonomy. Taking a firm stance against the naysayers who believe that our communities are powerless in the face of footloose corporations, DeFilippis looks at examples of contemporary collectivist organizations in housing, banking, and industry, and analyzes their successes and weaknesses. Unmaking Goliath is a fresh and challenging perspective for anti-globalization activists across the country.

“James Defilippis has made an extraordinarily important contribution to the urban political economy literature. In his analysis of the potential of collectively owned, local enterprises, he offers critics of globalization
and mobile capital a realistic assessment of the alternatives to them. By examining empirically some experiments in local autonomy and placing them within a broad theoretical context, he arrives at sensible conclusions that sum up both the possibilities and deficiencies of think locally” — Susan Fainstein, Professor of Urban Planning, Columbia University, and author of The City Builders

“Unmaking Goliath is not just a masterly crafted scholarly work but foremost a long overdue political intervention that puts the interests of people and communities first. It does so with a commitment, engagement, and passion that are rarely found these days. This book is a heart-warmer for all those who believe an alternative to neo-liberal globalization is not only possible but is already actively constructed in many communities around the world” — Eric Swyngedouw, School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University