Empire of knowledge : culture and plurality in the global economy / Vinay Lal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lal, Vinay.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social history--20th century.

Social history.

Economic history--20th century.

Economic history.

World politics--20th century.

World politics.

Equality.

Knowledge, Sociology of.

History--Philosophy.

History.

Developed countries--Relations--Developing countries.

Developed countries.

Developing countries--Relations--Developed countries.

Developing countries.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (264 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London ; Sterling, Va. : Pluto Press, 2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

'Vinay Lal is a new and important presence in the world of scholars who question the intellectual and cultural assumptions that accompany the processes of modernisation, development and globalization.' Dipesh Chakrabarty, The University of ChicagoDuring the media frenzy over the Millennium celebrations, there was hardly any mention of the fact that, for the majority of the world, there was no Millennium at all. This linear understanding of time is a specifically Western - and Christian - concept. This is just one of many examples that Vinay Lal uses to demonstrate that nearly every idea which we take for granted in the west is part of a politics of ideas. Oppression is usually associated with class struggle and other forms of economic monopoly. Lal looks beyond this, deconstructing the cultural assumptions that have emerged alongside capitalism to offer a devastating critique of the politics of knowledge at the heart of all powerbroking.Other topics examined are the concept of 'development', which has provided a mandate for surreptitious colonisation; and the idea of the 'nation state', something we have lived with for no more than two centuries, yet is accepted without question. Linking this to the emergence of 'international governance' through the United Nations, the US, and imperial economic bodies (such as the IMF and WTO), Lal explains how such universalisms came to dominate the trajectory of Western thought.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Reckoning with the Millennium

Monolithic Temporality

Democratizing/ Pluralizing Temporality

Keeping Watch on Time

2 Politics in Our Times

Total Violence

Decolonization

Human Rights

3 Governance in the Twenty-First Century

Democratic Totalitarianism: Requiem for the US

Nations, But Far from United: Neanderthal Politics

The Economic Imperium: The Era of the WTO

4 Modern Knowledge and its Categories

The Violence of Development

The Forgetfulness of History

The Disciplinary Structure of Modern Knowledge

5 Ecology, Economy, Equality

The Ecology of Equality: The Ecosystem of a Life

The Economics of Inequality: Poverty and Wealth

6 Dissenting Futures

Finite Games: Hostage to The Clash of Civilizations

Infinite Games: Dissent in the Gandhian Mode

The Civilizational Ethos and the Future of Dissent

Postscript: 9-11, or The Terrorism That Has No Name

So What's In a Date?

Islamic Fundamentalism: So What's In a Name?

Fundamentalisms: Family Resemblances

A Tale of Countries: The United States ( Revisited) and Afghanistan ( Discovered)

Notes

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

POSTSCRIPT

Suggestions for Further Reading

Index

academy

10

154 -58

171

177

200 -1

222 n.34

superstars of 154 -6

Achebe, Chinua 30

Acheson Plan 85

acid rain 131

Adkins, Jenny 208 n.18

aerial bombing

1

45

47

195 -6

Afghanistan

6

9

15

46

69

92

187

194

196

198 -201

235 n.41

Africa

30

53 -4

85

112

148

209

n. 25

n. 226 n.43

n. 227 n.44

n. 228 n.46

African Americans

76

95

130

212 n.52

220 n.22

African National Congress [ANC] 90.

Aggarwal, Anil 224 n.6

ahistoricism

14

121 -2

232 n.47

Aidid, Farah 88 -9

Akbar 26

Alberuni 31

Albright, Madeleine

3

168

alchemy 57 -8

Algeria

17

allopathic medicine 58 -9

Alternatives [journal] 158 -9

American Medical Association [AMA] 58

American Way of Life

74

190 -8

Americans

37

107

148 -50

183

228 n.47

Amnesty International 70

anthropology

128 -30

137

152

anti-Semitism

63

184 -5

apologies, epidemic of 67 -8

Appleby, Joyce 192

Aqua-Guard 136

Arens, William 219 n.16

Armenians

44

48

Aron, Raymond 48

Augustine, St 5

automobile culture

39

103 -5

Autopia 104

Ayodhya 120

Babri Masjid 120

baby food 99

Bahuguna, Sunderlal 139

Baker, James

79

217 n.62

Bamiyan Buddhas 198

bananas

99

217 n.70

Banham, Reyner 104

Bauman, Zygmunt

51

109

Bayly, Christopher 209 n.27

Bell, Daniel 29

Bellah, Robert 213 n.12

Bengal 30

Benjamin, Walter

180

184

233 n.2

Bennett, William 191

Bentham, Jeremy 28

Bhabha, Homi

154 -5

228 n.6

Biagioli, Mario 229 n.14

billionaires 146 -7

bin Laden, Osama

194 -5

197

birthday 16 -17

Blair, Tony 191

Blake, William

57

161

Bledstein, Burton 124

body 34 -6

Boer War

2

45 -6

Bolivia 134

Bosnia

43

89

breastfeeding 34 -5

Bretton Woods Conference 72

British Empire

209 n.27

British Medical Association 58

Buddha 11

Burke, Edmund

140

225 n.22

Burns, Robert 186

Bush, George Jr.

Bush, George Jr 69

Bush, George Jr 185

Bush, George Jr 189 -91

Bush, George Jr 194

Bush, George Jr 196 -7

Bush, George Jr 212 n.5

Bush, George Jr 234 n.23

Bush, George Jr 234 n.26

Bush, George Jr 235 n.33.

