Globalization and Cross-Border Labor Solidarity in the Americas: The Anti-Sweatshop Movement and the Struggle for Social Justice Book

(8/10) This is a complex book about a complex, perhaps intentionally obscure, system. LiPuma and Lee lay out the world of financial derivatives and explain not just why they're important but the new way of thinking about finance and the world that they represent. There's something bigger being hinted at here -- a world composed not of nations or even corporations but of constantly uncertain flows. It's a hard perspective to describe, which is perhaps why it seems to linger as background radiation in this book instead of being a front-and-centre thesis.

LiPuma and Lee say at the onset that they want to make this opaque subject matter transparent, and they do to an extent -- those in the humanities and social sciences who are used to theoretical writing will find this an accessible guide to the subject. But ultimately they seem to have translated it from one field's jargon to another. Not that I'm against jargon, and I find there's even a kind of beauty in overheated theoryspeak. But this is an academic text, not really for the lay reader. Still, it's a pretty damn good academic text, and the (fairly narrow) audience it aims at will be well served.