Revisiting Economic Nationalism: Division of Labor, Economic Exchange, and Solidarity

Lynette Spillman, University of Notre Dame

Under what conditions can we expect that an increasing division of labor generates solidarity and solidaristic institutions? This question is prompted by the re-emergence of public claims to economic protectionism, following several decades dominated by public talk and transnational governance devoted to globalization and free trade. In this paper, I situate the intellectual history of economic arguments concerning free trade and protectionism within broader theories regarding cultural conditions shaping economic interests in exchange. These conditions include the imagined community of exchange, the cultural construction of objects of exchange, and varying norms of exchange (Spillman 1999). The contingent cultural politics shaping each of these exchange conditions will influence how and when an increasing division of labor generates solidarity.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 244. Cultural Constitution of Politics