Bush, George S.

Bush, George S 79 -80

Bush, George S 197

busy-ness

18

Butler, Richard 86

Caesar, Julius

23

28

calendars

5 -6

16 -17

22 -7

185

203 n.14

and zero 23 -4

Gregorian 6

Gregorian 16

Gregorian 22 -7

Gregorian 204 n.15

Jewish 25 -6

Cambodia

Canada 67

cannibalism

219 n.16

capital punishment

69 -70

213 n.5

capitalism 42 -3

Carse, James

12

174

179

227 n.43

century

5

16

Chagnon, Napoleon 128

Chakrabarty, Dipesh 222 n.29

Charles IX 25

Chicago, University of

145

158

children 162

China

49

53

55

70

81

83

84

87

113

131

166 -7

190

213 n.14

Chipko movement

139

225 n.19

Chomsky, Noam

67

75

Christianity

20 -7

188 -9

204 n.21

Churchill, Winston

52

82

CIA

80

106

236 n.42

civilization, discourses of

11

166 -8

179 -82

186

198

civilizing mission

Clash of Civilizations

classification

152 -3

158 -9

Clifford, James 163

Clinton, Bill

116

162

clocks

19

27

Cold War

77

166

colonialism

24

52 -3

111 -12

142

177 -8

229 n.14

230 n.22

comparative history 120

concentration camps

46 -7

207 n.7

consumerism

42

125 -6

consumption

126

Cook, Sherbourne F. 207 n.11

Corbett, Jim 139

crorepati

147

226 n.42

Crusoe, Robinson 22

cultural studies

153 -6

218 n.6

228 n.9

Curzon, Lord 52

dams

113 -14

219 n.20

Das, Bhagirath Lal 100.

de Grazia, Sebastian 18

Declaration of Independence

60

73

decolonization

7

44 -5

51 -9

deep ecology

144

178

deforestation 131

Delhi

132

135 -6

201

developing world, future of 114 -16

development

109 -16

124 -5

222 n.29

and refugees 113 -14

as genocide 9

as genocide 44

as genocide 49

as genocide 110

as ideology of evaluation 111 -12

history of idea of 111 -13

history of idea of 124 -5

violence of 109 -16

Diamond, Jared

61

62

Diana, Princess of Wales 150

Dickens, Charles 30 -31

Diocletian

204 n.16

disciplines, academic

122 -30

163 -4

230 n.25

dissent

11 -12

170 -1

175 -82

Dow Jones 96

Dreze, Jean 91

Du Bois, W.E.B. 212 n.52

Dyer, Brigadier-General 230 n.22

East India Company 25

East Timor

Easter

20

24 -5

ecology

13

137 -44

economics, economists

123

126 -8

154

159

164 -5

202 n.3

221 n.23

economy ", meaning of 13

economy ", meaning of 137 -8

Egypt 25

elections

elephants 132

Eliade, Mircea 205 n.39

Elias, Norbert 204 n.20

Eliot, T.S. 14

England

73 -4

Englishness 73 -4

environmental degradation 131 -3

Epiphany 21

equality

144 -5

equinox 24

ethnic cleansing 114

Europe

25

56 -7

64

200

decolonization of 56 -7

violence in 25

violence in 43 -5

violence in 64

violence in 70

violence in 204 n.21

European Union

100 -1

Exiguus, Dionysius 23

experts, expertise

58 -9

122

124

162 -3

199 -200

222 n.33

235 n.41.

famine

110

Fanon 55

Federal Drug Administration 122

Forster, E.M. 162

Foucault, Michel 175

France

210 n.30

Franklin, Benjamin 32

free trade

97 -9

134

157

Freedom House 76

French Revolution

56

Friday Mosque 21

Friday" 22

Friedman, Milton and Rose 206 n.2

Friedman, Thomas

206 n.2

Friedrich, Ernst 43

Fukuyama, Francis 187

Fussell, Paul

future, futures

114 -15

159 -63

games

158 -71

finite 158 -71

finite 174

infinite 12

infinite 171 -5

Gandhi, Indira 32

Gandhi, Mohandas K.["Mahatma

232 n.52

233 n.56

as ultimate dissenter 11

as ultimate dissenter 12

as ultimate dissenter 140

as ultimate dissenter 171 -82

assassination of 171 -2

assassination of 174

ecological worldview of 138 -44

ecological worldview of 178

inspiration to environmentalists 40

inspiration to environmentalists 178

] 12

] 14

] 15

] 55

] 66

] 112

] 122

] 137 -44

] 171 -82

] 198 -9

] 226 n

Ganga [Ganges ] 132 -3

garbage 151

Gates, Bill

148 -9

Gates, Jeff 149

GATT

72

96 -7

99 -100

Gazdar, Haris 91

Gelasius, Pope 23

Gellner, Ernest

209 n.25

genocide

43 -4

94

169

Gerber Products Company 99

Germany

50

54

78 -9

121

167

230 n.30

Ghaffar Khan, Khan Abdul 199 -200

Gibbon, Edward 204 n.16

global-local 14 -15

globalization

8

123 -4

164

Godse, Nathuram 171

Goebbels, Josef 185

Goethe 57 -8

Goitein, S.D. 203 n.9

Gramm, Phil 89

Great Leap Forward

Greenblatt, Stephen 112.

Greenspan, Alan 96.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-246) and index.

ISBN:

9781849641111

1849641110

OCLC:

654103916